Going on a casual ride to the market? Pedal there in your slippers, using the flat side of the pedal. Going for a fast ride with a group? Use your cycling shoes and clip in to the SPD side.
I have been happy with this arrangement, but there was always this little annoying thing, because half the time, you are clipping in to the wrong side, as the SPD clip is only on one side. It is not a big issue, as I can accept this compromise for the versatility of having SPD and flats on the same pedals.
However, over the years, as my cycling habits have changed, I have been using my SPD cycling shoes almost all the time when riding these two bikes. This means that the flat side is hardly ever used, making it redundant. Therefore, I decided to change the pedals on these two bikes to have dual side SPD clips, so that I am always able to clip in to the pedals regardless of which pedal side is facing up.
The compromise is that sometimes, when I do ride these bikes with flat shoes or slippers, it will not be comfortable as the SPD mechanism can be felt through the flat soled shoes. I think it is an acceptable compromise as these infrequent rides (<5%) are usually slow and short. Better to optimize the setup for 95% of the usage, than to worry about the rare 5%.
The SPD pedals that I decided to get are the XTR and Deore XT SPD pedals, which come from the MTB series of components. I chose the trail type (with integrated pedal cage) to offer a larger pedaling platform for more stability. Let's take a closer look at these pedals and see what are the differences between the XTR and Deore XT versions!
XTR PD-M9020 Trail pedals, comes in an expensive-looking box with a textured surface.
Deore XT PD-M8020 Trail pedals, with similar features as the XTR version.
XTR pedals, with many shiny machined surfaces.
Deore XT pedals, with laser marked and pad printed surfaces. Similar looking construction.
Metal plate on the XTR pedal has a teflon coating for lower friction, and is secured to the pedal body with Torx screws.
Metal plate on the Deore XT pedal has a normal plating surface, and is secured to the pedal body with cross head screws.
XTR logo printed at the side of the pedal body.
Deore XT logo printed at the side of the pedal body.
XTR pedals weigh 372 grams per pair, lighter than what the box claims (379 grams).
Deore XT pedals weigh 401 grams per pair, lighter than what the box claims (408 grams).
XTR pedals mounted on the Dura-Ace R9100 crankset, which is on the Canyon Endurace road bike.
Deore XT pedals mounted on the Dura-Ace 7900 crankset, which is on the Fabike C3 commuting bike. This crankset was previously used on the Avanti Inc 3 commuting bike.
XTR PD-M9020 pedals on the Canyon Endurace.
Deore XT PD-M8020 pedals on the Fabike C3.
In summary, both of these bikes now have dual sided SPD pedals, which makes it easy for me to clip in to the pedals when using my cycling shoes. These pedals are very similar, but the XTR version seems to use more titanium parts to save some weight, compared to the Deore XT pedals.
I prefer the appearance of the XTR pedals, as it does not have the large white patches on the pedals, but it is also more expensive with almost no functional advantage over the Deore XT version, other than a 30 gram reduction in weight. Both have the same function and quality, so the smart choice here is the Deore XT version which is cheaper than the XTR version.
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