Shimano PD-M540 pedals review: what would be left after a nuclear war? Cockroaches and these near-indestructible pedals

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The PD-M540 pedals are the best-value SPD clipless pedals Shimano makes, with meaningfully improved features justifying the small extra cost versus the budget PD-M520.  

The pedals are unchanged since they were released more than 20 years ago. In that time, various BikeRadar testers have put countless miles on the venerable PD-M540 (and its closely related siblings). Like all Shimano pedals, our extensive testing has shown that these will survive years of abuse without needing attention.  

A slight increase in weight, fancier bearings and slightly dull looks aside, there is no justifiable reason to pay for Shimano’s significantly more expensive XT PD-M8100 (£114.99 / $125) or XTR PD-M9100 (£139.99 / $180) pedals.  

Excellent repairability and wide availability of spares further cement their position as the near-indestructible pedals most of us should use – I fully expect archaeologists will find a pair of Shimano PD-M540 pedals sitting next to a Nokia 3310 and the cockroaches after a nuclear war.  

The option to run multi-release (ie, easier to unclip) or standard cleats makes Shimano pedals a good choice for beginners and experts across all cycling disciplines.

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Shimano PD-M540 VS PD-M520 

The Shimano PD-M540 is essentially the same pedal as the PD-M520, with two key differences. 

First, the PD-M520 uses a plastic locking nut to hold the axle assembly in place. Unlike the 17mm wrench flats used on the PD-M540, this means you need a special tool (TL-PD40) to access the guts of the pedal.  

I have also seen this plastic nut wear out over time, particularly if your feet run inboard, making servicing tricky to impossible.  

This alone justifies paying the extra money (£44.99 / $50 vs £69.99 / $85) for the M540. 

There are no spanner flats on the PD-M540’s chromoly spindles. This means they tighten onto the crank with a standard 8mm hex key. This looks neater and, on shoes with chunky tread lugs, also improves clearance. 

Familiar ride feel

As with any clipless pedal, Shimano’s SPD system takes some time to master. But once you’ve got to grips with it, it’s among the easiest systems to live with. It also helps that the clip mechanism offers some adjustment, enabling you to alter release tension. 

The gappy mud-friendly design sheds clods of earth or snow with a firm stomp, it’s very easy to locate the cleat, and there’s enough float for most riders. Unclipping is easy, with a nice degree of effortless float before a satisfying click as your cleat disengages.  

Crucially, this is the exact same feel as you’ll get on Shimano’s more expensive pedals. I am convinced no tester worth their salt would claim there’s a difference between these humble pedals and pricier models. 

Competing systems offer some advantages over Shimano, but other than a brief flirt with Crankbrothers’ pleasant-but-fast-wearing brass cleats, I’ve never felt compelled to stray from SPDs in my 20-plus years of riding.  

• Everything you need to know about cycling with cleats

Hassle-free maintenance 

New pedals will weep a small amount of grease after the first few hundred kilometres of riding. This is normal and a symptom of the copious amounts of grease pumped into the pedals at the factory. Said grease does a fantastic job of keeping water away from the diddy cup-and-cone bearings.  

Servicing the pedals is easy, especially if you’re diligent. 

With the pedal body clamped into a vice, back off the lock bolt using a 17mm spanner and remove the full axle assembly. Hopefully, you haven't left it too late, and you’ll find the grease in decent condition, and that the cup-and-cone bearings don’t need to be adjusted.  

If that’s the case, simply thoroughly clean and flush the body of the pedal and axle, then pump the body full of a suitable grease.

As you thread the axle back into the body, you can enjoy the satisfying pops and greasy toots of excess grease being pushed past the sealing O-ring, which ejects any remaining contaminants.  

If things are a little further gone, it’s possible to adjust or replace the 3/32in bearings to remove any play. The whole axle assembly can also be replaced if you’ve trashed the cups or cones.  

This process is much, much easier than smashing out and pressing in cartridge bearings and bushings, as used on nearly all other clipless pedals.  

Shimano does not specify a fixed service interval for the PD-M540 SPD pedals. I generally service my Shimano pedals once:  

• The pedals spin freely for more than a few turns when thwacked with your forefoot. This suggests the grease has dried out or is contaminated
• I can hear any audible noise from the bearings spinning in the pedal 
• I can feel any lateral play when grasping the body of the pedal 

On average, I probably flush my pedals once a year – or at least that’s what I tell my mechanic friends.  

But, in reality, I’ve lazily run the pedals with all the above symptoms for months at a time. When I have eventually come to service them, rarely are things too far gone to be salvaged with a clean and regrease.  

Note: it’s a little-known fact that the cleat engagement plates are replaceable (part numbers: Y45D98010 / 98020). I suspect this is little-known because next to nobody has managed to wear a set out. Regardless, Shimano deserves plaudits for its helpful tech docs and wide availability of spares. 

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Shimano PD-M540 pedals bottom line: just buy these pedals 

Affordable, easy to service and great performance – the Shimano PD-M540 pedals do it all in a familiar package, leaving no reason to spend any more.

However, they are a justifiable upgrade over the cheaper PD-M520, especially if you can find them available on sale – which is almost always. Here’s to another 20+ years of reliable service.

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