Pedal Buying Guide

You're looking for the perfect pedal for your bike and feel lost looking at hundreds of different pedals. 

We know it can be confusing. There are tons of brands, tons of styles of pedal designs, tons of of different cleat patterns.  We'll help you find the right pedal for you and your bike.

Start with Your Shoes

The first thing to do is to figure out how you like ride and what type of shoes you typically ride with.

Mountain & Touring Bike Pedals

If you like to ride with cycling shoes designed for mountain, or touring, you will love riding with a few different types of pedals.  

We love clipless pedals at Summit Bicycles. 

They help you ride significantly more efficiently, and with a lot more power.  They engage more muscle groups which help with almost all facets of riding a bike.

You'll handle your bike better, climb faster, and spin smoother.

So which Mountain Bike Clipless Pedal is right for me? 

Mountain Bike Clipless Pedals

This decision can be tackled by looking at what type of riding you like to do.  You can also start again with the shoes.

If you ride with mountain bike shoes you will be able to easily walk around when off the bike. These shoes allow you to install cleats in the bottom of the shoe so that you can have a powerful and direct connection to your bike.

If you ride with mountain shoes, you are limited to riding with pedals that are compatible with a smaller cleat, which is typically found on a SPD (Shimano Pedaling Dynamics, that was pioneered by Shimano) cleat or another proprietary cleat style.

Food for thought: depending on your budget, some riders like to use one pair of shoes and run mountain pedals on all of their bikes.  This makes good sense, especially if you walk around a lot in your cycling shoes off the bike, or just prefer the feeling of grip when you walk around in mountain shoes.

CONSIDERATIONS WHEN CHOOSING Mountain + Road Clipless Pedalss

Riding Conditions

Where do you ride?  If you ride on home trails that tend to be muddy, or if you have a lot of clay topsoil, pedals that are more open, like those made by Time or Crank Brothers are a smart choice. Mud won't cake onto them and it will still be easy to get in and out of them. We are big fans of both brands and love the ease of entry with Time pedals. 

Ease of Entry and Exit

Getting in and out of your clipless pedals in a reliable stress-free fashion is a must.  Tons of folks love SPD pedals, and some of us prefer the easy entry and exit that you can get with the simple Time ATAC Pedals (some of our team have been riding them since 1994). 

Amount of float

Another consideration is float. This is the amount of degrees you can twist your foot before unclipping from the pedal.  Some people prefer more and some prefer less.  Your knees will be your guide.

Materials + Weight

Just like so many other products in cycling, price will often be aligned with lower weights and higher quality materials.  The lower priced pedals will use lower quality metals that oxidize and rust, and mid grade pedals will offer stainless steel while high end pedals like will be made from carbon or titanium.

Pedal Bearing Quality

As pedals go up in the price range you'll see progressively higher quality bearing that start with loose ball bearings and up to super slick cartridge bearings that spin with less resistance.

I ride with Road Shoes

If you ride road and love the stiffness and power that come with road shoes, you'll want to pick up a clipless road bike pedal.

Match your shoes

To find the right pedal, you'll want to make sure that they're compatible with your shoes.  The two main styles of road pedals are either the SPD style or Look KEO Style and feature a three hole cleat design which will spread the force out over a larger area of your foot). 

Touring + Commuter Bike Clipless Pedals

If you like touring, you know how important it is to be flexible. One day you might ride over a rainy mountain pass, and the next you might get cooked crossing a high plains desert.  Touring Pedals embody that flexibility.  

If you're touring (or commute with different shoes), we recommend looking at pedals that are flat on one side and allow you clip in on the other side.