The Ariel Atom 4 Has a Honda Civic Type R Powertrain | Bike Self Locking Pedals

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. 

Time’s retention system is courtesy of a carbon blade as opposed to a spring as found in most clipless pedals, and this has three adjustment settings to alter the tension. The cleat has a standard three-bolt formation, and Time told me at the launch that it’s been toughened up after some reports of the previous versions wearing out a little too fast. I’d concur with this: after a long test period, they’re still pretty much intact after lots of heavy use and inadvisable, awkward cleat-walking. Speaking of which, they’re not even that awkward to walk in because the surface area of the cleat is pretty large, so they’re quite cafe stop friendly. They’re left/right-specific, but switching them around actually gives you a slightly wider stance, if you prefer some extra Q factor (the width between your pedals).

Agree, I use these for all my riding and find involuntary unclips are exceedingly rare. They really are a cake and eat it solution, you get the advantages of clipless with no risk of getting it wrong and going splat.

Flat in shape, the laces offer a little stretch, enough to help lock them in place. Annoyingly, the laces themselves are obscenely long which, I suspect, is due to Shimano using the same length lace across its full size range. Laced up and tucked through the elastic lace holder, the loops would sit over my toes and flap in the wind. Make smaller loops and the plastic crimped ends would tap against the crank arms. At least with my EU43 samples, the laces are simply too long.

It’s an issue also reported by James, and one that he has remedied in the past by changing to aftermarket cleats from Exustar.

Hey, we’re all adults here, so let’s be honest: sometimes you’ve got ulterior motives over the holidays, and giving a gift is less about pleasing someone than it is about teaching them a much-needed lesson. Is there a middle-aged person in your family who’s spending too much time on the bike? Was mommy late to the school play because she flatted on the group ride? Did hubs postpone your anniversary celebration because it fell on the same weekend as the Filthy Nebraska 350-Mile Gravel Grinder? Are you sick of suffering through your wife’s ride reports at dinner?

The hubs roll well and feel incredibly smooth. These have the latest Mavic freehub design too, which promises greater durability than the nylon bushing they used to use and more rapid engagement as well. I thought the freehub mechanism was very quiet (not silent, but unobtrusive). I also like the Mavic skewers very much. They have a predictable, positive action and hold the wheel well.

Underfoot, the broad platform provides a decent amount of lateral support, though it’s not so wide that it’s overly susceptible to rock strikes. The large body also gives you a big target to aim for when you’re scrabbling to get clipped back in.

They are quite wide though, and that’s particularly noticeable if you have narrower hips and run your feet closer to the crank arms. This leaves an exposed edge on the outside of each foot, which I’ve managed to catch (evident by the gouges in the photos) on the many ruts and rocks that line our rough and natural valley trails in Calderdale.

Many flat pedals use commonly available steel M4 socket caps or grub screws, which makes replacing pins cheap and easy. Some companies are pushing at the limits of pin design though, tweaking them to maximise grip, lower weight, or sometimes to be less aggressive.

On the flip side, when we discussed this in the road.cc office, one member of the team said he finds it simpler to operate a Di2 shifter than a mechanical shifter with frozen hands. A tap on the button is slightly easier than sweeping a lever when your fingers are dead.Due to the different ways in which shifts are performed, this isn’t an issue with either Campagnolo EPS or SRAM Red eTap.

The center of the pedal where the spindle goes through has a bulge that is immediately noticeable when riding. On wet trails I noticed my feet slipping around on the pedals and I never felt as confident as I did with some of the others.