Specialized Recon shoe: first look, weight, price, spec | Bike Self Locking Pedals

SH-56 – multi-release cleats that allow your shoe to be disengaged by rolling or twisting the foot in any direction and even release with sufficiently hard (and considerable) upward force. Good for beginners and supplied with some pedals.

Speedplay’s ‘lillipops’ are road specific pedals that gain their power-transfer-platform from the cleat, as opposed to the pedal. This means the cleat needs looking after as it’s integral to an efficient pedal stroke.

There are certain aspects of clipless pedals that are downright insidious. They make you lazy, for one. (Courtesy of Redvinediary Twitter)

Many riders swear by flat pedals for mountain biking, and the flat-pedal shoes from FiveTen are both legendary and widely popular among riders. Not to leave clipless riders out in the cold, FiveTen offers the Hellcat, a flat-style shoe that’s designed to work with clipless pedals. Does this shoe offer the best of both worlds? Read on to find out.

Similar to Speedplay pedals, Xpresso’s from Time offer a huge amount of adjustability – but they also use a three-bolt system, like Look and Shimano.

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.

The key benefit of cycling with clipless pedals is that they allow you to utilise more key muscles throughout the pedal stroke, getting greater forward propulsion with every revolution, particularly in the upstroke when the hamstring is engaged.

Each of the derailleurs of a SRAM Red eTap system has its own rechargeable battery that lasts for over 1,000km (625 miles) of typical riding. A green indicator light on each component turns on after each shift. Once the battery charge is below 25%, that light turns red and below 15% the light starts to flash red. 

Interestingly, the Look Keo cleat fitment is the most widely borrowed (copied) of all the systems on the market. If you’re looking at pedals with internal powermeters, they’ll more than likely use the Keo cleat. Likewise, road pedals from the likes of Wellgo, Exustar, HT and Ritchey all use the Keo cleat design too. Part of this wider usage is likely due to Shimano keeping a tight reign on its design, but it also sings praise for how popular the Look system is.

At the same time, a lot of the reason I use clipless is simply habit and mindless adherence to custom, because some of these advantages are also drawbacks. Cycling shoes are great for riding bikes, but they suck for everything else, whereas flat pedals offer you an infinite choice of footwear. Oh, sure, you can get SPD-compatible sneakers, but why? And while that secure clipless connection can be great on technical terrain, it quickly turns against you when you get hung up on something and fall down a gully with your bike still attached to your feet.

Also into my third year but with EPS. Haven’t regretted it for a second. Effortless and trouble free gear changing especially when braking. I’m thinking of replacing my touring bike and I hope I can get it fitted with triple electronic shifting.

It has been 10 years since light rail came to Phoenix. Here are a few things you probably didn’t know about the impact light rail has had on the area. William Flannigan, azcentral