The 7-Speed Brilliant L Train | Road Bike Clipless Pedals

“It’s a lot less stressful” than commuting by car, he said. “I could use the lower blood pressure.”

Inflation of the tyre was trivially easy. A few strokes of the floor pump saw the tyre take up a good seal with the rim. A few more strokes brought on the first of (usually) four ‘pop’ noises as the bead moved onto the retention ledge. The final pop usually occurred at 70psi.

*Claimed weights are per shoe, and come from manufacturers’ provided info. The size of the shoe that was weighed is listed below if available.

If you do ride with a narrower stance though, it may be worth considering the S/M size that shrinks the width down by 10mm. The other option is the new Saint M828 flat pedals, which may be the Goldilocks size with a claimed 110mm length and 105mm width. I’ve just started riding with a set of these, so check in at a later date for my review on those.

We still wanted to challenge our habits. For one week in December, some editors, reporters and producers agreed to leave their car at home and try a carless commute for a day into our downtown Phoenix newsroom, near Second and Van Buren streets.

I currently use some carbon soled MTB shoes with M520s.  Would I honestly notice any difference if I switched to a road shoe/pedal system?

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I’ve 2 bikes with Di2, it’s faultless and you dontd need to buy brand new, most of my hardware is 2nd hand, and has been perfect.

Will see how the missus gets on during the summer. She’s sub 60kg and quite a new cyclist, so her experience will be more telling than mine. She’s fast though at clipping in with her Keos, but occassionally she does miss it on first go and lags behind and has to catch up. That random element is worth eliminating, especially buzzing through town as you can get separated through traffic.  

Maier noted that most BMXers use mountain bike clipless pedals, but that HT Components is one brand that markets clipless models specifically for BMX use.

Each pedal consists of a stainless steel bar with an inner flange and slight taper at the outside edge. The pedal is a little wider than the cleat, so there’s some fudge room to clip in. But I found the strongest bite when the cleat butted up against the flange.

Love your clipless pedals? Then by all means keep using them. After all, there’s no denying the thrill of that first "click" as you roll out on a cycling adventure. At the same time, don’t lose sight of what they can and can’t do. Clipless pedals won’t eliminate the dead spot from your pedal stroke, but flat pedals will eliminate the dead spot from your cycling enjoyment.