Flat Pedal Upgrade?

I am so old school that I run flat pedals on all my bikes including my road bike.  Been pedaling bikes for 45 years and spent a significant number of years riding and racing motorcycles and never have my feet been mechanically attached to my pedals of foot pegs.  I also own a closet full of 5-10 shoes to keep my feet firmly attached to my pedals. 

This blog post is not about “Flats vs. Clip in” pedals and I feel pedal choice is a personal one and my choice is flats.  This blog post is just about my personal search for a better flat pedal and nothing more.

For the past 5 years my go to pedal set up was some light, durable, fairly thin, and inexpensive Welgo B103 and B118 flat pedals.  I would replace the original soft aluminum pins with some steel ones made by Xpedo and the pedals would wind up costing about $60 a pair. 

Wellgo B103 364 grams   

       


Wellgo B118 340 Grams

I liked the platform size and shape and the high pin count which led to great grip and control.  Life expectancy ran about 2 years per pair until I smashed enough rocks to damage the pedal body or wore out the non-serviceable inboard bushings.  

Life has been pretty good with those pedals but I started following the movement towards ultra thin flat pedals and wanted to give them a try.  There are claimed benefits to improvement in eliminating the dead spot at the bottom of the pedal stroke by moving your foot closer to the pedal spindle centerline.  The claims the thinner pedal body will improve ground clearance to minimize pedal strikes on rocks and roots seems very logical but the noticeable impact would seem to be proportional to the thickness of your current pedals.

But there were barriers; some pedals have rider weight limits that prohibit my 220lb carcass from safely riding them.  And, the costs of these ultra thin pedals seem to start around $150 with some approaching $300.  My mind had trouble justifying such a price tag when my go to pedal setup worked great and could be had for a mere $60.

So, for the 2015 racing season I decided to bite the bullet and jump head first into the ultra thin lifestyle.  After doing research and reading all the on-line dribble, reviews, rants, and keyboard jockey wisdom I decided on the Canfield Brothers Crampon Ultimate Pedal.

Still being cautions and somewhat tight with my money I chose try the 342 gram aluminum version over the even lighter 280 gram (but $50 more expensive) Magnesium version.  But honestly, the decision also came down to the fact I could match the accent colors on my bike better with the Anodized colors on the aluminum vs. the painted colors on the magnesium pedals.   And who doesn't enjoy throwing back a cold brew while admiring their bike after a ride and saying to them self, “damn that is one nice looking bike”.  Now, style is in the eye of the beholder but I just had to have orange pedals on my Tallboy LTc and red ones on my Nomad for personal style points.  You go faster when you look good right?  So I contacted Canfield Brothers and ordered some up.

342 gram Canfield Crampon Ultimate aluminum in all their orange anodized brilliance

 

Side view of the Crampon Ultimate

Note:  the pedal body thickness that is less than the pedal spindle diameter.

One of the problems I have had since I began racing 4 years ago is high speed crashes caused by pedal strikes.  Pedal strikes frequently occur while trying to get those precious few additional pedal strokes in to shave a few seconds off my race times.  These pedal strikes unfortunately have led to some serious crashes/injuries and this is the primary reason I want the ultra thin pedals.

The ultra low bottom bracket on my new Santa Cruz Nomad 3.0 also prompted me to recently switch out the 175mm crank arms for some 165mm ones.  This made a noticeable reduction in pedal strikes so I doubt I will notice too much additional improvement directly from the pedals but I will welcome a little additional clearance none the less.  I still run 175mm crank arms on my Santa Cruz Tallboy LTc so I should be able to readily assess the reduction in pedal strikes due to pedals alone on this bike.

Stay Tuned for the next installment of this blog after I have spent some pedal time on these beautiful Crampons and competed in a few races.

Flat Pedals for Medals!

Marc Garoutte

Epic Racing Cycling Team