Looking for a sanity check on selections for a longtime flat rider dipping their toe in the clip waters (again). Concerns are ability to clip in / out easily, and eliminating as much as possible the icy feeling from float you get with XTs. I've got poor ankle mobility. I've tried Mallet Enduro LS before (with their 0 float cleats) and liked the lack of float, but struggled with the unpredictable clip-in (based on how the egg beaters randomly rotate) and vague clip in/out feeling. Also tried XTs and liked the predictable and audible clip in sound, hated the icy feeling of my shoes hovering over the pedals. I can't understate that last point enough. As someone who's been running flats for at least 10 years, I'm used to being able to pivot the rear of the bike using my heels with the tension between my soles and the pedals. Frictionless float takes that ability away from me. The intellectual draw of clips to me is primarily the ability to quickly get my foot into the exact same position on the pedal for descending. Shoe/pedal stability in rough would be a slight perk but not a major concern. I don't really take advantage of kicking a foot out for drifty corners with flats - I tend to commit. But I do need to be able to dab really quickly sometimes, which makes getting out quickly a concern, but getting locked back in quickly is an appeal.
Shoes: looking at a pair of Fox Unions (lace up w/ velcro strap) on sale for $125. I've run the Fox Union flats before and know they fit my foot shape pretty well (although I don't love their rubber for flats, and the version of their dual BOA flat created pressure points on my ankles by the tongue). Five Ten Freerider Pros and Impact Pros fit my feet well also, so would consider Hellcats / Hellcat Pros but they're a lot more expensive for an experiment. Not a huge fan of BOA in general - would rather do laces & velcro. Specialized are a hard no (don't fit my feet).
Pedals: I've had HT X3s recommended to me before due to my dislike of float and icy feel. If I got those, I'd start with the X1E cleats to learn clip-out. They're expensive for an experiment though. I'm leaning towards OneUp Clips (since they are supposedly designed to reduce that icy XT feel), but I was thinking I'd run Shimano SH56 multi-release cleats to learn on.
I'm willing to look past entry price on shoes and/or pedals if it gets me a setup that I'll be comfortable enough with to stick with long enough to learn. I suspect that long term, I'd get along with clips, once I can get over my clip-out phobia.
Oneup's. They worked on removing that shimano icy feeling... paired with shimano's new cleats They are awesome pedals.
Personally i've used alot of shoes as I have a Wide foot spread when I step or Pedal so I easily get hot spots in shoes to tight so I really like the shimano AM series - GE500's are cheap and great now with the "power strap"
Alot use the GE900 and cut the silly ankle thing off.
I was a long term shimano spd user (better part of 15-18 years straight). About 5 years ago, I switched over fully to the CB system and just last year, ditched clip pedals entirely for flats on everything save my gravel and xc bike. My personal favorite were the DH pedals, but the mallet-enduro's were also good. I paired those with crank brothers shoes, I've tried the stamp and the boa and liked both for different reasons. I think the boa has better features, is lighter and I like the heal gator... but tbh the stamp is cheaper and more comfortable, although hotter and heavier.
I preferred the CB system to shimano for most of the reasons that the hive mind suggests. The biggest factor was the overall feel and the fact that you were connected to the bike through the shoe sole to pedal platform contact, and retained by the cleat. As you noted, with SPD you have a direct cleat to metal pedal connection point which feels very icy/metallic. The hardest thing to get used to, and adjust is the CB entry system. I find that messing with cleat shims and pedal pin height was key in getting the system dialed in the way I want. You are right that you'll never get that super positive click entry that shimano has, but in time (3-4 months) you build up the muscle memory and you end up stamping directly down into the pedal with repeated precision. You also sorta get used to the sound/feeling of when you're clicking into the CB system so that it becomes more recognizable.
I digress, it's still likely the system I would go with if I went back to full clip setups on my bike. I still ride CB's on my gravel bike and my 'xc' bike and use the mallet boa shoes. I think the only 2 other systems/pedals I would try/recommend are oneup and time. I would honestly cross time off of the list because they are expensive, rare and likely not worth the hassle of something so rare. I haven't tried the oneup pedals, but from the feedback in my riding crew they might be a goldilocks situation of shimano vs cb as a best of both worlds.
For shoes, the unions are cheap, but I didn't find them very comfortable. I do like the 5.10 trailcross clip in shoes and my favorites are still the CB shoes, regardless of pedal they would be paired with
Read through your whole post and would still recommend the XT Trail pedal. Your float issue seems like more a shoe/pedal combo thing than a XT pedal thing. Maybe I'm just less sensitive to it but I swap back and forth between flats and clipless with frequency. I've recently run 5.10 and Shimano shoes and they have worked well together. I'd also recommend the new Shimano MT001 cleats and would strongly discourage using the SH56 cleats.
