Crank Brothers Stamp Trail Shoe Review

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!

Flat pedals on a Gravel Bike?

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

Staark Founders Jersey Review

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I was contacted by a media company who asked if I would like to try out a cycling jersey from a brand new company called Staark. Now I’ll be honest with you I get quite a few emails or DMs via social media asking if I’d like to try this or that, thats not a boast by the way, I’m just trying to convey the fact that I have to filter a lot of these requests out. Many times it’s for stuff completely unrelated to cycling such as jewelry for pets (“from our extensive research you’d be the ideal ambassador for our product”) or female specific running shoes etc etc, you get the idea. So it was with a pinch Of salt I looked into Staark to see if it was legit. I’d also been repeatedly told that Staark was a “B-Corp Certified Company”. Well, to be honest I had no idea what this meant so them making a big thing of it didn’t make me want the jersey more, or less for that matter.

By the way being B-Corp certified means that the company meets the standard of verified performance, acountability and transparency on factors from employeed benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practice and input materials.

After checking our their website and a chat to the media company via email I agreed to try out the Founders jersey. As always witht he caviat that It’d be an honest review looking at performance and value for money. basically If I thought it was great I’d say so but also if I thought it was rubbish I’d let my readers know that too.

Enough of the corporate business stuff though, can they make a decent jersey?

Lets get down to basics, the jersey is a limited production run and as such just comes in one colour, black with a contrast blue zip, the inside of the collar is also blue. It has a very soft front, rear and sleeve material with quite a bit of stretch. The side panels have a mesh like material to aid breathability. there are three rear pockets and one pocket has a zip closure. The front zip is full length and has a “beard garage”

I was sent the jersey at the end of February and given that it’s definately a warm weather top It’s been difficult to test it how it was intended to be worn. For a lot of the wears it’s been used as a second base layer with a thin layer underneath and a flannel or gilet over the top. I Can tell you though that it was very comfortable. All the seams are flat and so nothing dug into my skin. The last month or so we’ve experienced the strange phenomena that is “warm , dry weather”….. you may have heard of it. It’s a freak occurance that happens only so often in the life time of a UK rider. So I’ve been able to try it how it was designed to be used.

Using the jersey as a outer layer with a very thin base underneath has brought to the fore how comfortable it is. Fit wise I’d say it’s semi-aero. It doesn’t make you look like an over stuffed sausage skin but it is in no way flappy. the sleeves come to a few centimetres above the elbow and the whole soft stretch feel of the top make it very easy to wear. The full length zip has come in handy for venting duties when the temperature has got high enough that the mesh side panels need a little help (so thats maybe once then!) the pockets are easy to access but are not very deep. the average smart phone (pixel 7 here) will stick out of the top but nothing has ever jarred loose even over rough ground.

Sizing is pretty standard, I’m an XL in most jerseys and I’m XL in this. Length is perfect too. I’d say if you do want the stuffed sausage aero look go one size smaller but you’d run the risk of it looking like a crop top.

Now if you were buying this jersey from one of the well know big brands, those with a big pedigree or those that have a great marketing department and a logo with lots of fashinable kudos (you probably know who I mean) then you’d be paying a premium for this jersey, upwards of £200 in some cases which is frankly ridiculus! The staark jersey is a limited edition yes, it’s a great jersey, again yes but when I was sent the top it cost £159 direct from Starrk’s website. I’ve looked today and the price is £129 so moving in the right direction.

Currently (and has been since I first checked them out back in the winter) the jersey is only avaliable in male sizing, a womens version is “coming soon”

bearing in mind the ethos of B-Corp, and feeling the need to embrace the performance, acountability and transparency can I whole heartedly get behind this jersey and say go out and buy one as it does things no other jersey can do? Hmmm, there are lots of jerseys out there that perform a similar function at less cost to your bank balance. Do I think it’s a great jersey? yes I do, it’s made from premium italian fabrics, the fit is great as is the performance. at £129 it just about justifies the expenditure but I worry as a start up Staark may have out priced themselves from the market. At £129 the average rider on a budget will look elsewhere and equally the rider with deep pockets who wants the label and the look will see the Staark logo and dismiss it. Which is a great shame because at the very basic level it’s a jersey worth having.

you can find out more about the staark founders Jersey at their website www.staark.cc

New Year, New Me (& all that bollocks)

2023, what a year! Or was it? I can’t actually remember what my New Years resolution was, probably something about doing more cycling (predictable), riding different places (yep, that old chestnut) with lots of new people (ok, that happened but only up to a point).

