CB mallet dh pedals & spesh 2fo shoes

Just bought some mallet dh pedals yesterday, really like the idea of a pedal I can ride out a section when not clipped in. But it is virtually impossible to clip in/out. I have fitted the spacee under the cleat, but I reckon it will need 3 or 4 to be right, and the pins are only sticking about 1/2 way out, no point having them if I screw them in any further.

Has anyone else had this problem? found a solution?

Play with the pins, used a few different shoe combinations with them. Another spacer might work out or the shoes will bed in.

Glad it’s not just me. I had a couple of “comedy” falls last year, including an accidental clip back in at a pedestrian crossing (clipped out early as I’d had problems, cleat engaged as I stopped and put my foot down) breaking ribs and a knee injury that still needs physio.

The outer pins definitely catch on the sole, I’ve tried cutting a track following the wear marks. At certain pedal positions, the inner pins catch the edge of the “landing zone” for the cleat making it impossible to unclip.

I’m back on flats for now, well once my knee allows me to ride properly. The geek in me is planning to take a Stanley knife to the sole and experiment – I’ve already done enough damage that I couldn’t sell them on. Was using the cleats in the max float position, swapping them over, may help. Got some of the metal shims to try as the plastic ones just seem to compress.

Reading that back, may just get some different shoes and ride my bike :-)

Having played around with this a bit more, it seems to be the mechanism, there are two sized loops to the mechanism, if the smaller loop is at the back of the cleat then it unclips much better, when the larger of the loops is at the back it becomes awful, and neither is as nice as the shimano mechanism I am used to.

I don’t know what I am going to do with these, I might persevere, but I can see them causing an accident, when coming to a normal stop I can force them out, but if I need to unclip when something is going wrong it will be a disaster.

I read this yesterday afternoon after having bought a pair of 2FO clips’s and used them on Sunday with my Mallet DH’s and didn’t notice much of an issue then.

That was until last night when I lost the front end on a wet root and couldn’t disengage my right foot and ended up lying in the mud………

I’m going to swap back to XT trail pedals for my next outing and see if they are an better with the shoes. It’s annoying as I prefer the Mallets with the wider platform over the XT’s.

Could be the shoe rather than the pedal. Bought a pair of Five 10 Ravens to use with some CB Mallets and, after cutting away the rubber to expose the cleat recess, it became apparent that it was far too deep for Mallets even shims. I also tried them with Time DH4 and DX Shimano but even though the Shimanos engaged the best, even with shims the shoes felt like they would ping out unexpectedly.

Still got those shoes, never worn in anger because I can’t send them back after cutting them. Went back to DX style shoes and Mallet pedals with no problems. Run three Shimano shoes and Candy and Mallet pedals without issue.

Maybe Specialized shoes have a deep recess too?

i have the pins wound in quite a way. they seem to be fine if i miss a clip. They are by no means the same pin extension as a proper flat.

I`m running old mallets and also the regular mallets not the DH ones.

I found initially if teh pin was too high it would foul teh shoe on rotation to unclip. now my soles are worn a bit i get a bit more play between pedal and shoe. i dont mind this as i dont like the fixed clip of shimano.

as discussed play with the pins you dont need as much pin as you think you might. There is a recess on teh bottom of the 2fo shoe which, when unclipped on the pedal, seems (for me) to sit over teh spring which helps hold the shoe in place.

if its proper gopping and rooty i still use flats.

I am running the same, and all ok. I tend to find that new CB pedals do have very tight cleats, but the do slacken off with use. Give it a couple of weeks, and should be fine.

I have just been out on another ride with them, I just think it is a flawed design, the pins are now virtually all the way in, and like this the platform is doing nothing, only the cleat is in contact with the pedal, and they are still not uncliping properly it feels like my foot is close to twisting out of the shoe before they unclip.

I am off to the alps next week, no way I am risking these, back to shimano dx.

Do you have any other shoes to try them with or did you mean DX shoes rather than pedals.

CB with my 5tens was impossible and would have been lethal, with shimano shoe with shallow cleat recess, fine and, despite the regular maintenance, I won’t go back to SPD.

I just think it is a flawed design, the pins are now virtually all the way in, and like this the platform is doing nothing, only the cleat is in contact with the pedal, and they are still not uncliping properly it feels like my foot is close to twisting out of the shoe before they unclip.

In the shoes? They work spot on with my old 510s and teva’s, I was eyeing up some 2fo’s for new shoes but think I’ll skip on them.
Seeing as they are on the bike of a massive number of pro’s in dh and enduro I’d have to ask if it’s more you/shoe than the pedals.
The DH is also nearly identical in profile to the previous version which was around for years.

I couldn’t get them to work either and unless the pins were virtually all the way in it was a nightmare trying to unclipped. I had loads of falls as a result. Sold them and went back to xt. I’m hoping shimano will update the dm so they don’t weigh as much as lead

I can’t comment on using 2fo’s with mallets, but have been using them with xt trails with no issues, dead easy to clip in and out, the landing strip feature is excellent.

So thread resurection…
I needed some more shoes and choice was limited, I was very hesitant about the 2fo’s after these comments…but they seem fine, new shoes being new I reckon I need to take a mm off the pins till they bed in. Out of interest it was the 2fo

not the 2fo lite

That people were using?

They feel solid, secure, pins are gripping and holding when needed release is fine too.

I’m bringing this thread back because I’m having the same issue with my Mallet E’s and it’s getting quite annoying.

I’ve been riding Shimano pedals for years and when my Trail pedals got a bit banged up I figured I’d see what all the CrankBrothers hype was about and it seemed like I would really like the new Mallet E’s.

I’m running Specialized 2FO Cliplite shoes (size 45) with the 15 degree clips in the middle of my shoes. Clipping in is not a problem but unclipping in emergency situations has been a bit of a problem, so much so that it has caused me to fall it technical areas where I would have had no problems on my Shimano pedals, instead I’m getting one (or both) feet stuck and falling right over.

I rode some ridgeline stuff on Colorado and Utah last fall with my Shimano pedals and would think twice about doing so with these Mallet E’s.

Is there anything I can do with these Mallet E’s to make them easier to unclip???