SEVEN DAY CYCLIST
CYCLING, BUT NOT USUALLY RACING

With the axle running the full pedal width - the platform is 94mm by 59mm - you expect a solid ride, with or without toe-clips.

 

Boron steel axles and loose ball-bearings are common at this price point. These lack the weight to strength ratios of Cro-moly and the fit ’n’ forget simplicity of sealed cartridges, but feel far from blancmange-like with your full weight dancing on the pedals. Bearings were smooth enough straight from the box.

 

Die hard, hell ’n’ high water commuters might find stripping and packing them with a really stout waterproof grease prudent but I’d be inclined to run the OEM balls into the ground and take this route come replacement. 1/8th ball bearings are plentiful and inexpensive; you need twenty-six for each pedal, according to Ison Distribution. However, given experience of other Genetic pedals, such as their Executive or the Schizo favoured on my tourers, I’d expect a good long lifespan.

 

Almost de riguer is the nine-sixteenths thread. The cage plates are riveted solidly.

​

Performance

 

Rubber-soled shoes grip soundly without toe-clips. However, pushing harder or honking up a hill disrupts the smooth style required to keep everything in place. Having said that, a steady twelve mph Pashley commute has maintained security of tenure, bumpy bits of cycle track being the biggest threat. Pushing it up to twenty mph bursts on the Eroica ready Carlton Clubman was ok on smooth tarmac, but soon sent me reaching for the toe-clips. Tried to remember good old-fashioned “ankling.”

 

Popping the reflector out and fitting the toe-clips, it was back out on the road. As you’d expect, ratcheting the pace up was a cinch. Trad leather shoes did not slip-up at 25mph bursts or when honking.