CLIPLESS PEDALS

WORDS BY CHIPPS AND THE SINGLETRACK IN-CLIPPERS

TEN PEDALS TO GET A GRIP ON YOU.

The modern clipless mountain bike pedal is now 25 years old, as seen in Shimano’s recent celebrations of its SPD pedal last year. Shimano has much to be proud of, too. When it unleashed the original SPD under the likes of John Tomac at the 1990 World Championships it wasn’t a prototype or proof of concept, taking the giant and clunky road clipless pedal and converting it for the dirt. No, it was a fully fledged, ready for action system that has remained remarkably unchanged ever since.

Given how many other mountain bike concepts have changed since those days: headsets, forks, wheels, brakes, handlebars and stems have all changed size and function dramatically, the off-road clipless pedal remains recognisable and barely improved upon, such was the mark that was hit in 1990.

Shimano has trimmed some of the weight off the original pedal, but the cleat is the same and the two-bolt shoe plate is probably the only cycling standard that hasn’t changed in 25 years.

Not everyone is happy with Shimano’s system, though, and a number of competing pedals have arisen in the last couple of decades. Some go for lighter weight, some address mud performance, others aim to provide float for wonky pedallers.

We’ve assembled ten different pedals of different prices and intended uses and brought them together to see if much has improved in the last quarter century of pedalling.

CRANK BROTHERS CANDY

Price: £129.99 // From: Extra UK, extrauk.co.uk

Weight: 320g (pair), Crank Bros cleats: 36g

It’s fair to say that Crank Brothers has probably done a lot of introspection in the last few years. Having exploded onto the scene with the revolutionary Eggbeater pedal system there were a few years that were plagued by issues with bearings and product reliability. Then came the Kronolog seatpost that flat out didn’t work in the wet. Thankfully, Crank Bros took some time to see what really mattered and beefed up the quality of the products on offer, as well as just focusing on innovation.

The Candy pedal has been completely redesigned, with new bearings and a lot of weather sealing. There’s now an igus® plain bearing inboard and a well-sealed ball bearing outboard, along with a lot of weather sealing, O-rings and blue Loctite to keep caps in place. There are replaceable pads either side of the mechanism to adjust the fit to the aggressiveness of your sole too.