After seeing Time's new range of Xpresso road and ATAC mountain bike pedals at Eurobike, we've now been given several sets to review courtesy of UK distributor Extra.
There are five types of Xpresso pedal, ranging from the very affordable Xpresso 2 (£42.99, 220g/pair) to the titanium axled Xpresso 12 Titan Carbon (£224.99, 155g/pair).
The Xpresso 4 (£59.99, 224g/pair), Xpresso 6 (£84.99, 205g/pair) and Xpresso 8 Carbon (£124.99, 195g/pair) complete the range, which replaces the current I-Clic 2 pedals.
The cleats, dubbed 'café cleats' so you can walk around in them, are the same as used currently. We've checked claimed versus actual weights for the pedals we have and they're all within 3g.
When taking into account an additional 85g for a pair of cleats, the Xpresso pedal systems stack up favourably against their main competition (Look, Speedplay and Shimano) on the basis of weight and price.
The Xpresso 2, a very cheap clipless road pedal
Despite saving weight, Time have also massively increased the contact surface of their road pedals, from 445m² to 700mm². This should give a more stable pedalling platform as well as reducing cleat wear, which can only be a good thing.
It remains to be seen how well the Xpressos stand up to testing but you can be sure several of us at BikeRadar will be putting plenty of miles on them over the next few months.
Time will also continue to sell their I-Clic 2 pedals (while stock lasts) and produce and sell the older RXS models First (£56.99), Speed (£75.00) and Carbon (£109.99). It's worth noting that the Carbon, which is the lightest of these, still comes in 53g heavier than the Xpresso 2, taking into account combined pedal and cleat weight.
On the mountain bike side there are a couple of new models for 2013 – the ATAC Alium (£49.95, 410g/pair), which will also be suitable for fixed gear and cyclocross riders, and the ATAC DH4 (£74.99, 517g/pair), which is aimed at downhillers.
Time's five cross-country offerings are the same as current models but have undergone some minor and not particularly intuitive name changes. The entry level ROC ATAC (£54.99) replaces the ATAC XC2, and the ROC ATAC-S (£69.99) replaces the ATAC XC4, but as you go further up the range the numbering convention matches the Xpresso road pedals.
The ATAC XC12 Titan Carbon, the top-level cross-country model
The ATAC XC6 (£84.99, claimed weight 293g/pair), ATAC XC8 Carbon (£109.99, 284g/pair) and top-end ATAC XC12 Titan Carbon (£219.99, 241g/pair) complete things on the XC side.
Design features
All of Time's pedals feature five degrees of angular float, with the road and mountain bike pedals having 2.5mm and 6mm of lateral float respectively. The resistance of the angular float can be set to three different levels via an adjustment screw on the pedal.
Both the road and mountain bike cleats can be reversed, but the effects of doing so are different. Reversing the road cleats changes your effective Q factor (pedal stance) by 2.6mm. Reversing the mountain bike cleats changes your step-out angle from 13 degrees to 17 degrees.
Both the road and mountain bike pedals are designed to be easy to engage: hook the front of your cleat into the front of the pedal and push down at the back; twist outwards to disengage.
Availability
Time's UK distributors Extra say that the full range of pedals are available from Time retailers now and we don't anticipate that this will differ greatly in other countries. For more information see the Time website.