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These arrived from far away lands this morning. Might be brilliant, might be shit. Will find out in a month or so.
Thoughts?
I'm very sceptical, but also very interested...
Look forward to hearing how you get on with them.
What shoes?
With my Freerider Pros I think I’d miss the support. I had some Impacts with a much stiffer sole and they’d probably be OK.
Oh, I watched that video and thought they looked really good. But nowhere near as good as the purchase price for a pair of pedals!
I'd worry my toe box would get caught in that big hole !
One for the John Wayne-legged riders, with those big nubs on the axle spacing your feet out?
Flats for SPD riders?
April is next week.
Good lord, those are interesting!
Interesting but not even close to interesting enough for me to cough up the necessary to give them a try. Must have been heading for £200 by the time they are in your hands?
I love the idea of them and the thought behind them makes a lot of sense to me. I was tempted myself. What held me back was the bearings. For the pedal to be the right way up when you need it, the bearings have to run very freely. I believe they use oil rather than grease. It likely also means very light seals, so my concern was longevity over a UK winter.
Watching with interest.
yep as above, i once had a pair of single sided spds, inevitably it was post luck as to which way up the pedal was when my foot needed it, plus i don't hold much hope for the bearing life, the load on that stubby shaft will be something else
good luck if they work out for you
Shoes I’m not sure yet, as I need new ones owing to recent foot issues, any recommendations for the widest, deepest toe box much appreciated. Shouldnt have any issues with foot falling through as I’m well over the size 8 minimum recommended
Wide Q factor not an issue for me, had fat bikes and gearbox bikes, no issues with widely spaced pedals.
Total, landed, about £210, but fx rates are swinging in our favour at the moment.
initial impressions are they are super sturdy, (450g/pair) bearings super smooth and the pins (which are terrifying!) are always facing up, so not worried there, yet.
I'd be very interested if they made a more affordable version, but as I mostly ride clips I couldn't stomach that much for an occasional pedal. The concept makes complete sense to me, it's one of those "why didn't I think of that" ideas
That's quite clever, why be concave when you can just be a cave?
The widest toe box I’ve found is Freeriders and size up (I tried a pair of Freerider Pros and they felt the same).
Specialized apparently offer their 2FO flats in a wide size, but only in the US
Yikes. My foot would clip those inboard bearings all the time. There must be huge twisting forces going through a high grime/ wear area? Keep us posted on how they work out
The widest toe box I’ve found is Freeriders and size up (I tried a pair of Freerider Pros and they felt the same).
Agree with the Freeriders, but Pros feel like a completely different shape, definitely narrower
I like Free riders but my right big toe still rubs the edge on a shoe one size too big. F2O DH are a bit roomier I think.
@Submarined - Good to know, I only tried them on briefly in the shop as I thought they looked much smaller, but was surprised they weren’t much difference. Also the Adidas shop in Swindon Outlet Village had them dirt cheap. Didn’t buy any though as I still have a perfectly fine pair of Freeriders.
Quick bump for this to get some feedback from OP.....
Haven’t ridden them yet, bikes not built. But it will be in a couple of weeks
So Tom, what's the verdict???
Frame arrived yesterday…
For those of you wondering if GTA VI would come out before my thoughts on these pedals, wonder no more.
TLDR: They're (almost) brilliant.
Rode them for a couple of days at BPW last week and right from the off, the shape of them is lovely. The bearing bulge sits right in the arch of my foot/shoe (Lake MX201, also great for those needing a wide fitting shoe) and the still, justifiably, terrifying pins - they have eaten my shins and calves from just pushing the bike around, no nibbles out on the trails though - offer a very concave shape, made all the more so without a middle bit of pedal. Once you are locked in, your feet are going nowhere, so the first few goes necessitated looking at them when setting off, and I was still doing that out of habit after 2 days riding. If you are coming from clips, you will have your feet much further forward on the pedals, so they are in the middle of you sole, rather than the ball of your foot over where the axle would be, in order to fit nicely. No issue for me, I've been on flats for the past 7 years, but something to think about.
Pedal strikes weren't an issue, reckon I had 2 or three over the couple of days, the shape of the underside shrugged them off and looking at the pedals, you'd never know. The lower platform definitely helped when things got rowdy, and pretty sure helped prevent an OTB when ambition outweighed ability and I hooked the back wheel on some big roots, I was thrown forward enough to lift the rear wheel, but not enough to send me out the front door.
The less than brilliant bit is the drive side bearings. The first day was wet, it having hosed down the night before and rained on the morning, but very much just puddles of dirty water everywhere (It seems impossible for me to go to BPW and it not rain, regardless of the time of year 😡 ) and to begin with everything was fine, the pedals were always right way up & spinning beautifully until the penultimate/last run were the DS pedal just had a little resistance, not enough for it to be a problem, but definitely there. Start of the second (dry, hurrah!) day and no change, just a bit of resistance. Anyway as the day went on there was more and more resistance until I had to spin the pedal with a foot to set off, not unlike SPD-R road pedals. I then get them home and it's serious effort just to turn them, I dismantle, clean as best I can and refit, better, but still that bit of resistance from the end of the first day. I've spoken to outlier and they aren't sure (and very apologetic), so waiting to hear if they want the pedals back, or they're just gonna send me some more (proprietary) bearings to fit myself. I really hope I've just been unlucky here (other, longer term, reviews you'll read will say they've had zero issues after 000's KMs) as the NDS pedal is still buttery smooth.