I’m writing this in the pub with a pint in my hand, so forgive the spelling and the rambling style. After reading a post on instagram from @ipulledthepin, I realise I’ve been doing the New Year thing all wrong. Lindsey says instead of the usual, “Im going to change, get a bikini body, get promotion, be positive” bullshit that flies around at this time of year mostly by Gyms trying to shame people into joining you should just focus on one word to see you through the year. Lindsey’s word for 2023 was “soften” here’s a link to why she chose that word, she can explain it, much more eloquently than me.

So what is my word? I’ll come to that later but first lets talk about 2023 and those goals previously mentioned. I don’t think I achieved any of them. Did I ride in loads of new places? No. I’d say 80% of my rides were from the door. Did I meet new people? One or two but again I’ve mostly ridden with the same few friends, but even that seems to have been reduced this year for some reason. Have I done more cycling? Again no, around my average 4500 miles for the year.

So has 2023 been a massive fail? Up until today I’d have said yes! It’s funny how reading one post on Instagram can change your whole perspective on things but @ipulledthepin has done that today.

I’ve had a few health issues that have knocked my confidence, making long term plans awkward and the thought of bike packing a bit of a terror. I’ve said no to a lot of invites because of the “what if” demons and not wanting to let anyone down by pulling out at the last minute and felt low about it. I’ve forced myself to go and ride when not feeling great and as you’d expect, it hasn’t made the experience as enjoyable as it should have. All this comes with the worry that people will stop asking If I don’t go. Hopefully that won’t happen.

Thankfully just the simple act of riding my bike has helped with the head games even if at times it’s been hard to motivate myself to get out and ride. That’s a sentence I never thought I’d write!

So in the spirit of balance lets look at the positives of 2023. UKGRAVELCO continues to go from strength to strength, thanks to all of the people who interact with it and allow me to repost their stuff on instagram. Thanks to those who have joined the Facebook page, comment on posts on all the channels and to all the companies and distributors who have trusted me to give a fair and honest review of their products.

By far the biggest thrill for me this year has been the popularity of the UK GRAVEL COLLECTIVE youtube channel. This one here.This time last year it had around 400 subscribers and it’s now up to around 1100! Thanks to everyone who has subscribed to it or liked the videos. It has definately been hard work but so much fun and again a motivator for me to get out there. Thanks to everyone who has had to endure me whipping a camera out on group rides, asked them to ride things over and over and to all the non cyclists wondering why a bearded bloke on a bike is riding along no handed while talking to himself into a camera lens. Hopefully the growth of the channel will continue and the production values will get a bit better too! 🙂

Enough retrospection, lets look forward to 2024. I was asked by John from wildcycles.cc what my plans were for the year and I had to say I’d made none. I can update that with the fact that yesterday, I tentitively agreed to attempt the Traws Eryri (trans Snowdonia) route with a good friend and regular cycling buddy. I may live to regret that! That lack of planning frames what I thought I’d do for 2024, namely just play it by ear and see what happens. Not putting pressure on myself to do a certain amount of miles, go to important events where I (probably mistakenly) think I need to be seen to promote ukgravelco will be a good thing for me. Less pressure (I have a day job too, this cycling stuff after all is just my hobby), will hopefully mean I actually do more riding.

So following @ipulledthepin’s example we come to my word for 2024. No New Year, New Me bollocks. my word will be THANKFUL

I want to appreciate what I’ve got, I’m very privileged compared to a lot of society, I have a job, I have spare time to do something frivalous like ride a bicycle for fun rather than for work. The recent passing of Nils Amelinckx has made me realise that even the shortest ride (or just waking up in the morning) is a gift that not everyone gets. It doesn’t matter if I don’t enter a certain number of events, If I don’t pin a race number on my bike again nothing bad will happen. Thankful to feel the first warm spring sun on my face, Thankful to get to the bottom of a dodgy descent in one piece while giggling to myself that I survived it! Thankful I’ve got friends and riding buddies that will turn out for some hair brained ride idea like tossing pancakes! and thankful if I inspire one person to ride a bike for the first time or the 10000th time it will be a victory and I want to be thankful I’m able to do it.

