Hi chaps,

Does anyone use these for technical riding? Im looking for a pedal for Enduro races, been riding flats for a couple of years to skill up a bit after riding clipless for years before.

Now switching back after a session last night on my CB candys. The float on the Candys annoyed me massively.

Looking for a bit of a platform if i need to dab on the technical section.

Cheers

Ricks

Every pair of XTR pedals I’ve seen has fallen apart. I’d be taking the tiny weight penalty for XTs and pocketing the cash.

Got XT Trails and find them very good. Give good foot support, much better than the XTR race ones they replaced. There were issues with the older XTR Trail axles but I believe the newer ones have addressed the problem.
Have no problems getting clipped in and out and nice to be able to adjust the tension.

I use both for all the riding I do. I’m no riding god though, so my riding isn’t massively technical but I think their pretty good.

Theres enough platform to notice compared to anything without a cage but alot will depend on your shoe sole, not as much platform support as my old Time Z’s though.

Avoid XTR unless they have changed them very recently. I went through 4 warranty pairs as they kept falling off their axle, seen alot of others do this aswell. XTs seem fine.

scruff – Member

Theres enough platform to notice compared to anything without a cage but alot will depend on your shoe sole, not as much platform support as my old Time Z’s though. Looking at some of these myself for enduros – it looks like a ‘proper’, stiff cycling shoe wouldn’t get much benefit from the platform? Do you wear a more flexible shoe with a wider sole?

I found the ‘platform’ worse than useless on the ‘trail’ pedals. If you can’t get clipped back in you can’t really rely on it – very slippy.

Went back to the M647 pedal with the plastic cage for small weight penalty. I like them.

The XT Trail’s platform only barely touches my Tevas’ soles while clipped in so it really doesn’t offer much advantage at all while riding. Kind of useful if riding unclipped breifly but that’s about it.

If you want more contact from the cage go for DX style (M647 is the current model, M424 the one) and deal with the extra weight. I much prefer the feel of my friend’s M424s.

I use both the XT (M785) trail pedals and the DX (M647) pedals for trail use, my thoughts are:

The feel and stability in terms of the contact area with the cages is very different. When I looked into it the Shimano website pairs their shoes with pedals, that’s not to say they wont work on others but some thought has gone into matching them.

For example the sole of shoes such as the M200, M163, M089 have long rectangular bars that run down either side of the cleat area which are designed to sit perfectly along the contact area on each side of the XT trail pedal.

On the other hand the M647 has a wider, flatter cage which tends to means shoes with a more conventional rubber tread seem to sit better on the cage and give a larger contact area, e.g. Rimes, Alpine XL’s, AM45’s, Tahoes, that sort of thing

Both combinations are good but with the right shoes the DX pedals are great for having the benefits of SPDs but with more sole contact.

HTH

Do they make a light XC style show with said long rectangular bars?

I like the weight of my current XC30 shoe however i dislike having almost zero grip when unclipped

Had XTRs they broke. Replaced with Deore for very little weight penalty and much less dolla.

Not sure why you’d buy XT over Deore? Doubt they’d last more than their difference in price would account for?

The “platform” on the xt/xtr trail pedals isn’t there for support, it is supposed to help in quickly locating your foot back into the clip.

I would agree with the others to go for some M647 for your requirements.

how do they differ from the PD-M424?

They are just less agricultural.