Designed primarily for downhill riding and racing, the X1 clipless pedal is a fairly new addition from the 60 year old Taiwanese brand – and has already seen Aaron Gwin clip in, along with Troy Brosnan; Remy Metailler and Sam Blenkinsop.

Box fresh, they look stunning and are available in nine great colours. We got the simple and good looking silver option.

Box fresh and beautiful

The caged style clip-less pedal has long been a favourite with downhill riders, as the pedal supports the shoe like a flat pedal and allows the rider to combine the feeling of a flat pedal whilst having the advantage of being part of the bike.

At the moment, the majority of riders lean towards the Crank Brothers Mallet DH pedal for it’s support and flat pedal feel, thanks to the large 15/20 degree free movement before clipping out. Those that prefer the more connected and secure feel of the Shimano SPD system don’t have too much choice – the Shimano DX pedal, is the most supportive option, though is somewhat clunky looking.

The X1 pedal uses a similar system to Shimano, though with it’s own dedicated cleat design that has a slightly longer front section for locating in to the mechanism. HT Components state 4.5degrees float on the X1 pedal, which is half a degree more than Shimano, and we found there is a bit of extra play before the jaws disengage, so there’s a little room for movement before popping out.
Measuring up at 83.5mm wide, 92.5mm deep and 16.7mm, they compare very closely to the Crank Brothers pedal, weigh virtually the same at 238grams per pedal and also have the mechanism in a very similar position. Crank Brothers use a longer axle than their regular pedals to achieve this, whereas HT use an offset position on the pedal cage.

Shimano DX | HT Components X1 | Crank Brothers Mallet DH

There are 10 replaceable pins, triple sealed bearings and a DU bushing in each pedal, and a CNC machined chromoly spindle. The body is made from extruded and machined aluminium and the retaining mechanism is made from steel.

5 replaceable pins per side, triple sealed bears and a DU bushing keep grip high and resistance low

There is a similar tension system to the Shimano SPD system, and 3.5 full turns of adjustment (at a guess, similar to 28 clicks if it was a Shimano pedal). Halfway in feels  similar in tension to a Shimano pedal around two thirds in, and accordingly feels very secure. It would be nicer if there were clicks or defined positions for easy reference when adjusting though.

Unlike Shimano, both front and rear jaws on the mechanism move to accept the cleat.

A 3mm Allen Key adjusts tension, similarly to Shimano pedals

We installed our cleats on a pair of Giro Chamber shoes, and found it took a while to reach a happy medium with set up. With no spacers under the cleat,  the shoe felt great on the pedal but it was a little harder to clip in and out, so we experimented with the supplied plastic spacers.

Though they made it a fair bit easier,  the cleat protruded from the base of the shoe making walking on hard surfaces slippy – so we settled on no spacers and removed the rear three pins on the pedal to aid clipping in/out. Fore and aft cleat position affects this too – and is of course, complete personal preference.

Like Shimano and Crank Bros cleats, you can move side to side as well as fore/aft. Under cleat spacers are provided too, to get the clip-in feel you like.

But once happy with set up the X1 pedal felt great, and supported the shoe every bit as well as the Crank Brothers Mallet, and perhaps a little more so than the DX. Although easy to clip in once used to them, they were never quite as easy to clip in as the Shimano or Crank pedals – possibly due to the mechanism being fixed on the pedal body – but this never really raised it’s head until we swapped between pedals to get a different feel. If they were your only clipless style pedals you’ll get on with them absolutely fine.

We’ve been running ours through the winter and never clogged them up. They’re spinning as well as day one, although purely on a cosmetic point we were surprised to find some minor surface rust on the jaws of the mechanism – from clipping in and the odd rock strike no doubt.

The X1 has a minimal 16.7mm thickness

Although cosmetic, we were surprised to see a little surface rust appear.

We say

If you want a platform style clipless pedal but prefer the positive feel of Shimano pedals over the Crank Brothers feel – then the X1 should definitely be on your list.

They offer loads of support and grip, and have a secure and predictable clip-in mechanism once you’ve nailed the set-up. We’ve enjoyed using them to date, and will be leaving them on our long term test-bike for the ongoing future.

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