Squidworx Makes Debut with Modular Flat Pedal

 Decathlon would price them at 30€

 Forged components are better than machined one, but it need to be machined anyway for the bearing, and to me it is also sand blasted. But yes it's quite expensive, maybe due to the extra assembly steps and the stocks they need to keep for every color combinaison.

 Canadian Dollars, so 110 US. Still not cheap.

 @Ward24: My bad I did not visit their website and as it is not precised in the article, I took USD for granted

 Because Squidworks doesn't operate with VP or Wellgo volumes. If you start a small component company your stuff will be expensive. Look at Burgtec... there is nothing they do better than Hope or even Superstar.

 You also have to consider the 28 replaceable pins and inserts in the cost plus what looks like a durable axle assembly then consider the customization options they are giving you (this has a lot of value to some people) and once you factor in the potential longevity by giving the pedal a new look for $10 every so often you actually end up with reasonably value i think, i know most high end pedals last well but you usually replace them because they are so beat up before they actually break so replacing the beat up part is a great idea.

People seem to forget in our modern throw away culture that buying once and lasting is better value than a cheap initial cost that doesn't last.

 @Ward24: current exchange rate puts these at 120 USD.

 Did Crankbrothers used to have something similar?

 What's wrong with forged vs machined? For this particular shape a forging makes more sense in terms of manufacture-ability; machining would require multiple set ups. Forging does have a high initial tooling cost so part of that 160 is probably tooling amortization. Looks like the replaceable bodies are injection molded so that will have a somewhat high tooling cost as well. I think it actually shows this start up is really thinking ahead since they invested in forging tooling and didn't just machine everything. Kudos to Squidworx.

 Hi @Aksel31. There are 5 cages per set. 2 per pedal and 1 spare. The bodies are forged and then machine finished to make sure the fit between body and cage is tight. The pins are also custom made and you need the inserts too. We also hope to have these in local bike shops soon. So we have to allow for distributors and stores taking their margins. And being new and small we we dont get economies of scale when we manufacture them.

 The "higher" cost of these pedals comes down to 2 factors.

- Scale of economy. They are a small company so their pricing will always be a bit higher till their sales/manufacturing volume can justify lower pricing.

- Tooling. Forging dies and injection mold tooling are not cheap... especially if you work with quality vendors.

Also, I would take a forged pedal body over a fully machined one any day of the week. I have a feeling there is a lack of understanding about the differences between forging and casting going on here.

 @Aksel31: yes, sounds meaningless

Who cares if its machined and looks good, it's going to get hammered while riding. I'll take forging and a stronger pedal...

 @Aksel31: actually... those heavily machined pedals are usually made from extruded profiles, not forgings.

 @RadBartTaylor: Good for you, go buy your 110/120$ hybrid pedals if you want and consider it worth the price. I was just exposing a feeling that the industry always push the boundaries of how expensive a bike or a bike component can be without groundbreaking improvements, using the fact that we are all passionates that will not look after the prices for our beloved bikes.

 @immature: I salute your ingenuity and wish you luck on your business venture, if shipping to my side of the world wouldn’t put these out of reach, I would definitely support your initiative! And as you sell more of these hopefully you will be able to adjust the price down with economies of scale.

 It's almost like they have spent time and resources of multiple people to design, prototype, test every single part over no doubt many months. . . How dare they try to recoup some costs!

 @twodogsfighting: so they're clearly cast? Care to put some money on that? Maybe because it's bead blasted and then anodized that it's confusing you.

 @twodogsfighting: You clearly don't have a good understanding of manufacturing processes...

 @mrti: Except the Nukeproof Horizon pedals, those are forged then machined and can take a beating!

 You forgot heavy, as in 50% heavier than the same pedal in nylon.

So three times the price of RF pedals.

Nah, I'm good.

 @Aksel31: fair, I understand your point

 @immature: I am just curious, would making the center portion also out of nylon/composite be possible? But still be able to swap the ends out for colours? Or would a 3 piece composite pedal just not work? Wouldn't this cut costs down, be lighter, have the same functionality and ease of repair?

 @Ryan2949: I don't think that would work due to durability. If you want to be able to replace parts then the center section needs to be able to withstand many bearing installations/removals as well as damage that caused you to replace the end pieces. I think aluminum is definitely the correct material choice for that part of the pedal.

 chromagbikes.com/collections/pedals/products/pedals-dagga

 @endurocat: yes, the 5050x pedal.

 @twodogsfighting: I rather enjoyed his response... people on this website think they know way more about manufacturing than they actually do and, as far as I'm concerned, need to be put in their place. Good on you @squidworx!

 @twodogsfighting: Sorry if we offended you, we were simply trying to explain why your statement was incorrect. If you ever come to Whistler we would be more than happy to lend you a demo set. Then if you still think they're shit, at least it will be an informed opinion. But in the meantime never let a lack of knowledge of the facts stop you from having a strong opinion on the matter

 Net Forged AL is superior in strength to machined billet AL dumb Ass.

 Forged alu is stronger and generally better (see stems for instance), can be pressed hard at stress points etc.

 Next up, Sponchbob shock, Patchrick Star stem, Mr Krabz chamois cream, and Plankdon valve stems.

