Shimano releases new SPD-SLR pedal & cleat system in first shift from SPD-SL in 20 years

Shimano has today unveiled a trio of new products that affect the way you clip into your pedals, and in doing so marked the company's first move away from SPD-SL road cleats since their invention in 2003.

Said trio comprises new pedals, at both Dura-Ace and Ultegra level; new cleats, in four guises; and an update to the brand's top-tier S-Phyre shoes.

Shimano says the launch offers a spread of benefits including lower stack height, more natural engagement, a reduction in weight, and simplified adjustment.

The news comes six months after prototypes of the pedals were spotted by our very own tech writer, Tom Wieckowski, on Jasper Philipsen's bike ahead of Paris-Roubaix, just days before their lack of backward compatibility wreaked havoc on Mathieu Van der Poel's race.

The launch also comes just weeks after Shimano's new Dura-Ace groupset was spotted by Cyclingnews at the Vuelta a España; it seems the Japanese brand has been busy.

The launch is being peddled (pun very much intended) as a holistic system, but I'll break it down to its constituent parts for ease.

New CL-SL120 cleats

At the core of the SPD-SLR launch is a new cleat, to be known as the CL-SL120, which are thinner and lighter than the existing models, and no longer come with the rectangular washers that sit between the cleat and the bolt. This means they no longer offer fore and aft adjustment, but they can still move from side-to-side.

The fore-aft adjustment is instead added to the sole of the new shoes. More on that later.

The cleats are now available in four different guises. There are still three different float options, with the same colour denotations: Red is fixed float (zero degrees), blue is one degree, and yellow is three degrees.

The fourth option is a grey cleat, which offers the same three degrees of float as yellow, but brings the rectangular washer back into the fold for anyone needing extra adjustment with their cleat position. The downside to this configuration is that you concede the reduction in stack height offered by the others.

Interestingly, Dura-Ace pedals will now be shipped with yellow cleats, rather than the blue they've typically shipped with.

The other small but tangible benefit is a reduction in weight. The new cleats themselves are 16g lighter, at 55g, thanks in most part to the removal of those metal washers.

New Dura-Ace PD-R9300 and Ultegra PD-R8200 pedals

Next up, Shimano has redesigned its two highest tiers of pedals too, with a new R9300 Dura-Ace pedal, and an R8200 Ultegra pedal. A quick aside is that this confirms there's also a new Ultegra groupset on the way, because existing Ultegra components are given the R8100 moniker, not R8200.

The primary claimed differences here surround the weight of the pedals, the interface between the pedal and the cleat, and how easy it is to clip into them in the first place.

According to Shimano, the existing pedals hang at 15.5° behind vertical, whereas the new versions hang slightly more vertically, at 10.5°. This means a slightly larger area to 'catch' the cleat as you bring your foot forward into it, but also 5° less rotation needed before you're clipped in.

Perhaps more tangibly, a Shimano spokesperson also told Cyclingnews that the new system reduces any small gaps or flex that can be created between the pedal and the cleat when pulling up in a sprint or when climbing, adding to the feeling of being securely connected to the pedals.

Elsewhere, the new pedals are technically lighter, but Dura-Ace is a mere single gram better off than its predecessor, at 227g versus 228g. Ultegra is now 228g, down by 20g from 248g.

The differences between the two revolve around the bearings. Dura-Ace's use of a bigger bearing nearer to the crank enables them to be stiffer and less resistant to rotation, making them slightly more efficient.

Stack height differences

Combined with the cleat, the primary gain is a 2.3mm reduction of stack height; aka the distance between the pedal axle and the bottom of your foot. This difference is small, but it's a change that Shimano says improves how well connected you feel to the bike.

Stack height can also have knock-on effects to bike fit, rider position, and in some cases significantly affect a rider's aerodynamics by allowing them to sit lower on the bike, albeit I remain sceptical as to how much will be achieved with 2.3mm difference.

The reduction equates to a total of 12.5mm stack height on Dura-Ace (for pedal and cleat, excluding shoe), and 13.3mm on Ultegra, but this is still some 4mm / 4.8mm higher than the Wahoo Speedplay pedals' 8.5mm claim – albeit they do require that you wear four-bolt compatible shoes.

