What is it: Dartmoor's Fever platform pedals use a minimalist open body design that keeps the weight down to 375 grams without resorting to a titanium axle, along with a dual concave shape and sixteen pins per pedal to keep your feet in place. Their 16mm body height may not be the thinnest available, but the Fever's 90 x 100mm platform sits in closer to the crank arm than any other platform we've tested, improving clearance and lowering their Q factor (
the width between each pedal measured parallel to the bottom bracket axle) . They are available in green, blue, red, black, graphite, white, gold and violet, and sell for $95 USD.
Dartmoor's Fever pedals are about as minimal as a platform pedal can get.
Dartmoor Fever pedal details:
- CNC'd aluminum body
- 90 x 100mm platform size
- 16mm body height
- Dual concave body
- Cr-mo steel axle
- Twin sealed bearings, single DU bushing per pedal
- Eight replaceable pins per side
- Spare parts available (pins, bearings, axle)
- Available in green, blue, red, black, graphite, white, gold and violet
- MSRP $95 USD
The details: The Fever pedals may look like a standard platform pedal from afar, but a closer look reveals that they are actually quite different from the run of the mill catalog platforms out there. Instead of making use of a flat pedal body, or even a concave shape that has been proven to help hold your foot in place, the Fever's body features a pronounced double concave to each side, both forward and aft of the pedal axle. Further helping to hold your feet in place are eight hex head traction pins per side, with the leading and trailing three being threaded in from the opposing face.
If you were to take the Fevers apart you'll find a tapered steel axle (
there is no titanium option) and a combination of two sealed bearings at the outer end, along with an inboard DU bushing. Dartmoor offers rebuild kits, something that we'd like to see from more companies, and performing maintenance is about as easy as you could hope for.
One of the Fever's most obvious features, or lack thereof, is the absence of wrench flats on the pedal axle. Dartmoor designed the pedals to use an 8mm hex wrench at the inner end of the axle for installation and removal, but unlike a lof of pedals that employ a large inboard sealed bearing in place of the wrench flats, the Fever pedal bodies have been shifted in slightly to take up that space. At 90 x 100mm, the size of the pedal body is similar to other options out there, but they certainly do sit in tighter to the bike, lowering their Q factor by roughly 10mm per side. Is this a good thing? It really does depend on the rider, but it will improve pedal clearance no matter who you are.
Sturdy hex head pins (left) thread in from the opposite side. Dartmoor uses a sturdy steel axle inside the Fever pedals (right).
Performance: Traction is the name of the game when talking about platform pedals. A properly designed set of platforms will not only never have you wishing for more grip, but also allow you to reposition your feet without feeling as if you need to lift them completely off of the pedal body. The Fever pedals perform well in this regard, striking a good balance between the two, even though the traction provided by the pins and body shape may not rival that of some other designs. The open body shape allowed mud and debris to clear quite well, although we haven't really had this be a problem on any other pedals either, but we did find ourselves wishing for a wider body than the 90mm wide platform - it was easy to position your feet so that the outer edge of the shoes overhung the pedal by too much for our liking. We can't say that we suffered from less pedal strikes thanks to the lowered Q factor of the Fever pedals, but the bodies have held up well despite the few that we have had.
Where the Fever pedals may be ideal is on an all-mountain bike. How so? At 375 grams, despite not using a titanium axle or magnesium body trickery, they are light enough to keep the gram counters happy. But even more important than that is how easy they spin - much smoother and easier than the majority of other pedals out there. Just one flick with your finger will have them turn a number of times, and there feels to be next to no seal drag in the design. We may love the lack of resistance, but our Fevers do have a slight bit of play in them already, possibly down to the same reason. While some riders prefer pedals with a bit of resistance for dirt jumping or on their downhill rig, we'll choose a set that turn free of resistance any day.
The dual concave body may look novel, but it didn't seem to improve the pedal's traction.