What would your word for 2024 be?

Shimano Deore CS-M5100 cassette

With the current war of ratios that is going on between Shimano and Sram over who can shoe horn the biggest sprocket onto their 12 speed cassettes ,at time of writing, Sram has gone one better with 52T over Shimano who introduced 51T just to outdo Srams 50T from a while ago…phew! it was refreshing to see that there are options further down the price scale that don’t need a specific freehub to work. Shimano 12sp needs their propitiatory “Micro Spline” freehub and in turn to run Sram big cassettes in most cases you need their “XD” driver.

However if you haven’t invested in the 12sp technology yet and are still running 11 speed then there is now a very good alternative from Shimano. The Deore M5100 cassette which happily fits straight on to the standard Shimano freehub that everyone running the big “S’s” gears already has. Before this new cassette the biggest sprocket on a 11sp Shimano cassette was 46T which is a very low gear indeed and originally ideally suited to a mountain bike. It does suffer though from a hug gap between the penultimate sprocket and that 46t, namely 37t-46t. I ran this cassette through the winter months on my gravel bike on a set of 650b wheels with much knobblier tyres than those I use in the drier months as my local terrain is very muddy and clay rich so i need all the traction i can get for the seated climbing necessitated to stop the wheel from spinning out. The gap was very annoying and when I needed a slightly lower gear than the 37t to stop stalling (I’m no climbing super hero as you can tell) the big jump to 46t was too great and I ended up loosing balance as my legs spun wildly.

The solution pt1

to over come this i butchered a 11-42t cassette, removing the 15t sprocket and adding a very second hand expander sprocket which used to be all the rage before huge cassettes but seem rare these days. This sprocket had 45 teeth so making the final jump between cogs 42-45t which was much better and this is what i ended up running for most of the damp months. Unfortunately the horrible gritty/grinding local conditions all but destroyed the cassette and chain (ok, i should have checked the chain wear more regularly) so knowing that the new Deore cassette was imminent I nursed that chain and cassette for as long as possible until my local bike shop called to say the new cassette had arrived!

The Solution pt2

The Deore M5100 has a ratio of 11-13-15-18-21-24-28-33-39-45-51T and those last 3 sprockets are very evenly spread so even tough the gaps are bigger than at the other end of the cassette the transition is easier to keep a good cadence on and aids balance and traction as your legs aren’t all over the place when concentrating on traction and line choice. The smaller sprockets are much closer in range and this is a good thing as on a gravel bike this is where you will mostly be sat. Small ration changes enabling smooth pedaling and letting you carry your speed on tarmac and less technical off road sections. the new cassette was 70g heavier than my modified 11-45 extended cassette)

Lucky?

M5100 in action

When I came to fit the cassette I was expecting to have a fight to get it to work, probably requiring a rear hanger extender/road link but i thought i’d try it out first anyway. I did fit a complete 116 link chain ( the old one was left this long too to accommodate the 11-45/46T) , set the clutch to on and with trepidation cycled through the gears. As you can see from the video, I was lucky and it worked straight away without any modification. I didn’t even have to adjust the “B” screw it was fine on the setting from the previous cassette. Please note if you try this your set up may be different! it’s not my fault if you damage anything!

So there it is, as mountain bike cassette on a gravel bike. the rest of the gearing is all GRX 810 with a 1 x 40 chainring. the 51t sprocket gives very very very low gearing and other than deliberately trying it out when riding I doubt if I’ll ever use it on this bike. the next sprocket down tends to be my extreme sit and spin gear. However for a heavily laden touring or bike packing bike that has done away with the fuss of a double (or triple) chainset this could just be what you are after at the end of a long day with that last long steep incline to grind up.

The cassette has now done a couple of hundred miles around my local area and is so far trouble free so I’m in no hurry to swap it for something less silly. in fact i’m going to get one for my mountain bike as the cost of the cassette is much less than the cost of upgrading to 12 speed to get that extra gearing and who needs that extra one tooth (sram)?