This is reduced by a further 0.7mm if you wear the new Shimano shoes, but aside perhaps needing the extra fore-aft adjustment that they offer, there is no obligation to use them.

New S-Phyre RC910 shoes

Speaking of shoes, Shimano has also released the S-Phyre shoes that Jasper Philipsen has been spotted using all summer. In fact, he even won a race wearing just one of them back in March.

Shimano has been slowly working its way through the 900s with naming of top-tier S-Phyre shoes. I remember reviewing the RC901 shoes a few years ago, and the RC902 and RC903 have both launched since, each small iterations of their predecessors. Shimano has now jumped straight to RC910, so this one must be serious.

The shoes follow the trendy shift toward wider lasts, and benefit from Shimano's recently-released Dynalast 2.0 tech, which essentially widens the forefoot by 3mm at the toes and 2mm at the ball. They're available in narrow- and wide- versions too.

The big difference related to SPD-SLR, however, is that they have a longer slot for the cleat bolt receiving nuts to sit in, meaning they offer much more fore and aft adjustment when positioning the cleats. This offsets the removal of adjustment within the cleat itself.

Shimano SPD-SLR compatibility explained

Prices

I only have UK and EU pricing at the moment, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the new pedals are significantly cheaper than the outgoing models.

Of course, this is caveated by the fact that existing Shimano pedals and cleats are very rarely sold at their recommended retail price, but still, it's better than the other way around.

• Dura-Ace pedals will be priced at £199.99 / €229.99 (The old ones retail for £239.99).
• Ultegra pedals will retail at £139.99 / €160.99 (versus £159.99 for the old ones).
• All cleats are slightly more expensive at £24.99 / €28.99 (versus £21.99 before).
• And the new S-Phyre RC910 shoes are £389.99 / €449.99.

First ride impressions and thoughts

Having ridden the new system for the grand sum of around 70km, it's too soon to offer any more than just vibes and feelings, but my initial riding impressions are positive.

I will outline that I'm comparing a brand new pair of Shimano shoes, cleats and Dura-Ace pedals to a pair of Specialized shoes, year-old SPD-SL cleats and three-year-old Ultegra pedals though, which isn't conducive to a fair test. Not to mention the slight guesswork on cleat position as I tried to replicate it by eye.

Unsurprisingly since everything was brand new out of the box, I felt slightly more locked into the new pedals, and the action of clipping in felt cleaner.

I've used Shimano pedals for a decade almost exclusively, so clipping in felt entirely natural, which is positive. I wouldn't necessarily call it better, but in my opinion Shimano was already better than the competition, so I'm just glad to report it's no worse.

I didn't really notice any improvement in my 'connection' to the bike, though. I dropped my saddle by a couple of mm to offset the change in stack, and it all felt similar. I'm sure more back-to-back riding will tease out some perceptible differences, but they'll be small if noticable at all.

I fully trust that the new system is marginally better than the old one, but I wouldn't be rushing out to swap my bike over to the new system unless my existing Shimano pedals were wrecked. Shimano's problem here is that this takes an age to happen, so I expect uptake of the SPD-SLR to be slow.

The lack of backwards compatibility will also contribute to this, as anyone with more than one road bike is going to face an expensive switch when they make the jump. You can't just upgrade each pair of pedals or cleats as they wear out, it will require changing all your pedals at once, or consigning yourself to forever swapping pedals between bikes.

The one thing that remains unknown is whether the brand will license the design to brands like Favero in order to make a compatible power meter, or lock it down like they did with SPD-SL. The SPD-SL patent expired in around 2022, twenty years after it was initially filed ahead of their 2003 launch. This opened the door to brands like Favero to make SPD-SL compatible power meter pedals, which no doubt stole market share away from Shimano's crank-based power meters.

Cyclingnews understands the new SPD-SLR will be patented, but the brand was unclear on its plans for licensing out the new design to the same brands. There is a cynic inside me that wonders if that isn't in fact the primary motivation for the redesign in the first place, and that the stack height improvement is just a convenient front to hide behind.