Shimano has two all-new XT & Saint platform pedals that take inspiration from the original Saints, but cut out tons of material to shed weight without sacrificing grip or durability. Both concave pedals share the same octagonal layout with 10 main pins per side, but the Saints are even lighter than the XTs thanks to a combination of carbon composite and forged aluminum construction…
Shimano lightweight XT & Saint gravity MTB platform pedals
We’ll start off with the fact that Shimano rolled these out quietly without much fanfare on their website this week, because it will be until early next year that they’ll show up in your local bike shop. But with such a major departure from the current blocky alloy platform pedals in Shimano’s serious mountain bike line-up, we just couldn’t resist…
New lightweight Shimano Saint composite flat pedals
Most interesting of the two are the new PD-M829 Saint flat pedals, built for everything from DH racing to aggressive trail riding. They share a wide, 8-sided outer profile and body inset to extend the pedal platform all the way to the crankarm like the current M828 Saint pedals, but the similarities stop there.
Now the new Saint pedal features a thin forged alloy (shiny polished silver AND the black under ‘INT’ which seems to be the same alloy finish as the XT pedals) body with connecting webs, sandwiched inside a ‘carbon composite resin’ element that wraps over the front, rear, and outside of the pedal. Shimano calls it a ‘carbon skid plate’ for the thin aluminum body, designed to slip & slide over rocks on the trail.
Shimano says the new Saint DH pedals offer ‘best-in-class grip’ with 10 traction pins around the perimeter, 4 more optional pins in the middle, and a thin double-concave design. The 121mm long x 110mm wide Saint pedals are 16.1mm thick at the front & rear edges, 13.9mm thick at the inside & outside, and just 11.6mm thin in the middle.
The new pedals spin on chromloy axles, and at least an inner bushing. It’s not clear if they use an outer bearing, but Shimano calls the axle assembly sealed.
Claimed weight for the new Saint M829 pedals is just 397g, a full 156g lighter than the bulky current M828 Saints. Shimano says they will ship with both 3mm & 6mm pin sets, and the pedals are installed with a 8mm hex (no external wrench flats.)
New lightweight Shimano XT alloy flat pedals
The new M8141 XT pedals share the same general layout as the Saints, but stick with a simpler one-piece forged aluminum construction for enduro and aggressive trail riding. You again get the octagonal shape, with crossing webs for support.
The XTs also feature a thin double-concave design 17.5mm front/back, 17.2mm side/side & 13.3mm in the middle, and they share the same durable chromoly axle with new ‘bushing construction’. XTs also get the same 10 outer pin placement, plus 2 more optional inboard pins, as well.
The all-alloy XT M8141 platform pedals still weigh just 428g, a savings of 78g over the bulky current M8140 XTs (and 31g heavier than the new Saints.)
Shimano hasn’t given us any other details on pricing and availability, beyond expectations that mountain bikers should be able to their feet on the new pedals in Spring 2022.
