This should get some arguments going…
FWIW: The author does have a clue about CX.
That’s a decidedly non-committal review. “Yeah, they’re all pretty much okay.”
Having raced two winters in sticky muddy cross conditions and MTBing in soft loamy soils I’m not convinced that SPDs are the best option for really bad conditions. They’re fantastic in the dry but they cake up easily and clipping is sometimes impossible in the crap. I’d like to try some more open pedals like Atacs or eggbeaters next winter. Problem is when you have three bikes running SPDs you kinda want to just stick with one type of pedal.
I’ve just switched from Atac Aliums to the newer type of Atacs (XC 4s, similar to XC 6s). They work well, the brass-on-plastic contact has a slightly different feel to the old brass-on-alu, pretty minor though. They’re also a fraction less quick to clip in to as the spring that grabs your cleat is lower profile.
I’ve had the whole range of time’s. Started out on ATAC ROC and they were a good entry into the clipless world but wore out pretty quickly. Moved up to one of the composite body ones from a few years ago which was amazing, but one of the pins holding the springs in place came out so I swapped to some Alliums which were okay but shitty in the rain. Now I’m on XC8’s on two bikes which are excellent.
True story.
The belgians have some homebrew pedal mods they use to deal with this. i’ll see if i can find some shots of them. iirc they werent that drastic.
Good point, but I can’t see flats be as good as SPDs when it comes to hold feet on pedals, especially in wet/muddy conditions. Risk of slippage on flats is high on a wet CX course when going over steep stuff/off-camber corners and you need to move your feet on the pedals.