Hi! The building of my "new" MTB-tourer continues. I now need some help choosing witch pedals to keep. I have restored all my old bikes and are going to put them up for sale to raise some of the funds for this journey. The pedals I have to choose from are: Shimano PD-M858, PD-M747, PD-M535, PD-M636 and now a recently acquired red pair of Time ALIUM. This touring bike I am putting together is for a long, unassisted tour of possibly a years time. So reliability and "bioperformance" is a premium. I have never used any Time pedals but they are known for good bioperformance. But I just got the 858´s and they were brand new so I would like to hang on to them to! Maybe keep them and put them on my light tourer? But the rest of the pedals are quite worn and might need some overhaul soon, even though the Time pedals eem to run very smooth... But it might be better to keep two pair´s of the Shimano pedals so I can use the same shoes and cleats!? I also have some doubt about the durability of the Time cleats, and question if the Time ALIUM bearings are up for the task?
As I see it, the choice stand between the 858 and the Time pedals! Now, what to do???
PS: Ahh, I also have these old XT-pedals with either clips and straps or PowerGrips, just praying for a comeback...!😕
I personally prefer the Time pedals. I've got about 2000 miles of mostly technical mountain biking, hybrid/cyclocross use, and road touring on some ATAC Aliums with no problems whatsoever. I don't know how long the ATAC cleats will last but a spare set won't take up much space. In any case, the cleats are easy enough to find and the pedals are bulletproof. I've been in mud deep enough that I was the only one left riding who could still clip in. A couple of riders had their tires pack up to the point of no longer spinning and everybody else was on SPD's. Their pedals were so packed with mud that they were left riding on tiny platforms for all intensive purposes.
I'm currently thinking of picking up a better pair of ATAC's for the mountain bike and moving the old ones over to a new cyclocross bike and chucking the SPD-R's I bought from a friend last winter. I hate the SPD-R's. If I was to take the ATAC's on a long tour it would be nice to ride in street shoes, warm boots, or sandals at times, so I would probably take a set of these along too:
