Tea or coffee? With milk or without? Platform pedal or clickie? The question of the right pedal is not just a question of taste - it's a question of faith. If Norbert Koehn from Reset Racing is to be believed, the trend is clearly in favour of platform pedals. The advantages are obvious: a flat pedal can be used universally and is compatible with different shoes. It is much more comfortable and safer to ride on carrying sections. The disadvantage: Power transmission is poorer than with a stiff cycling shoe with a click system. You also lose the advantage of the traction phase on steep climbs. So who needs which pedal? In the sporty segment, especially in cross country or marathon, the clipless pedal will definitely hold its own. In the all-mountain segment, at least Koehn suspects, the flat pedal could prevail.
The pedal test: maximum strain on the pedals
In our test, we wanted to find out how the different pedal systems fared in the lab and in practice. We therefore carried out extensive testing and rode each pedal several times on the trail.
The test results of these MTB pedals can be found below as a PDF download:
- Click pedals:
Crankbrothers Eggbeater 3
Look Quartz Carbon
Ritchey Pro Paradigm Mountain
Shimano PD-M780
Time Attac XS
XLC PD-S04
- Click/platform pedals:
Crankbrothers Mallet 2
Shimano PD-M530
Time Z-Strong
Downloads:
Stefan Frey
Editor
