Wolf Tooth CTRL Trail pedals Review

The Wolf Tooth CTRL Trail Pedal is a minimalist take on a trail pedal in an age of growing platforms and pins. This pedal makes sense in many ways; many longer mini-clip pedals have significant fore-aft sections that are only used when you're orienting the pedal and clipping in. When Shimano debuted the first XTR Trail pedal, I found the width to be a game-changer, but the cage seemed like unnecessary fluff. I promptly bought a pair and chopped the cages off, creating something very similar to what Wolf Tooth has done with the CTRL.

For Wolf Tooth, the CTRL is just one of their new clipless offerings, with ALT, DEL, and SHIFT offered up for other disciplines. All of the pedals use the same SPD-compatible bindings and offer incredibly low stack height. The DEL is a lightweight gravel pedal, the ALT is aimed squarely at XC riders, and the SHIFT brings the substantial platform that gravity riders crave. The CTRL is lighter and thinner than most of its competition, mostly because it lacks the mini-cage. The pedal itself is quite robust, using a heat-treated stainless steel axle and three bearings. They also use a pair of bushings that can be moved around inside to adjust the pedals' Q-factor. This is the first pedal I can think of that offers 51, 55, or 59mm alignment, and making that change is simple and takes just minutes.

Wolf Tooth did a lot right with these pedals; chief among them is the use of SPD cleats. If you have a bevy of bikes, having one or two with different pedals that require different shoes is a recipe for disaster. It's only a matter of time til you're at the trailhead, wondering why your shoes aren't working. They also made these pedals exceptionally thin by machining the body down as low as possible, which allows you to sit lower in the cockpit. Additionally, thin pedals offer better clearance over rocks and obstacles that you might be pedaling through. If a couple of millimeters doesn't seem significant, consider the consequences of a pedal strike while riding. Pedal strikes have been some of my worst crashes, and I'll take every millimeter I can get when it comes to clearance.

At just 15mm, the CTRL is thinner than almost all of the other pedals in this category; the OneUp Clip pedal is the exception at 14.4mm. The pedals offer 5 degrees of float and a 12-degree release angle. Shimano gives you 4 degrees of float and a 13-degree release angle, but in practice, they feel almost identical to the pedals that started it all, way back when.

Ease of Entry

If you've used clipless pedals before, the CTRL will feel like second nature. At its entry-level tension, the mechanism is incredibly welcoming, though you might feel the machined platform's grip against your tread. As you tighten things up, the resistance increases, but it never becomes difficult to find your mark. While it doesn't quite have that greased lightning entry of a new XTR pedal, the reward is a remarkably planted sensation.

One downside of trail pedals with cages and pins is that the extra material can give your shoe a place to hang up; this is especially apparent with soft-soled shoes and long traction pins. Once you're clipped in, you don't get the feeling of the sole of your shoe touching the pedal as you do on the XTR 9220 or OneUp Clip Pedal. Instead, you get a feeling like you're on a smaller SPD pedal, and you really only encounter the platform under extreme lateral flex. This is due to the binding height over the pedal platform, which robs you of the stability you get from a wider platform. Sure, you feel the platform under heavy load, but during normal riding, it doesn't deliver the benefits built into it. In short, this pedal is a spectacular idea, but the real advantage is hard to glean.

Ease of Exit

Easy peasy. If you're apprehensive about clipless pedals and afraid of getting stuck in the binding, this pedal will put you at ease. Releasing from the CTRL is even easier than releasing from a standard Shimano SPD. While these pedals provide an additional degree of float, the release angle comes sooner than it does on a Shimano pedal. That means you don't have to push your heel quite as far out to find the release point. We never had an issue getting out of these pedals, wet or dry, muddy, or caked with crud; we had the same predictable release each time. There is also an audible snap that accompanies your entry and release, so you're never left wondering if you're in or out.

We made many comparisons to the Shimano XTR PD-M9200 during testing. The CTRL is a few grams heavier but 2mm thinner, and both are priced similarly and have similar dimensions. As with the Shimano pedals, there are no traction pins to hang up on when needing to make a quick exit.

Adjustability

The upper and lower release tensions are very similar to a Shimano pedal. Unlike the new OneUp Clip, we couldn't dial them down to vise-grip tight. We found a happy medium with these pedals at about 60% of their potential force. There is no indicator present in the binding, so in order to ensure that each side of the pedal has the same tension, you have to back the adjuster out all the way and count the detents as you twist them back in. There are no traction pins or alternate cleats, so the CTRL isn't big on that type of adjustability.

Where the CTRL does excel is in its ability to quickly swap Q-factors. 51, 55, or 59mm is just a few wrench turns away with no specialty tools required. This is a win for riders from other disciplines who may need help tailoring their mountain bike fit.

Weight

At just 326 grams, the CTRL pedals are reasonably lightweight, giving the new XTR pedals a run for their money. While weight isn't everything to consider in a new pair of pedals, if you can get the same performance with fewer grams and not shell out too many more dollars, we consider that a win.

The Wolf Tooth cleats weigh 52 grams on our scale and appear to be a replica of SPD cleats with the Wolf Tooth name. They are compatible with Shimano's new MT-0001 Multi-entry cleat.

Platform

This is at once the most exciting part of this pedal and the most disappointing. The additional width and lack of fore/aft cage is a brilliant idea and something that many riders could benefit from without having the bulk of a rarely used cage. The disappointing part of this is that the binding height largely keeps your shoe off of the platform so you really don't reap the benefits of the extra material underfoot.

Wolf Tooth claims this pedal offers 852mm² of platform, and even with our best calipers, this is a hard number to dispute. We love the idea of this pedal so much and tried multiple pairs of shoes from Fox, Specialized, Crank Brothers, Ride Concepts, and Fizik, but couldn't quite dial in the level of interface we wanted with the platform.

Mud Shedding

We might not recommend these for cyclocross riding, but they did a commendable job shedding mud and allowing access when conditions got gummy. There is ample open space in this pedal, allowing the mud to push through without obstructing your entry.

While there is a lot of open space, there is also a very wide platform, and in scenarios where the soles of our shoes had mud sticking to them, there was a bit of complication clipping in. It's odd that the mud on the sole was the issue rather than the mud packed into the cleat box. In our general riding, we never encountered a situation where we couldn't clip in, but in our contrived “mix up the mud and try it” tests, we could create one where engagement wasn't possible.

Should you buy the Wolf Tooth CTRL Trail pedals?

When I pulled these pedals out of the box, I was sure that I would get to this part of the review and tell you these were the solution you've been waiting for, but alas, testing has revealed some shortcomings. To be fair, this isn't a bad pedal, but it doesn't deliver all the performance it could if the binding were a bit lower. Conversely, the pedal could be thicker, and the platform-to-shoe interface would be enhanced, but then we'd complain that the pedal should be thinner.

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