We do take one major issue with the Fever pedals that we couldn't get seem to get past. Their low Q factor is nice, possibly helping to lessen the amount of pedal strikes, but that same tight Q factor had us hitting the heels of our shoes on both the crank arms and the chainstays of any bike that we tried them on. It would happen while climbing, descending and while just spinning on flat ground unless we made a conscious effort to move our feet out slightly from where they seemed to want to come to rest naturally on the Fever pedals. This ended up bothering us enough in the long run that we ended up removing them from the bike, a shame considering their relatively light weight, how easy they spin and the reasonable amount of grip that they provide.
Pinkbike's take: | Dartmoor's Fever pedals are so very close to being at the top of our list of favorite platform pedals, but get taken out of the running by their low Q factor that had us catching our heels while pedalling. While this may not be the case for every bike and rider (we tried our Fever pedals on multiple bikes and under different riders with the same results), be sure to give them a try before putting down the cash. These are a great option if you don't have the same issue that we suffered from. - Mike levy |
www.dartmoor-bikes.com
The double concave design on the other hand I think is an awful idea. The axle is where the optimum position of a person’s foot sits on the pedal and where most grip is required, thus meaning that the concave area should be positioned here as per 90% of designs today. Add to the fact that they are wider than most pedals now out means that the edge of the pedal is more likely to clip rocks/roots on runs is not good. The end of the pedal should be kept as narrow as possible. The play in the pedals would bug me loads. As soon as I get any play in my pedals I have to strip them and rebuild them to stop the play.
As the article states they don't mind the play for free spin but I don't think this is optimum either. A slow and smooth control of spin is what is required for pedals. As long as friction is reduced to a minimum and you can turn the pedals smoothly as you crank then it should not have to rotate any faster. Easiest way to do this is to heavily pack your pedals with high viscosity grease. Although this is creating a greater friction it is ‘internal friction’ which means the energy you use to turn the pedals is only slightly greater and for this application would not be noticeable.
Dartmoor frames I really like the design of but I feel that these pedals let the company down. They retail at £69 and within this price range there are a few other designs that offer the same weight with better benefits and designs.
What are you gonna do now, diss on my free "socialist" healthcare?
More like ProTool. Did you at least pick up on that joke?
AustenB23 I don't mind if it was a joke or you was being serious. I am sure loads of people will ignore it for rambling. I was just providing some personal experience along with engineering thought. In regards to riding, I am sure allot of us have the time to ride and read. If you read the article which is a great deal longer than my comments you can't state that we as ‘Americans’ would rather ride. You clearly read through all the posts to respond.
Personally I can ride my bike all day every day if I so wish. Spending five minutes reading through something that is more than 3 sentences long (maybe it takes you longer as you’re a slow reader) to educate yourself is time well spent. You enjoy bikes. Most people enjoy the products too and how things work. It is the nature of this sport.
Anyways now I am just rambling. Glad some of the users found it informative anyways.
here is the definition of bigot incase you are struggling.
dictionary.reference.com/browse/bigot
So you know, there are a ton of Democrats that are Christians. You prove my point actually, instead of doing anything, point fingers instead. Draggon has got his head straight though!
Dualsuspensiondave, thanks and you are correct. When you live here and realize what's really going on it's a helpless feeling because of the power and monopoly that has been created by the handful that throws the the rest just enough scraps to divert the attention from what the other hand is doing. The inmates are running the asylum and they are the ones that need to be reigned back but when politicians are in their pockets, who's going to police the police.
Oh and for the rest of the PBers that didn't want or need to hear political talk, ummmm...........Fap, Braaaap and Konas suck.
"... improving clearance and lowering their Q factor (the width between each pedal measured parallel to the bottom bracket axle)"
Q factor wise: one of the lads here in Aus, put a deity Ti axle in, put them out another 10mm.
With regards to external bolt design, when a pin bends from impact the nature of the design means it is likely to strip the thread or snap the pin of where the stress riser is thus meaning you can take the pin out say 75% of the time the other 25% you may have to drill out the thread (when it snaps). With the other bolt design regardless you should not need to drill out any thread left in the pedal body.
The other advantage of having threads shown is greater grip due to the friction against shoe soles. This is the same for grub screws which is why most people end up replacing missing pins with them instead of a replacement pin kit (assuming they are flat/spike pins to start with).
We know many riders loving these pedals but certainly you can expect that we will make them even better for 2013 .