Hi everyone. I’m a big fan of Shimano SPD’s and have worn them for the last 5 years, however, I’ve started to spend more time on my MTB and have run into problems.

When things get technical (what I really mean is ‘when I get out of my depth and am sh!tting bricks over a rocky trail’) I’m not clipping in with the 100% accuracy I normally do. Now, this is either because (1) my pedals are getting worn out, or (2) I’m not as coordinated as I think I am. In order to preserve my pride I’m going with option 1. So this means that I need some new pedals. So my question to you more seasoned MTB riders is: Should I get the SPD’s that have a cage around them so that if I fail to clip in I can still pedal until I do get it in, or should I stick with my tried and tested cage-free model?

For info, I’m looking at the XT range (although wiggle do not have the ‘caged’ version if you are looking there).

Thanks!

Am afraid thats life – the more you panic to get your feet in when the trail get technical the less likely you achieve the “clip-in”. Just practice? I found shimano SPD’s fine to get into – I now use time atac for the float but if I try and clip-in during a technical section then I faff more!

The caged version may however give you more time to clip in when the going gets rough? Also the XT and XTR versions IMHO are easier to clip in?

I found I get this problem when I have been on holiday to Spain.

I get to a technical section – have to stop for whatever reason & then struggle to get going again, as I can’t clip one foot in. I end up careering down stuff with one foot slipping around struggling to clip-in & not really concentrating on the trail obstacles that are coming up, as I am concentrating more on why my foot won’t clip in.

I bought some spds with the plastic cage round them to try out thinking it would help me in those ‘can’t clip in’ moments as I would have a big enough pedal base to carry on riding until I could clip in properly. But, in practice I found it made little difference.

I think I should spend more time practising getting clipped in while track standing so I can sort myself out before having to tackle the next section of trail.

I started off with caged SPD’s (Shimano M545’s) so that I could unclip for the scary bits, however after a while I found that I never did so switched to cageless pedals instead.

Most of my bikes have M520’s on now and I find them easy to clip in or out of quickly.

A word of warning. The current XTR spds for some reason have a razor sharp edge on them, so if you’re ever in the position where you need to push your bike then you’re almost certain to take great big gouges out of your legs every time they come into contact. I speak from painful experience. Also, as stumpy01 mentions, I’ve not really noticed a lot of difference in ability to clip in with the caged XTRs vs my old M520s. I thought the cage was more to do with offering a bit more rigidity to your pedalling when using floppy-soled trail shoes compared to carbon-soled XC ones.