Went searching for a flat pedal thread but everything seemed to be a few years old and aimed either at budget or best money can buy but nothing in between. Looking for some new flat pedals myself after going through a few different models so thought I'd write a little spiel on what I've tried in the hope someone might come to the party with a recommendation of what to try next.
I mostly ride what would be described as XC or Trail riding and only infrequently do both wheels leave the ground, so that is important to consider in my opinions. I do try to ride technical features as much as possible, so I do ask slightly more of my pedals than riding to the shops in Dunlop volleys...
Currently I'm running both some Xpedo Spry and Nukeproof Electron. Both reasonable, cheap pedals but with their compromises.
The Xpedo Spry are light. 260g listed, but actually 259g when I weighed the pair. Fucking light when you consider they cost a grand total of $79 (probably less these days). Plenty of pins to hack holes into your shin, but a bit too big in diameter for my liking. They don't quite grab as tenaciously as the thinner M2 bolt style pins in lots of other flat pedals. They require a definite riding style adjustment as you move your foot around much more freely. Kinda makes sense when you consider they are really more of an XC pedal and are made of Magnesium. I wouldn't be running these on a slack trail bike prone to pedal strikes, reckon you'd snap one pretty quick. My main complaint has been the amount of maintenance required to keep them running nicely. The DU bushing at the crank end of the spindle is well and truly flogged after a solid year of riding them with two full strip downs to clean and re-grease them. No idea if you can replace something like that, but at $79 bucks a pair it very quickly ends up in a bin and replace situation. An admirable pedal that is ridiculously light and grippy enough, but not particularly durable in my mind.
The nukeproof Electron is a budget, lighter option at 360g-ish. More traditional, thinner pins that definitely hold onto (and destroy) your shoe. At around $50 from the various online retailers you really can't expect too much and they deliver plenty more than they should for my type of riding. Good platform, despite being plastic and hold on much better than the Spry. But the build quality and plastic body let them down for me. Even the slightest pedal strike and there is a solid chunk taken out of the plastic. Haven't broken one, but they definitely look worse for wear. The main annoyance though is that the end caps seem to constantly work there way loose and you can feel the pedal body moving side to side on the spindle. Has happened to three different sets and continues to happen. Probably not a fatal flaw, considering you get some warning with the pedal body moving, but on a big day on the bike, it's pretty shit having to do pedal maintenance halfway. A solid pedal, but will very quickly be out of it's depth with any harder riding or big KMs.
At the moment I'm looking at the Spank oozy pedals as the next step up with hopefully a bit more durability and serviceability whilst still being on the lighter side.
Please feel free to contribute any other flat pedal info, dogma, stigma or other stuff. Maybe a review of the Shimano Saint pedals I've been avoiding since forever? Mainly due to my allergy to their anchor-like weight...
ROUNDUP LIST SO FAR
Mentioned positively more than once:
Crank Brothers Stamp
DMR Vault
Hope F20
Nukeproof Electron
Nukeproof Proton
RaceFace Chester
Spank Oozy
Spank Spike
VP Harrier
Xpedo Spry
Mentioned as good or better:
BlackSpire Big Slim
FUNN Python
NC17 18 pins
NS legeaters
OneUp Composite
Pedaling Innovations Catalyst
RaceFace Atlas
Superstar Nano
Straitline
Wellgo M5
Wellgo MG-1
The jurys out.....
Shimano Saint
Also just happened upon this site which is not very exhaustive and they need to pay for faster hosting. Maybe once this thread gets big enough we can steal their domain name and fill it with useful information instead. BUT, it is apparently the font of all pedal knowledge....
I mostly ride what would be described as XC or Trail riding and only infrequently do both wheels leave the ground, so that is important to consider in my opinions. I do try to ride technical features as much as possible, so I do ask slightly more of my pedals than riding to the shops in Dunlop volleys...
Currently I'm running both some Xpedo Spry and Nukeproof Electron. Both reasonable, cheap pedals but with their compromises.
The Xpedo Spry are light. 260g listed, but actually 259g when I weighed the pair. Fucking light when you consider they cost a grand total of $79 (probably less these days). Plenty of pins to hack holes into your shin, but a bit too big in diameter for my liking. They don't quite grab as tenaciously as the thinner M2 bolt style pins in lots of other flat pedals. They require a definite riding style adjustment as you move your foot around much more freely. Kinda makes sense when you consider they are really more of an XC pedal and are made of Magnesium. I wouldn't be running these on a slack trail bike prone to pedal strikes, reckon you'd snap one pretty quick. My main complaint has been the amount of maintenance required to keep them running nicely. The DU bushing at the crank end of the spindle is well and truly flogged after a solid year of riding them with two full strip downs to clean and re-grease them. No idea if you can replace something like that, but at $79 bucks a pair it very quickly ends up in a bin and replace situation. An admirable pedal that is ridiculously light and grippy enough, but not particularly durable in my mind.
The nukeproof Electron is a budget, lighter option at 360g-ish. More traditional, thinner pins that definitely hold onto (and destroy) your shoe. At around $50 from the various online retailers you really can't expect too much and they deliver plenty more than they should for my type of riding. Good platform, despite being plastic and hold on much better than the Spry. But the build quality and plastic body let them down for me. Even the slightest pedal strike and there is a solid chunk taken out of the plastic. Haven't broken one, but they definitely look worse for wear. The main annoyance though is that the end caps seem to constantly work there way loose and you can feel the pedal body moving side to side on the spindle. Has happened to three different sets and continues to happen. Probably not a fatal flaw, considering you get some warning with the pedal body moving, but on a big day on the bike, it's pretty shit having to do pedal maintenance halfway. A solid pedal, but will very quickly be out of it's depth with any harder riding or big KMs.
At the moment I'm looking at the Spank oozy pedals as the next step up with hopefully a bit more durability and serviceability whilst still being on the lighter side.
Please feel free to contribute any other flat pedal info, dogma, stigma or other stuff. Maybe a review of the Shimano Saint pedals I've been avoiding since forever? Mainly due to my allergy to their anchor-like weight...
ROUNDUP LIST SO FAR
Mentioned positively more than once:
Crank Brothers Stamp
DMR Vault
Hope F20
Nukeproof Electron
Nukeproof Proton
RaceFace Chester
Spank Oozy
Spank Spike
VP Harrier
Xpedo Spry
Mentioned as good or better:
BlackSpire Big Slim
FUNN Python
NC17 18 pins
NS legeaters
OneUp Composite
Pedaling Innovations Catalyst
RaceFace Atlas
Superstar Nano
Straitline
Wellgo M5
Wellgo MG-1
The jurys out.....
Shimano Saint
Also just happened upon this site which is not very exhaustive and they need to pay for faster hosting. Maybe once this thread gets big enough we can steal their domain name and fill it with useful information instead. BUT, it is apparently the font of all pedal knowledge....
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