Shimano Shimano SPD-SL Road Pedal PD-7900 (Dura-ace)

Pros

Light weight composite material.

Cons

Non yet

Review

Shimano never seem to follow trends, they always appear to be setting them. Having said that other pedal manufacturers have had Carbon pedals in there arsenal for quite awhile now.

7900 is the Dura-Ace pedal now manufactured in Carbon but still retaining the same shape and features of its alloy predecessor. Coming in at 247g for the pedals and 72g for the hardware they are light but not the lightest on the market.

I personally swapped to Shimano 6 years ago when I finally had enough of the inherent clicking and creaking that I had always experienced with the Look pedal system. Ever since then I have tried other brands only to return to Shimano as they are to me a bullet proof totally reliable product.

The 7900 has been reported as not being able to offer the same tension level as the 7810 hence quite a few pro riders are staying with the 7810 model. The adjustment is the same with a small allen bolt located on the top rear section of the pedal with easy to read + and - symbols.

Yellow cleats (with float) are by far the more popular choice allowing your knees to rest in their natural position as long as you have the cleats set-up correctly upon installation. The red cleats are fixed with no float and suit Track riders with a limited number of sprinters selecting the red cleats to lock themselves in nice and tight.

The cleats still come with the rubber feet giving the rider some traction at the coffee shop but more importantly I find this addition useful when taking off from the lights.

The feet double up as a wear indicator so when they are worn it is time to replace them. Do not wait until you have worn the heads of the bolts off to the point where you can no longer fit an allen key or screwdriver in the bolt head. It is one sure way of annoying your mechanic and you can run the risk of the cleat snapping under pressure.

Overall the new 7900 Dura-Ace pedal feel a little easier to engage and dis-engage into though the other models have always been simple to use.

If your budget doesn't stretch to the Dura-Ace level then the Ultegra model is only 10g heavier uses a two bearing set-up in comparison to the 7900 model and the carbon is of a lesser grade. But when you are looking at around $150 in price difference it may help you to make your decision a little quicker.