June 2024 – UK GRAVEL COLLECTIVE

My last article on UKGRAVELCO.COM was about flat pedals and if it was possible to use them on a gravel bike and a quick review of the Crank Brothers Stamp and HT pedals. As discussed in the video you can wear whatever shoes you want with flat pedals, that’s what makes them so versatile and popular, you don’t have to have expensive specialist or specific shoes to use them. However, if you want the optimum amount of grip and performance and your budget or circumstance allows you can buy shoes designed to mate perfectly with flat pedals. the bonus of shoes without a cleat sticking out of the bottom is that you can use them as ordinary shoes too and you won’t stand out as “a cyclist” sterotype at work, the supermarket or down the pub!

The benchmark flat pedal shoe before Adidas took them over was the Five Ten range of shoes, known for their super sticky sole and robustness for trail riding. They were excellent for all round riding from cross country to downhill. They kind of lost their way especially with sizing and narrowness when taken over and lots of other companies caught up and designed and introduced their own version.

Crank Brothers are one such company, not new to the cycle industry and well known for their pedals they have introduced the Stamp Trail line of shoes. Yes, they call their pedals Stamp too so I’d hope they were designed in conjunction. I tried out a pair of the lace up version and as well as using them on the “can you ride gravel on flat pedals” experiment I’ve been using them on my mountain bike too.

The look of the shoe is very understated (they do a white version too, perfect for UK conditions! 🙂 ) with a blue upper and a brown gumwall sole. there is a reinforced poly urethane toe bumper. the heel is well padded and the laces mean micro adjustments for fit are easy and endless. The upper is perforated for heat transfer. The tongue also has a very neat lace pocket to stop any lace-crank/chain interface. this is much better than the elastic lace strap you get on a lot of these type of shoe. I like the fact that the logos are subtle and don’t shout “LOOK AT ME” which is why you can wear them all the time with pretty much any outfit, I’ve even worn them a few times at work.

Crank Bro Stamp shoe in and out of lace pocket

Crank Bothers advertise these as the perfect blend of performance and adventure and that the sole has high-friction MC2 rubber compound combined to provide optimal grip on and off the bike. So they are pitching these as an all rounder, a shoe that can play at the bike park and also engage in a bit of hike a bike or bike packing where sections of walking might be involved.

The sole is made up of “lozenge” shapes that you will realise is the same outline as the Crank brothers logo, a nice touch. at the heel and toe the pattern changes to horizontal grooves that are designed to aid traction when walking up or down slopes.

So you’ve seen the specs and the intentions fron Crank Brothers how do they compare to the bench mark?

First of all sizing. I initially went for my usual size of 44 and I found them a little small so I exchanged them for a 45 and they felt spot on. In use on both gravel bike and mountain bike they are superbly comfortable i’d go as far as to say they felt like slippers on my feet. Now usually when a shoe is that comfortable it tends to be quite soft and flexible on the sole. The Stamp shoe however was not. It was good to try them on the gravel bike because on that bike I do longer distance on tarmac where any flex would be felt after a few miles through the sole of your feet. In this case the Stamp shoes were stiff enough on the ball of the foot to not feel hot spots or like my feet were curling around the pedal. i’m not saying they are as stiff as a clip in shoe but compared to the bench mark they are excellent. I’ve had the shoes since the end of april and they’ve had multiple rides but obviously I can’t say how flexy they’d get after a year etc, but up to now there’s no complaints. There’s no compromise for this stiffness in the way of grip either, they stick to the pedals tenaciously, I’ve even found myself trying to unclip like a clip in shoe when I’ve forgotten I’m wearing them such is the level of adhesion. This soft compound pleasingly hasn’t meant the sole has been chewed up by the pedal pins either. They size up a little small but only in length, width wise they are spot on for me.

The Crank Brothers aim of making a flat pedal shoe fit for adventure has been met and I’m happy to say exceeded the benckmark.

The Stamp flat pedal shoe is thoroughly recommended, if you need a flat pedal shoe for all your riding then crank bothers might just have the shoe you’ve been looking for.

more details on the shoe can be found here Crank Brothers Stamp and they have a UK distributor in Extra UK

Now i’m lusting after the white version too!

