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Shimano XTR SPD pedal vs its M520 bargain sibling – just how close are they and does the 2024 Olympic winning model justify the huge price difference? (2024)

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Shimano SPD pedals have been around forever and various models always feature in our best SPD pedal guide. The top-of-the-range Shimano XTR pedal was part of Tom Pidcock's XC gold-winning setup and they also appeared in my hottest Olympic XCO MTB kit feature.

Having used the budget Shimano M520 pedal regularly I wanted to know how much they differed from the race-ready XTR pedals, so I decided to do a direct comparison to find out.