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.