One of the big talking points when you pull your bike off the car is what pedals you’re running. You either ride clips or flats and heckle your mates that use whatever you don’t but it gets complicated in the shuttle when you start talking about different sorts of clips or different sorts of flat pedals. While clips offer a few variations, you’d think flat pedals don’t vary too much do they? Well, this cool creation from Pedaling Innovations gives you a very distinct way to change what you know about flat pedals and can be sourced directly from Mountain Bikes Direct.
Item: Pedaling Innovations Catalyst flat pedals
Purchased From: Mountain Bikes Direct (Click here for the product page)
Purchase Price (approx): $174.95
When something new and different appears in the mountain bike world, many of us tend to overreact and condemn whatever this new standard is. Think along the lines of the introduction of 29 inch wheels, Boost spacing, dropper posts, carbon frames etc etc, the list goes on. Some things stick around and become the norm while other things are quickly forgotten because they’re either a failed idea or are just too bloody expensive. The first impression of the Pedaling Innovations Catalyst flat pedal is “holy shit, thats a big flat pedal!” and for the two months I’ve been running them people have asked three things:
-What is the point of them being so big?
-Are you getting heaps of pedal strikes?
-Why don’t you just use traditional flat pedals?
All of those questions can be answered as soon as you bolt them on and ride them, its almost an instant result. First thing you need to know for the full benefit of this pedal is to have your foot in the right spot; the exact middle of your foot. Think of the arch in your foot and plant your shoe over the axle right in the middle, job done. Now, lets talk about why this pedal is bigger and why it can be a benefit to your riding.
The extra length compared to a normal flat pedal is obvious, they are 128mm long and aim to support the front ball area of your foot and your heel. This is almost the opposite effect of riding in clips as they only engage the area around the ball of your foot and just behind and in my experience that isn’t the ideal placement for a clip as it has always felt too far forward for me. Your foot is firmly planted and feels much more attached to your bike, even more than you’d expect but geez you get used to it very quickly! Initially and instantly pedalling up a climb I had to adjust my foot to make sure I was over the center of the axle and once you’re grinding away and in the right spot, you’ll be impressed. I found the effort to get up a hill was reduced by having a better spread of energy and able to use more of the bulk of my leg strength instead of just specific climbing muscles. Truly, I feel they make climbing easier and in the enduro world where you ride up at your pace to get to the downhills, these things are bloody spot on.
The Catalyst is a 6061 aluminium material jammed onto cromoly spindle with sealed bearings. You can use a 15mm pedal spanner or a 6mm allen key to bolt them on. Build quality is quite nice too with 14 screw in pins strategically placed for best results. You can put longer pins in too of course. Being a bigger pedal, they are obviously a bit heavier than other pedals weighing just over 500 grams for the pair.
The pedal isn’t any wider than a standard sized flat pedal. At 95mm wide, it sits under your shoe and feels the same when riding as any other flat pedal. This means the only difference in size you’ll get is the extra length under your foot front and rear of the pedal compared to other flat pedals. To answer the question of how many pedal strikes I’m getting when riding these big flats? No more than I ever have on a standard pedal, there’s no difference to it.
So the obvious question to answer is why not just use a normal flat pedal that is so readily available? There’s nothing a flat pedal does that makes you want to avoid it and but a bigger flat pedal like this Pedaling Innovations pedal but you now have an option. In using the Catalyst I’ve found the strain on my knee joints is far less, the climbing is a little more relaxed with the right position of my foot and surprisingly, they feel no different to any other flat pedal when descending and jumping or skipping across rough rocks or roots. You can shift your foot around just as easily yet still feel really engaged to the pedal when you need it. I noticed some extra wear on my shoes in the spots that the pedal sits that other flat pedal pins don’t but thats a given and once you’ve got a sweet spot, it just sits on the right spot of the pins.
Some questions I hoped to answer in my review were what type of riding are these best suited to and what long term effect would I notice. I ride downhill, enduro and XC loops and switch between flats and clips just cause I can. I’ve found these pedals work best for enduro stuff as I noticed the benefit of the pedals mostly on the climbs and barely noticed any difference on the downs. With that in mind, riding them for downhill is seems almost irrelevant except for perhaps the long term benefit that a bigger pedal may have on your joints offering that extra bit of support. They rock solid on rough stuff and jumping? Same story as all the other flat pedals in your library.
From my testing on the Catalyst pedal, I think they most certainly achieve what they claim; you get more power by being able to drive a bit more from your leg strength, they feel more efficient because you are using more of your muscles and less of just one set of muscles and they are stable under your foot. All of those things make this a pretty appealing purchase with the only potential thing on your mind is the obvious fact of them looking bigger than other pedals. Now think back to my original paragraph about new things being scoffed at and them turning out to be pretty damn good.
If you ride flat pedals and want some extra science behind you on the climbs then this is well worth it. Again, they don’t feel to offer any extra benefit on the downhills but they do feel very nice on the climbs. I would not say this pedal is aimed at any level of rider in particular but would say they suit a seasoned rider more. I’d actually suggest people with more miles on the speedo look into these too, I’m on the heavy end of my thirties and these feel like a real treat on my joints.
All in all, I think the catalyst pedal very much has a place in the flat pedal world and deserves a spot on your shortlist next time you’re assessing what sweet flat pedals to ride.