The last time I tried clips was with the XT Trails & RC Tallacs. Those have a very burly lugged sole, and even running zero cleat shims I had that icy feeling. That feel just won't work for my brain / muscle memory. Even doing wimpy easy corners feels wrong with that.
I was going to move to the newer Shimano "enduro" MT001 multi-entry cleats once I build muscle memory on clipping out. But I need the multi-release until I build confidence on. People who've ridden clips forever don't understand how unnerving that feeling of being unable to unclip is to someone who (almost) never has.
I wear size 9.5 shoes so I don't think I can use the Shimano shoes. The GE500/700 look great, but I've tried their flats before in size 44/10 and it's too long. Size chart says 43 is size 9 (which seems non-standard - most other brands have 9.5 = 42.5).
IMHO Shimano forever, for both pedals and shoes.
Agree about the skake-y feeling being a particular shoe interacting with pedal problem. What makes a good shoe or pedal is incredibly individual though, so take my opinion for what it is, just an opinion.
Crank brothers feel good, but require 10x the maintenance of Shimano. I used to be die-hard CB but I broke so many wings and the bearings need replacing sooo much more than Shimano. Shimano bearings rarely need adjustment and never need replacing. Shimano use the same cup and cone system they've been using for 30+ years and there is a reason.
Using CB pedals the x wings often contact the sole of your shoe, so the option is to use a brass plate which makes them feel skatey or accept your pedals slowly eating your shoes.
That being said, in cloggy clay or snow CB are the superior choice.
TIME pedals have many of the advantages of CB and Shimano together put together.
Under no circumstances buy anything Speedplay. Haha, but seriously never ever
Have you tried the new XT? I just decided to change my (at least 10 and maybe 15 years old) XT pedals after a couple of unplanned releases.
The brand new ones (XT platform) and the new cleats combined with Shimano shoes feel remarkably different and far less metallic.
Another +1 on the OneUps. Having used both Shimano and Crankbrothers in the past I do feel like the OneUp with the new Shimano SP-m001 or whatever cleat is the way to go. You get the positive feedback of the SDP to know exactly where you are and the shoe feel of a decent flat pedal.
I know you're not going to want to hear this, but:
On these SPD test rides, have you tried thinking about something other than your feet? If you focus on your feet while you're in clips, they're going to feel weird if you're used to flats, and weird is likely going to progress to bad and then terrible the more you think about it.
I remember my first few rides on clips, coming from flat pedals. Those first few rides were on Shimano SPD pedals that felt icy exactly like you describe. But then, over next few weeks, I did downhill laps with faster friends than me, and I had to focus on keeping up with them and riding my bike or else (my brain believed at the time) I would die. This development meant that, without really planning to, I'd pretty much stopped thinking about my feet. After a few weekends like that, I was used to the Shimano icy feeling. Close to two decades later, Shimano pedals still feel icy and metallic to me, I just stopped thinking about it or caring: "Yup, that's what they do. Anyway, back to business." Since then, I've also spent time on Time and Crank Brothers pedals, which are both good in their own way, but I keep coming back to Shimano because they're durable, reasonably priced, cheap and easy to maintain, and the performance is always good enough.
I know my advice sounds similar to telling an anxious person not to worry, but that's not what I'm saying. If you tell an anxious person not to worry, they're going to worry more. They're going to start thinking about all the valid reasons why they were worried in the first place, and then they're going to end up being even more worried. That's a great way to get someone into a downward mental spiral, and that's not what I'm suggesting.
I'm saying pick something else to think about. Do timed runs and try to set a new best time. Hum a song. Follow a friend. Listen to music. Listen to a podcast. Think about true love. Count to 100. Count backwards from 100. Imagine a home remodel, or trail work, or a spreadsheet at work. Whatever you do, find something compelling to think about other than your feet. And then, when your thoughts inevitably drift back to your feet, the trick is to accept those thoughts, don't fight them, and go back to what you were doing. Tell yourself "yup, these pedals feel a little weird," and then go back to whatever else you were thinking about.
Literally millions of people have figured out how to ride SPD's happily. I'm not saying they're perfect. I'm just saying they're probably good enough for you, too.
P.S. this trick is great for lots of other bike problems too, such as: tire treads, suspension setup, bike geometry, pre-race jitters, feeling tired, being too hot, being too cold, your friends having cooler bikes than you, suboptimal riding conditions, hangovers, and so much more. You can ride pretty darn fast with your tires on backwards as long as you're not thinking about it.
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