Cleat Check: HT Components M2 Pedal Review – Petor Georgallou | The Radavist | A group of individuals who share a love of cycling and the outdoors.

You might have noticed the M2 clipless pedals from HT Components that Petor Georgallou mentioned in his review of the Twmpa GR1. This new pedal from the Taiwan-based manufacturer is constructed from lightweight CNC aluminum with a hollow Chromoly axle and features adjustable spring tension. Read on below for Petor’s analysis of this alternative pedal option and find out how it stacks up to the competition.

A few months ago, Ison Distribution sent me a set of HT’s new M2 clipless pedals to test. I’ve riding them for the past year on both the Twmpa GR1 gravel/all-road bike that I recently reviewed and on my Sour SRD prototype single-pivot trail bike (review coming soon). I’ve had a great time riding them on both. They might even be my new favorite gravgrav (that’s a cool dad reference for “gravel road riding”) pedals.

The M2 pedals come in two versions: steel axle and titanium axle. The pedals I received were the (hollow) steel axle version which were definitely on the lighter side at 305 grams per pair. Unlike their titanium counterparts (which shave a few more grams), the alloy variants don’t have a stated rider weight limit. It’s weird to think about pedals unless they are terrible, but these were notably great! Shimano SPDs have dominated the clipless off-road pedal space forever, and of those the XT variant is the best and most comparable to the M2.

The black-on-black finish they came with was classy, although I managed to make a mess of it with some pedal strikes, leaning the bike on walls, and one time riding with the wrong cleats. On that note, the pedals come with two sets of cleats to adjust float, as well as cleat shims to space the cleat out from the shoe, which worked as a great way to tune engagement. I used them on Quoc Gran Tourer II shoes, which have an entirely rubberized sole so the part of the shoe that interfaces with the pedal has a soft grippy coating. This is not ubiquitous in the design of cycling shoes, though it should be if you ask me. It meant that by using the included cleat shims I could space the shoe surface from the pedal to give a super secure, super snug fit.

I like the double-sided spring design, it’s halfway between a Time Attack, and the Shimano SPD, so one side of the cleat interfaces against a pressed plate that bolts onto a pin that retains the spring on the pedal body. The other side of the cleat interfaces against the back of the spring on the other side of the pedal. This means fewer parts and, therefore, less weight. It also means a very positive engagement and disengagement since both interfaces can move.

The overall feeling is like being more clipped in, or that there’s more surface contact between the pedal and the shoe than you expect from an off-road two-bolt cleat. This makes them the perfect pedal for a gravel or off-road, road build. The only downside is yet another cleat, which means if you have multiple bikes, then you’ll likely also need to have multiple shoes with multiple cleats. Or you could just buy more pedals. I think I might go down the route of buying more pedals due to just how nicely these interface with my existing Quoc shoes and how impressed with them I’ve been on these recent review bikes.