Just In: Time Xpresso 15 pedals

The Time Xpresso 15 pedals are the lightest we’ve ever reviewed here at road.cc, weighing in at just 140g. For the pair!

“Hey, road.cc, why are you doing a Just In on pedals? Don’t you usually do Just Ins on expensive stuff?”

That’s what you’re asking, right? Yeah, well, these little fellas retail at £399.99.

Sorry, was that the sound of you choking on your cup of tea?

Now, we know what you’re thinking: You could buy a whole bike for that. Correct. A quick look through our reviews archive confirms that as well as being the lightest pedals we’ve ever had in for testing, these are the most expensive (unless you count Garmin’s Vector power meter pedals, which we don’t).

We’ve actually reviewed Time Xpresso pedals before, but the Xpresso 2 version, now priced at £44.99, and the Xpresso 8, now priced at £129.99. They both look pretty similar to the Xpresso 15 model that we have here. In fact, to the untrained eye they look almost identical, just in different colours, so what the hell do the Xpresso 15 pedals do to earn their mighty price tag?

Well, weight weenies will be impressed by the Xpresso 15’s lightness. 140g is really, really, really light (Time actually claim 133g).

How come they’re so feathery? The body of the pedal is made from carbon with just a small aluminium plate across the centre to add extra durability, and the axle is hollow titanium.

The other key feature is the bearing system. Time use ceramic bearings from CeramicSpeed here www.ceramicspeed.com.

“CeramicSpeed manufacture the cycling industry’s leading, most sought-after ceramic bearings, delivering exceptional product quality, unmatched bearing lifetime and the all-important friction saving property, free speed,” say CeramicSpeed themselves.

Those are the claims. When they say “free speed” they mean free in terms of your energy expenditure, obviously. Four hundred quid isn’t free by any stretch of the imagination.

If you’re not familiar with the Xpresso design, Time’s I-Clic cleat engagement mechanism sits open when you’re not clipped in. That means that it takes virtually no pressure to engage. You just put the cleat in place and the engagement mechanism snaps shut, a carbon blade rather than a traditional metal spring providing the tension. Okay, clipping into most other pedals isn’t exactly difficult, but it’s even easier here.

As well as providing angular float (foot movement) of 5° in each direction, Xpresso pedals offer 2.5mm of lateral float. In layman’s terms, that means you can shift your feet in and out a bit as well as point them slightly off centre.

Anyway, we’ll go over all that in our review. Speaking of which, the sun’s shining, we’d better get out there and chalk up some miles.

For more info on the Time Xpresso 15s go to www.time-sport.com or www.extrauk.co.uk.