Fancy trying these pedals for a review of your own? Like Heavy Metal Mountain Biking and tag a few pals in the review to get a chance to have them sent to you for your own review.
Item: Pedaling Innovations Catalyst flat pedals
Purchased From: Mountain Bikes Direct (Click here for the product page)
Purchase Price (approx): $174.95
When something new and different appears in the mountain bike world, many of us tend to overreact and condemn whatever this new standard is. Think along the lines of the introduction of 29 inch wheels, Boost spacing, dropper posts, carbon frames etc etc, the list goes on. Some things stick around and become the norm while other things are quickly forgotten because they’re either a failed idea or are just too bloody expensive. The first impression of the Pedaling Innovations Catalyst flat pedal is “holy shit, thats a big flat pedal!” and for the two months I’ve been running them people have asked three things:
-What is the point of them being so big?
-Are you getting heaps of pedal strikes?
-Why don’t you just use traditional flat pedals?
All of those questions can be answered as soon as you bolt them on and ride them, its almost an instant result. First thing you need to know for the full benefit of this pedal is to have your foot in the right spot; the exact middle of your foot. Think of the arch in your foot and plant your shoe over the axle right in the middle, job done. Now, lets talk about why this pedal is bigger and why it can be a benefit to your riding.
The extra length compared to a normal flat pedal is obvious, they are 128mm long and aim to support the front ball area of your foot and your heel. This is almost the opposite effect of riding in clips as they only engage the area around the ball of your foot and just behind and in my experience that isn’t the ideal placement for a clip as it has always felt too far forward for me. Your foot is firmly planted and feels much more attached to your bike, even more than you’d expect but geez you get used to it very quickly! Initially and instantly pedalling up a climb I had to adjust my foot to make sure I was over the center of the axle and once you’re grinding away and in the right spot, you’ll be impressed. I found the effort to get up a hill was reduced by having a better spread of energy and able to use more of the bulk of my leg strength instead of just specific climbing muscles. Truly, I feel they make climbing easier and in the enduro world where you ride up at your pace to get to the downhills, these things are bloody spot on.
The Catalyst is a 6061 aluminium material jammed onto cromoly spindle with sealed bearings. You can use a 15mm pedal spanner or a 6mm allen key to bolt them on. Build quality is quite nice too with 14 screw in pins strategically placed for best results. You can put longer pins in too of course. Being a bigger pedal, they are obviously a bit heavier than other pedals weighing just over 500 grams for the pair.
The pedal isn’t any wider than a standard sized flat pedal. At 95mm wide, it sits under your shoe and feels the same when riding as any other flat pedal. This means the only difference in size you’ll get is the extra length under your foot front and rear of the pedal compared to other flat pedals. To answer the question of how many pedal strikes I’m getting when riding these big flats? No more than I ever have on a standard pedal, there’s no difference to it.
So the obvious question to answer is why not just use a normal flat pedal that is so readily available? There’s nothing a flat pedal does that makes you want to avoid it and but a bigger flat pedal like this Pedaling Innovations pedal but you now have an option. In using the Catalyst I’ve found the strain on my knee joints is far less, the climbing is a little more relaxed with the right position of my foot and surprisingly, they feel no different to any other flat pedal when descending and jumping or skipping across rough rocks or roots. You can shift your foot around just as easily yet still feel really engaged to the pedal when you need it. I noticed some extra wear on my shoes in the spots that the pedal sits that other flat pedal pins don’t but thats a given and once you’ve got a sweet spot, it just sits on the right spot of the pins.
Some questions I hoped to answer in my review were what type of riding are these best suited to and what long term effect would I notice. I ride downhill, enduro and XC loops and switch between flats and clips just cause I can. I’ve found these pedals work best for enduro stuff as I noticed the benefit of the pedals mostly on the climbs and barely noticed any difference on the downs. With that in mind, riding them for downhill is seems almost irrelevant except for perhaps the long term benefit that a bigger pedal may have on your joints offering that extra bit of support. They rock solid on rough stuff and jumping? Same story as all the other flat pedals in your library.
From my testing on the Catalyst pedal, I think they most certainly achieve what they claim; you get more power by being able to drive a bit more from your leg strength, they feel more efficient because you are using more of your muscles and less of just one set of muscles and they are stable under your foot. All of those things make this a pretty appealing purchase with the only potential thing on your mind is the obvious fact of them looking bigger than other pedals. Now think back to my original paragraph about new things being scoffed at and them turning out to be pretty damn good.
If you ride flat pedals and want some extra science behind you on the climbs then this is well worth it. Again, they don’t feel to offer any extra benefit on the downhills but they do feel very nice on the climbs. I would not say this pedal is aimed at any level of rider in particular but would say they suit a seasoned rider more. I’d actually suggest people with more miles on the speedo look into these too, I’m on the heavy end of my thirties and these feel like a real treat on my joints.
All in all, I think the catalyst pedal very much has a place in the flat pedal world and deserves a spot on your shortlist next time you’re assessing what sweet flat pedals to ride.
Fancy trying these pedals for a review of your own? Like Heavy Metal Mountain Biking and tag a few pals in the review to get a chance to have them sent to you for your own review.
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