What to wear when cycling: the essential guide to bike clothing | Carbon Fahrrad Umwerfer Installationssatz

None of this is to say that I’m above putting on unsophisticated music in order to psyche myself up for a ride; in fact, I was listening to Carcass while wrangling myself into a pair of bib shorts as recently as two weeks ago. And while you may now not be able to unsee that horrendous image, at least I had the decency to do it in the privacy of my own home.

The benefit of Speedplay pedals is that they offer a huge amount of adjustability – cleat position is adjustable in three separate planes, and all can be fine-tuned independent of each other — bike fitters love them, particularly when setting up anyone with knee pain.

Clips – been riding SPDs on everything for 20 years. Closest I have to flats is a set of Vtwins on the FS bike paired with Terraduros.

DMR’s Vault flat pedal is hugely popular with both trail and gravity riders and with good reason. It’s super grippy and offers masses of support from a tough and reasonably lightweight platform, though you do need to keep an eye on the pins getting loose as they can rattle out. At full retail, they’re fairly pricey, but if you shop around they can be had for much less. Even at full whack they still make sense, with an all-around combination of grip, support and durability, putting the DMR Vaults up there with the best. They also come in a staggering array of colours, plus pro-rider special editions if you’re into the whole matching vibe.

Compared to Shimano’s popular XTR Trail pedals, the Saint uses a more robust forged alloy body that measures 78.1mm wide and 91mm long. This adds weight, with the pair of pedals coming in at 535g (sans cleats). Q-factor is the same at 55mm, but there’s more usable surface area on each side of the SPD mechanism, making the Saint feel bigger underfoot with less rocking and wiggle. The flatter overall shape doesn’t quite cup your shoes like the concave platform of the Nukeproof, HT and Crank Brothers pedals, but the flip side is greater compatibility with different shoes and tread designs.

When setting up the Look cleats, the slotted openings and washers allow for many variations of angles and positions. Both cleats enter the pedal with the toe before stepping back into the pedal to be clipped in. As you step into the back of the Look, the retention arm opens under pressure and then closes on the cleat. The Time Iclic system works almost in the same fashion, but there is a small lever that holds the retention arm open so there is nearly no effort needed to step into the pedal and secure the cleat.

There are four grub-screw-style traction pins per side, which sit around 4mm off the platform. Once clipped in, I found that the height of the mechanism made the front pins somewhat redundant.

The R550 is a slightly fancier version of the R540 above, featuring a composite rather than alloy body. The larger body provides more support for your shoes at the same time as saving a little bit of weight.

Under a recently announced UCI rule that takes effect Jan. 1, all racers under 13 are banned from using clipless pedals in BMX races.

You might get a little bit of occasional chain rub on the chain set because the chain won’t sit quite straight on the chainwheel sometimes, and…

None of this is to say there isn’t a time and a place for listening to music out loud on your bike. For example, if you ride around the city with a speaker on your bike, you’re part a noble tradition of kooks going back at least as far as the days of carrying a boombox while roller skating. Also, the entire soundscape in the city consists of human-generated noise so all you’re doing is adding to its texture. Anyway, you’ll never be able to complete with the sheer obnoxiousness of a driver having a loud conversation about their colonoscopy results on their hands-free car audio system, so it’s not like you’re actually annoying anybody.

 Clearly you’re triggered by my positive reaction and descended into some maddened state ranting about damascene, puns and post-purchase-rationalisations.