Crank brothers Stamp 2 and HT PAO3A pedal review

In a recent poll on my instagram channel @ukgravelco I asked what things put people off trying a gravel bike. Overwhelmingly the highest results, apart from the cost of a gravel bike, was that people didn’t want to have to wear lycra and didn’t want to use clip in pedals.

Well spoiler alert from the start, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WEAR TIGHT CLOTHING OR USE CLIP IN PEDALS if you don’t want to. That is part of the beauty of gravel biking, because it’s relatively new there are no rules and long may this continue! As a clip in pedal user on the gravel bike myself it got me thinking that maybe I should try riding on the gravel bike with flat pedals to back up my above statement. I do use flat pedals when riding my mountain bike so I’m no stranger to the concept but that is used for a majority of off road riding. Gravel riding has a lot more potential tarmac riding (where i live at least) so that could make a difference. there was only one way to find out.

The guys at Extra UK and Ison Distribution the distributors of Crank Bros and HT respectively agreed to send me a pair of pedals. I decided to try an affordable pedal, the HT PAO3A (not the snazziest of titles) which at time of writing costs £60 at full RRP and the Crank Bros Stamp 2 (see what they did there?) at £100 RRP to see what the difference would be by spending a little more.

the Crank Bros Stamp 2 pedal is from their quite extensive flat pedal range which they have been producing for a long time, so they know what makes a good flat pedal. They come in two sizes, this version is the large and the basic rule of thumb is to size the pedals according to your shoe size, there’s a guide on the Crank Bros website for this. The Body of the pedal is made from aluminium. It comes with 10 10mm removeble pins per side, has a steel spindle and the pedal spins on an inner ignus bearing and twin cartridge bearings on the outside. They are only available in silver or black and have a 5 year warranty. They weigh 494g on my kitchen scales.

The shape of the body allows maximum mud shedding room and if you look from the side the pedal is concave, so the outer edge is higher than the spindle allowing your foot to “sit in” the pedal for maximum grip and security from slippage. it’s quite difficult to photograph this but check the video below for a better example of this.

the HT PAO3A pedal in contrast is made of glass reinforced nylon with two in mould pins and 8 replaceable pins per side. Again HT make a huge range of pedals and these come with DU bushings and one dual sealed bearing. The platform is just a hair smaller than the Stamp but weighs less at 351g on my not very accurate kitchen scale. the platform also has the concave shape that is essential in a flat pedal. It comes in just about every colour you can think of and as its “composite” (plastic) there’s no worry about it looking tatty after a few rock or gravel strikes as there’s no paint to flake off.

In use both pedals have performed flawlessly offering up oodles of grip in all situations. Now, as a clip in pedal user usually on the gravel bike, i found myself automaticaly twisting my foot to unclip such was the amount of adhesion to my foot when dismounting.

Pedal dynamics wise there’s a theory that clip in pedals are more efficient and give more power as you can push down and pull up but in the real world unless you are racing or analysing efficiency to a microscopic level I don’t think there’s a great difference, not one that would bother me out for a leisure ride anyway. Both these pedals shed mud 100% better than a clip in pedal. If you ride in the UK this is almost a year round problem. Clogged pedals and shoes can stop engagement between the rider and the pedal, not what you want in slippery downhil situations. Both the Crank Bros and HT pedals were there and accessible in all muddy foot out, flat out scenarios.

So which is the best? well there’s not a lot in it to be honest, the bearings in the Crank Bros pedal seem nicer and spin well without stiction, the HT bearings feel smooth but spin the pedal and it soon stops, this maybe though because the bearing seals are so good. The Crank bros pedal does feel more robust being made of metal and looks like it’d take more knocks at the expence of a bit of paint and are approx 100g over the HT but it does come with a 5 year warrant.

Grip wise there’s nothing in it though. Both are at the top of their game, so i guess it comes down to that warranty and the slightly nicer bearing for me to prefer the Stamp pedal, but then I can put up with silver, if you want a colour and pay a lot less ££ then there are no drawbacks to the HT pedal.

check out the video below to see the pedals in action

Month: June 2024

Crank Brothers Stamp Trail Shoe Review

Flat pedals on a Gravel Bike?