Shimano XC5 multi-surface SPD shoe review | Road Bike Clipless Pedals

Speedplay pedals are always touted as being super light, but the cleat on the shoe looks like it weighs a lot more than a simple plastic look type cleat. Out of interest what is the total system weight including cleats for the lightest from each brand?

Now in my 3rd year of Di2 ownership and it is running as sweet as the day it left the bike shop. Never missed a gear, absolutely hassle free, once ran out of power because I failed to check. Only irritating aspect is remembering where I put the charging cable for safe keeping.

Nukeproof’s Horizon CS pedal is a solid and reliable clipless pedal providing more support than a lollipop cross-country pedal and is available in a range of fetching colours to complement your bike. It’s compatible with Shimano SPD cleats if you’re already familiar with, or using that system already, so switching is easy. If these are your first clipless pedals, they are easy to use and have a very shallow learning curve. Choosing these over a Shimano alternative won’t leave you wanting, they’re a good choice at a great price. 

Strangely enough I’ve found that the Atacs, which I bought back in 2008 & 9, have shrugged of all sorts of soggy muddy crap.

One of the biggest motivations for sticking with a traditional three-bolt road pedal system is the larger contact surface area it provides. Under harder pedaling efforts — and especially on longer rides — this helps distribute the load over a greater portion of the shoe (and thus, your foot) for greater comfort as the kilometers tick away.

Most pedals will have L or R printed or embossed on them somewhere, so it’s worth taking a look before starting to screw them back in. Above all, go carefully and hand screw the pedal to make sure that it’s screwing in correctly, only using a spanner or allen key once you have it most of the way in.

Road pedal performance is often heavily influenced by the the shape and amount of contact between the cleat and pedal. The cleat on the Shimano PD-A600 pedals is miniscule, but the wide pedal helps make up for that by supporting the lugs of properly chosen shoes.

a relaxing route i don’t take nearly enough — light railing it into work (and giving in to old man pasttimes of crossword puzzles). #carlesscommutepic.twitter.com/wpoPqdmf5M

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You can adjust the tension too. I ran a shade under half, which prevented my feet from lifting out without adding too much lateral restraint on top of that provided by the pins.

I have to use the SH56 multi release as my left foot won’t unclip without these. I was advised by a cycle shop that I would have problems with any other pedal systems – but haven’t tested this. What no one tells you is that the cleats wear out and make it hard to unclip. I have fallen over twice, so I keep an eye on this and as soon as they seem the slightest bit sticky swap them for new ones.

Add in the relatively low price, widespread availability, and decent durability of the large plastic cleat, and Shimano also set the benchmark for running costs. The cleat’s generously wide platform and softer co-molded contact points even make it far better to walk in than you’d expect, even decent to walk in, even on those dreaded tiled cafe floors. Other makes have sought to catch up in this regard, but SPD-SL still remains the best option in that respect.