Couldn't say really how many rides but they've been on the bike since late January, been raced virtually every weekend between April and now, ridden every weekend there wasn't a race, hammered at Fort William for something like ten days, raced for a week in Europe at the Mega, and done a significant amount of XC to boot. Hence the slightly used look they now wear!

I use disco slippers as I find these to be more consistent in entry and release than the Vans/Dx style shoes. That's all personal preference as I know some riders like me just can't get on with DX's whilst others can't get on with the xc style slippers. So, bearing that in mind, I don't find that there's much difference. Infact, I wound most of the screws in. However, when wound out I would say that there was marginally more grip than when running the aggressive plates found on the older pedals. You may be finding them slippery if you're using the dx style shoes as there are fewer edges on the sole to dig into the various cut outs of the pedal compared to the lugged xc type shoes. Hope that helps.

Nice thanks for the reply. Yah, I guess it really comes down to the shoes. I use a crappy pair at the moment, whose tread isn't too soft and there arn't a lot of edges on them.