Overall, they are ace though, and I'll definitely buy another set once they've caught up on stock, assuming we can get to the bottom of this issue.
For those of you wondering if GTA VI would come out before my thoughts on these pedals, wonder no more.
Can't believe I nearly missed this. All good to know but far too late as I've already ordered some.
(proprietary) bearings
I thought they were a standard bearing, is it the grease/oil and seals that make them proprietary? A grease filled bearing possibly wouldn't self right?
They’re a standard size, but the cage isn’t metallic…
Quick update, after a chat it was decided to send the pedals back for them for a look and to swap the bearings for a fresh set, which they’ve now done and the pedals are on their way back to me, all free of charge and 10 days to do. Not ideal but dealt with pretty well, considering they are on the other side of the world.
Always good to see innovation in the real world. Pity about the poor sealing on the bearings though. At the other end of the price range, I bought some HT composite pedals from my trail bike. Work as well as my Vaults.
Thanks for the objective feedback, Tom. Think I'll stick with my quarter century old smashed up, pin missing but perfectly turning Shimano DX. Reasons:
The bulge would push my feet out and I like polishing cranks with my socks, those pins would make even deeper holes in my shins (do they really need to be that long? I've got a pair of DX with the short pins fitted and they still grip fine) , I don't want to have to visually place my feet.
A suggestion to the manufacturer: deliver with a set of shorter pins included in the box because there's no way I'd buy pedals with pins that long.
Sounds like a problem nobody asked for a solution to that doesn't work very well if they borked after 1 day of riding.
I didn't see them as a solution to a problem, just a new way of doing flats. They've been pretty much the same since pedal bikes were invented after all.
I wouldn't pay the money for them, but hopefully HT or Rockbros can rip them off and sell with better bearings at some point 😉
As I say, I think I’ve been unlucky, a few other people I’ve spoken to have loads of riding on them with no issue and on inspection, it was 1 of the 4 bearings that was gritty. I’ll stick a bit of grease around the seals to better protect them when they come back.
And they’re back, spinning beautifully.
Just in time for an arduous trip to… the Malverns.
Not sure I’ll risk a lake ride.
Keep us updated. I usually smoosh a load of stern tube grease on sealed bearing outer surfaces. Under bolt caps, where there's an airspace and it doesn't affect rotation, to keep water out a bit longer!
How's the Gasser BTW?
Mine were dispatched a few days ago, eta end of the month via Canada Post so strapped to a moose I guess 😀
According to Canada post this morning, mine will arrive on 27th, and they definitely didn’t arrive yesterday 😳
@chestercopperpot Incredible. Completely different from any DH frame I’ve ridden before - generally super stiff, only really work at Mach 10, cumbersome when not - this is kind of the opposite of that. Doesn’t feel crazy, jarringly, stiff, but perfectly stable at high speed, but then doesn’t feel like a barge on slower techy stuff, despite the relatively daft frame geometry. Super short stem helps, I think. Well happy!
Mine were dispatched a few days ago, eta end of the month via Canada Post so strapped to a moose I guess
Canada Post doesn't even bother to deliver items in Canada particularly fast - and as far as they're concerned the rest of the world is even less important!
Sounds like the holy grail!
My only experience of a reasonable DH bike was a Nukeproof Scalp with coil shock and WC Boxxer. My overriding memory was landing big jumps to flat and not giving shit as the bike shrugged it off like nothing. Being an experienced rider I know the overconfidence that sort of thing can lead to, especially when it inevitably get's applied in the wrong context!
Thank for the write up. I'm still curious about these but the heating issue is pretty much where my mind went when I first saw them.
Do you default to right leg forward when riding? Was the one bearing the outboard one? Theses other riders with 1000s I'm on them, do they ride in the wet?
Left foot forward, was the inboard driveside bearing that got a bit gritty.
but hopefully HT or Rockbros can rip them off and sell with better bearings at some point
Masters of IP theft Lewis are on the case
FFS, a genuinely original idea really hasn’t ever come out of their heads has it. Also grates that they are copying smaller outfits, rather than the behemoths.
‘BuT ThEy ARe iMprOvING ThEm’ No. they are copying them and putting a small afterthought change in. Bollocks.
At least in this case, they seem to have made them worse, by putting a pin/platform in the middle, you lose some of the concave-ness that really locks your foot in.
To those parroting ‘that concept has been around for years’ for everything they make, why choose to start making them now, so similar to other things just released on the market?
also grinds my gears that some of the smaller frame manufacturers, that use a lot of CNC work, are hawking their stuff on their instagram. What’s gonna stop them nicking your IP?
Grrr. Anyway, ordered another set of the real deal.
Left foot forward, was the inboard driveside bearing that got a bit gritty.
Might just be bad luck then. I'd imagine the forward foot would get more of the spray..
Sorry, inboard is what I meant, the one most exposed to the spray.