ldonnay
33_Shimano XTR M9000 SPD Pedals
At the beginning of mountain biking, in the 80’s, the only way to increase power to ground efficiency were toe clips, as on road bikes. This was not at all suited for off-road usage. The older ones will remember the challenging moments in muddy conditions, never knowing when or how to tighten toe-clips, while maintaining yourself on the bike with both wheels slipping all over.
Shimano (again) disrupted the market in 1990 with the release of the M737 pedals as part of the XT line-up: these were the first automatic pedals for MTB, and the proposed standard (SPD) is today still unchanged and has defined a market standard!
Hard to think of another innovation that changed the sport as much (maybe disc brakes or suspension forks).
These pedals stayed years in the Shimano catalog.
Today, after having tried various other options (crank bros, Look, time), SPD is really my preferred choice, either as XC or Enduro pedals, what ever the conditions.
33_Shimano XTR M9000 SPD Pedals
At the beginning of mountain biking, in the 80’s, the only way to increase power to ground efficiency were toe clips, as on road bikes. This was not at all suited for off-road usage. The older ones will remember the challenging moments in muddy conditions, never knowing when or how to tighten toe-clips, while maintaining yourself on the bike with both wheels slipping all over.
Shimano (again) disrupted the market in 1990 with the release of the M737 pedals as part of the XT line-up: these were the first automatic pedals for MTB, and the proposed standard (SPD) is today still unchanged and has defined a market standard!
Hard to think of another innovation that changed the sport as much (maybe disc brakes or suspension forks).
These pedals stayed years in the Shimano catalog.
Today, after having tried various other options (crank bros, Look, time), SPD is really my preferred choice, either as XC or Enduro pedals, what ever the conditions.