have been hunting about for some decent off-road orientated pedals which are half SPD and half flat… i stumbled across these which seem absolutely perfect…

http://www.carboncycles.cc/?s=0&t=2&c=84&p=938&

any thoughts before I take the plunge?

They look like the best of the 50:50 pedals but truth be told I’ve never seen the point.

i’m looking at them for 2 bikes.

for my hack bike, most of the time i will be wearing normal shoes, but occasionally, i’ll be out on my spd shoes.

for my wife’s bike, because she can’t ride for toffee and needs a platform pedal as well as a spd pedal.

i think i’ll buy a pair and have a play.

I like the look of those, I’ve been happy with other stuff ordered from them.

I bought some shimano spd/flats for about £30 a couple of years ago, they lasted for a year on my commuter until one sides bearings got very noisy. I’ve since stripped and regreased and then fitted them onto a bike that only gets occasional use and they seem OK.

the missus currently has Shimano 324’s on her MTB and A530’s on her road bike.

i have a pair of these exotic pedals ordered and another pair of A530’s enroute, so i will compare and contrast..

well… they arrived today.

first impressions were that they were quite nice. a good size pedal platform, but a surprisingly low weight for what they were – 448g the pair.

the axles were obviously nowhere near ‘shimano’ slick, and they wouldn’t rotate freely, but worse was to come.

very simply put… if you try to use them with any type of cleated shoe other than a flat-soled shoe, they DO NOT WORK… i tried with two pairs of my Shimano SPD shoes and one pair of my wife’s and neither would allow the shoe to clip in as the mechanism is too deep within the pedal.

i have now emailed carboncycles asking for a full refund and confirmation that they will refund my postage and not charge a restocking fee, as my purpose for returning is down to them not being fit for purpose… no response yet, but if they don’t play ball, i will be sure to post it on here!

i have now come up with another solution. i have ordered two pairs of black shimano a530 pedals and will get to work with a pillar-drill, tap & die kit and some pedal-pins to give the platform side of the pedal some proper grip (which is their main downside). i’ll post up pics when i’ve done it.

thats a bummer – they look real nice too

is there owt similar in style that work ?

Timely warning! Iwas thinking about buying some for winter use after getting fed up with iced up spds. So back to the drawing board .t

A530s are good pedals for a town bike, I don’t think I’d trust them off road though. I have a couple of pairs on my touring bikes and love them. I’ve found the flats pretty supportive even when riding in flip flops.

EDIT never tried riding with spds on the flat side.

i’ve been researching the A530 pedal conversion and it seems a fair few people have done it… some even use them for downhilling!

as above, if you have access to a pillar drill, a dremel and a tap & die set, you can fit them with pedal pins which should give you a fantastic grippy flat surface.