Anyone who's met me knows I have had this obsession with the Shimano M636 pedal for a long time. You know the ones, right? Red outer cage, DX, made for BMX and downhill, all metal, heavy as lead? Yeah, those. I haven't owned a trail bike in well over... well... ever, that didn't have a pair of M636s gracing the end of the cranks. All that changed yesterday, thanks to @Serial Midget who sent me a "gently used" pair of newer Shimano XT Trail pedals.
After one ride I offer the following assessment for those thinking about acquiring a pair:
I found them to be vertically stable, yet torsionally compliant. The float mechanics were far superior to the M636, yet retention remained top-notch. Installation was easy, and the bearing action appears to be smooth as bacon-greased butter. It'll take some time to really dial in the release tension, my hope is that I'll be able to accomplish this without the addition of tokens, spacers, and/or moar shimz. My only criticism of these pedals so far is they install/uninstall with an 8mm allen key only, there is no option to utilize a proper pedal wrench. Further, I do not believe them to be available in root beer. They are not flexy.
8.5/10 would bang again, probably go 9+ once tension is properly adjusticated.
Seriously, huge thanks to @Serial Midget for just up and sending these to me after a random conversation in NoDak about my affinity for platform-style SPDs — my stash of old's cool pedals was getting pretty haggard and these are great. A round of scotch on me next time I see you. Stoked.
After one ride I offer the following assessment for those thinking about acquiring a pair:
I found them to be vertically stable, yet torsionally compliant. The float mechanics were far superior to the M636, yet retention remained top-notch. Installation was easy, and the bearing action appears to be smooth as bacon-greased butter. It'll take some time to really dial in the release tension, my hope is that I'll be able to accomplish this without the addition of tokens, spacers, and/or moar shimz. My only criticism of these pedals so far is they install/uninstall with an 8mm allen key only, there is no option to utilize a proper pedal wrench. Further, I do not believe them to be available in root beer. They are not flexy.
8.5/10 would bang again, probably go 9+ once tension is properly adjusticated.
Seriously, huge thanks to @Serial Midget for just up and sending these to me after a random conversation in NoDak about my affinity for platform-style SPDs — my stash of old's cool pedals was getting pretty haggard and these are great. A round of scotch on me next time I see you. Stoked.
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