David Golay (6’, 165 lb / 183 cm, 74.9 kg): I’ve got a couple of rides on OneUp’s new Clip Pedals, and while long-term durability is, of course, an important factor with pedals that I can’t yet speak to, I’ve got some early thoughts on their feel.
As Zack mentioned in our First Look, he and I have both settled on HT X3s as our gravity-oriented clipless pedal of choice for their combination of an especially thin platform and a notably secure, play-free clip mechanism. So when OneUp launched their Clip Pedals touting those same two traits, it got our attention.
My main interest in a thin platform is down to on-pedal feel and stability, rather than pedal clearance to the ground. The Clip Pedals are neck-and-neck with the X3s for being the thinnest clipless pedals I’m aware of in terms of their platform (the part that really matters for feel); the OneUps are a few millimeters thinner at the clip mechanism, which buys a fraction more ground clearance, but that difference is pretty slight. So I’d rate the OneUp pedals as being essentially equivalent to the X3s on that front — and better than every other clipless pedal I’ve tried to one degree or another.
As for the feel of the clip mechanism, OneUp’s claims seem to hold up there too. The Clip Pedals have appreciably less play fore-aft and up-down than Shimano’s current SPD offerings; they don’t feel as locked in as X3s with HT’s lower-float X1 cleat option (check out our Full Review of the X3s for more on that) mostly because the Clip Pedals move through their float range more freely. With those X1 cleats (my preferred option), the X3s have some float, but there’s a bit of spring resistance through the range and they’ve got a tendency to self-center that’s absent from the Clip Pedals. In that respect, the Clip Pedals feel more like a Shimano Saint or XT/XTR Trail pedal, just with a little less free play in other directions.
I haven’t yet tried running a Shimano cleat in the Clip Pedals (or vice-versa) but I will give that a whirl soon. The Clip Pedals are supposed to be compatible with SPD cleats, and the OneUp-supplied cleats look identical to Shimano’s apart from branding, but it’ll be interesting to see if any differences in feel arise.
OneUp’s claim that their pedals offer a higher maximum release setting than Shimano’s versions seems accurate, too. I haven’t yet jacked the Clip Pedals to their maximum release setting (nor have I been tempted to, apart from doing it for testing purposes) but even with some headroom to crank things down more, the release feels firmer than XTR Trails with their spring tension maxed out.
That sensation is perhaps confounded by the fact that I don’t have the pedal-to-shoe interface totally dialed yet. So far, I’ve been riding the Clip Pedals with Fox Union BOA shoes, and there is some appreciable interference that makes clipping in occasionally challenging. OneUp includes a cleat shim with the Clip Pedals to open up some more room if needed, and you can always selectively remove traction pins as desired, too. I haven’t yet tried either, but it seems like a little fine-tuning is needed to get the Clip Pedals interfacing perfectly with the Union BOAs. I’ll experiment a bit (both with different shoes and with making adjustments on the Union BOAs) and report back in the Full Review to come.
Zack is also spending time on the Clip Pedals, so it’ll be interesting to see if and how our takes differ, especially as we get more time on them and experiment with the pedal-to-shoe interface more. Stay tuned.