Puttin' The Power Down

Pedals. A lot of times we don't give a lot of thought to them, but they are one of the most stressed parts on our bicycles. I mean, you'd hate to think what might happen if one failed, right?

And not only that, they are a contact point. We "feel" the trail, what the tires are doing, and how we balance the bike through these two components. Really, when you stop to think about it, the lowly pedal is a pretty dang important component.

Maybe we ought to give a little more thought to them.

Well, I will admit that most of my cycling life, I haven't given a second thought to it. Uh.....to pedals, that is. Well, lately, after getting a fat bike, I have thought a lot more about pedals, mostly because I was moving to doing something with flat pedals. You see, flats work with winter boots, clipless doesn't.

So I started out with just any ol' flats, because, well, they are just pedals, right? Bzzzzt! Wrong. I found out that some flats have little to no grip, some flats have some decent grip until snow packs up on them, and some flats made of metal can get snow frozen to them and become two ice lollipops real fast.

That made me go scrambling for more information. I found out some folks don't like metal pedals on their fat bikes because they make their feet cold. Some folks were after the thinnest pedals they could get. Some were after the best sealed bearings, and yet others were using cheapo pedals that seemed to work just fine.

I was getting along okay with some old, cheesy big and blocky Welgo flats and not so hot with some Atom Lab pedals I bought when Fyxation got a hold of me and wanted me to try out some of their pedals. I took a look and thought that they may be right up my alley for the fat bikes. Well, here they are, the Mesa and the Mesa MP. The pedals both feature high impact nylon bodies, "DU" bushings and sealed bearings on chromoly spindles, and the Mesa features molded in pins while the Mesa MP features metal pins.

I'll be sporting these now on both fat bikes and riding throughout the coming months to give everyone a review on these soon. (Probably over on Twenty Nine Inches) So far, I'll say that they are thinner by far than any of my other flats, they spin nicely, are big targets for my feet, and weigh a lot less than my old pedals did. I'll have more on these later though.

Never thought I'd have much to say about pedals, but in the last year, it sure has been a big topic of thought here in my mind.

Note: Fyxation sent these pedals for review at no charge. I am not being paid, nor bribed for this review and I'll strive to give my honest thoughts and opinions throughout.