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The rumors are true.
The Pendulum pedals join the MRP Noken as another recent product release fulfilling my MTB fever dreams. Stuff I wished for but didn't think would ever actually exist.
Lewis seem to have at least two bite points…maybe they’ll rip off these horrific tongue scraper pedals for a third.
The ultra-thin, axle-less thing has been tried a few times over the years. Tioga and flypaper are the ones I can remember. I always assumed they never caught on because they’d just bend?
My armchair engineer senses are definitely tingling but nobody's interested in that. Not being a flat pedal aficionado, I'm quite a lot more interested in the enthusiasm shown here for the idea of an "infinitely concave" pedal.
Same lol. I've always wished for a flat pedal with angled pins so that when your heels are dropped, the pins are perpendicular to the ground. Don't know if that even contributes to better grip but I really wish somebody would test that theory.
Sounds like they had a small hitch but it should be up and running again.
I know this is framed as a joke but I know so many people who got same day local service with We Are One on rim warranties and wheel rebuilds.
I feel like I have seen angled pin pedals before, but I cannot seem to find them anywhere
Race Face.
I really hope that little 6902 bearing holds up to the abuse and that there isn't only one of them in each pedal... (edit: website says two)
@Jotegr not a joke, a genuine comment as you can't do much against an overseas supplier really and in the best of cases it will take weeks for an issue to be solved compared to what you just outlined. Your case is exactly what I was talking about.
The Tioga ones were hype when they came out, at least 16 year old me though they were haha. I get the idea with these, get the center of gravity lower while still having good clearance, not a bad idea, but it's a marginal gain at best with some big drawbacks. My big issue with these is that they are 1 sided. 1 sided pedals only work well for road bikes where you have no reason to take your foot off and put it on again in a short amount of time. Then there's the load on the bearing and it's durability.
Lower weight is not really the main benefit. Being onesided also isn't an issue and stepping into the wrong side rarely happens. Plus you really notice it if the pedal is upside down as you're much higher. You can't really do a two sided drop pedal though so it's more or less the name of the game.
The best thing about those pedals for me would be how they should eliminate the need to replace bent and snapped pins after almost every ride (I suck and lots of rocks around here). I can't buy canadian made though because there is always a risk some of my money will end up supporting canadian hockey.
Lol @ the hockey comment.I also like the idea of not bending/breaking pins. The pedal looks like it would slide over anything it touches which is cool.
I'm slightly dubious about how the bearings and everything around them will fare long-term but I'd happily give them a punt.
Very thin pedals are awesome, they provide a very different feel, you stand much more connected to the bike, is like "regular" pedals try to roll forward in comparison. I tested some 11mm thick HT pedals many years ago, they felt awesome but durability wasn't there.
That design of pedal may push the user to prefer even shorter cranks, they somehow make them feel longer in my experience, while pedaling at low dead center but when you ride with the cranks level too
That's because they do effectively make your cranks longer.
A good bike fitter will determine the correct cranks length taking into account the thickness of the pedals.
Which could be an "issue" (for some) with the pendulum pedals. At the bottom half of the pedal stroke the cranks will be longer and at the top half they'll be shorter so you'll be pedalling in an elliptical shape rather than circular. I already know my knees don't like that.
Drop pedals don't make cranks longer, they make the BB effectively lower. There is no pedal that makes the crank longer or shorter looking at the whole revolution. Seat height does have to be adjusted based on Pedal thickness though. With drop pedals the drop is there both at bottom dead centre and top dead centre. It's all offset. Just as the pedal thickness with standard pedals comes into play all around the crank revolution.
What drop pedals do though make the crank just a bit longer when it's mid power stroke and you drop your heel. Just slightly though, just like standard pedals make it shorter in the same position.
Ah ha, that makes sense 👍🏼
Time for more coffee
regarding the durability of the outlier pendulum or void pedal, Andrew Major has a set of each and has a good track record when he was at NSMB and Bike Mag (only writes at his own blog for now https://meatengines.com/ ) for long term review and teardown so if long term issue should arise we will most likely hear about it. And yes those pedals have 2 6902 bearing per pedals and a chunky looking steel axle that needs to be properly torqued to 30nm for correct preload on those bearings. So not a pedal for the frequent parking lot pedal switcher.
As for the canadian hockey funding statement, lalalalala can't hear you through all our gold medals.
Despite liking the design of the Pendulum pedal I'm wondering if their claim that the plattform sits 12mm below the axle can be true?
The outer diameter of the threads is 9/16 inch which is roughly 14.3mm - for me the distance between the axle and the plattform would be less than half of that so rather 6 or 7mm. Or did I get something wrong?
Not a major flaw but they should have their numbers right for 300$
If it wasn't that expensive I would really like to try them - they look really interesting.
Btw the Loam Ranger made a video about them.
It's $300 CAD so not as outrageous as you think.
I've always thought Frameworks tagline should be, "Frames that make sense, with cranks that make none."
It all depends on how you measure, this is how the "12mm below" could be achieved...
I would see it like this:
The pendulum flat pedal plattform is approximately 12mm lower than your normal/most flat pedals with an axle going through the whole pedal body. and since the axle is most of the time somewhere around 6-8mm in diameter, on top of which there is still some aluminium body above it, its lower.
Not 12mm under the center of the pedal axle but 12mm under normal flat pedal plattform.
This. My preferred flat pedal is 17mm thick at the center, so these drop pedals would sit 14.5mm lower than my pedals. Which is a ton! That's over half an inch, and it's almost a whole pedal lower than my pedal.
But I agree, "12mm below the axle" isn't an accurate or clear sentence. Hope that's not what they go with for final copy on their website.
"Center of the axle" is indeed what it says on their site. I think "top" of axle may be more accurate with the given numbers?
Regardless, it lowers your pedal quite a bit. Between that and the big ol' openness under foot, I'd love to try them.
As a taller guy who runs too many headset spacers with a 50mm rise bar and high COG, I'm really interested in these. I'm not sure they'll hold up, I'm an axle bender and thin pedal axles have never survived long. The standard bearings should be an easy swap when they inevitably toast themselves. But I'm dubious that they'll hold up given the amount of leverage on those bearings. I'll try them if I can buy a spare left axle from day 1.
Say it's a 15mm drop from my existing Scarabs. That's 15mm less rise on the bars/spacers, 15mm lower saddle, it more than makes up for the 10mm shorter cranks I'm running, and without bottom pins rock clearance should be fine.
I'm not sure they'll work out, but the upsides make this an experiment worth trying.
"Try our new Pendulum pedal. The MOST BALLER way to raise your effective stack height."
I ride 95% of my time in the area where they were developed and tested. The riding at Moose Mtn and Prairie View(Husky), two opposing hill sides, is no joke. Its steep, with concrete hard clay with loose on top and has some big moves all over the place, and the guys riding them the last two years testing them take advantage off all of all of it. From my understanding, the pedals have held up very well and everyone who's ridden them have been hooked.
Also, come ride here
https://www.trailforks.com/region/moose-mountain/
This pedal is one of those ideas that seemingly makes obvious sense – it's incredibly baffling that it hasn't been done. I wonder if there'd be advantages to a clipless implementation. 🤔