 @Duderz7: Krabz chamois cream? That would make for awkward trailside conversations of who's got what.

 Lol, I do love the name.

 I think you've misunderstood the problem, it's not about pins breaking or anything it's about damaging the threads in the pedal body, which I've done, many, many times, practically every pedal I've ever owned has had had knackered outside leading edge pin holes after a few months at best.

 @inked-up-metalhead: the plastic pedals I've had have all had no threads, typically they all have a nut and bolt style pin, hence no problem.

Theres a solid crew of about 30 riders in my area, nearly all on plastic pedals thanx to me raving about them, not a single broken pin among us, all nut and bolt style pins, plus the plastic seems to just flex and shrug off the hit rather than crumbling like alloy

 @ctd07: surely someone must have experienced hole deformation though, meaning loose pins. The hole the bolt/pin goes through. Set me straight.

 @BenPea: nope

 @ctd07: brand please

 @inked-up-metalhead: So tap them again. Metal is re-workable.

 @tempest3070: yeah, but once the hole is ovalised, to get a clean re drill and tap it's probably gonna be a m5 pin, which is rediculously big, and it's just weakening an already damaged area. I usually just put up with it until I replace the pedals, my last pair was missing them pins for about 4 years and never really noticed, but that's all besides the point that these with their sleeves are actually a really clever solution.

 @ctd07: yep. I run composite OneUp and can’t see myself going back to a heavier, more expensive metal pedal. Plus the grip on these is bonkers.

 I've run nylon pedals for years, and the only time I tore out a pedal was on a hardtail tandem; just once.

Aluminum pedals lose pins all the time, it's like a trademark or something

 @BenPea: i have the rockbros branded version of the one up nylon pedals, on ebay you can get them for $30aud, also some branded as 'scudgood' have good pin placement and a slightly smaller platform are really good

 @ctd07: cheers pal

 Better go pedal that idea somewhere else.

 @nyhc00: puns are running Flat today, hopefully someone can come and crank it up a bit.

 @aps62: this platform doesn’t grip the audience enough.

 @tmadison12: depends how you spin it.

 @rrolly: Not that many replies, better pin this comment up so people see it

 @konamann this is only our first cage, we will be expanding the range with convex and concave versions in different sizes.

 Surely you saw the part that said 'Currently, our Modular Pedal is launching with our medium-sized Base cage as standard. However, we plan to develop a range of different cages and attachments, so eventually, there will be no reason why you can't have your perfect set of pedals'?

 Yeah, but maybe now that more and more people have access to CAD software and 3D printing equipment for plastics they can actually use this as a foundation and then produce their own custom extensions. That would be interesting. Until this point making custom parts was typically limited to those who have access to a lathe or machining equipment. It seems nowadays you have more people who can make a CAM file for a 3D printer than you have people who can work a lathe or mill. As old as I am, I can operate a mill or lathe but I have no experience with 3D printing yet . I'm not sure how well it would keep up because I would personally make these pedals really long (I ride with Catalyst pedals and love them) which hugely increases the stress where it joins the aluminium backbone. And most plastic pedals I've seen are glass filled (short fiber) nylon. Nylon is really tough and the glass fibers limit crack growth, making it even tougher. I know there are filaments for 3D printing which also contain short fibers but it seems these are more to generate a certain feel. Like wood fibers.

Of course we're polluting loads when enjoying our hobby but with every bit we do we still need to make conscious decisions. Do we need to drive our cars to the trailhead? Well yeah for some that is the the only way, some may choose not to. Can we ride with tires that don't leave snippets in nature as they wear. Well, probably not at this stage. Can we ride with a chain lube that doesn't spill toxic PTFE (Teflon) in nature that never degrades? Well sure, there are options if you don't want that. Can we ride with pedals that don't add to the plastic soup as it loses chucks and snippets with every rock strike? Well yeah, that may be an interesting one. Aside from riding all steel or aluminium pedals of course, maybe with 3D printing you could use a type of plastic that may wear much quicker but at least is biodegradable. Or even print/make a mold instead and make a new pedal extensions, recycling the old worn down ones. And obviously when you're going to do that, you can always place metal or (long) fiber inserts in the mold as reinforcement. I get that completely filling a two-piece mold (so without voids) can be a challenge to do at home but either it takes a complete redesign to make a top and a lower half like Odyssey pedals (so you can work with an open mold but you need to be very accurate with how much goes in the mold and compensate for slink) or you use a two-piece mold and do rotational molding which would make for an apparently bulky looking pedal but it would actually be hollow and with most material where you need it most (near the edges). Downside of such a closed pedal of course would be that it doesn't clear mud all that well.

Alright, maybe my fantasies are going a bit wild now but yeah even though I may not necessarily buy these pedals as they are right now, they may actually open up some interesting options that go beyond what we've already seen on those old extruded three-piece Crankbrothers pedals.

 @vinay: chill dude

 @JimmyWeir: I can't upvote you enough.

 @vinay: Don't know who you are but you are obviously a smart guy as you've already homed in on 2 areas we are working on. First is the idea of people creating their own cages, with the advent of 3d printing taking off it opens up a whole new world of customization options. While we know not everyone has a 3d printer or the engineering knowledge to use it, some do. So we plan on making the cages open source, to allow people to create their own, based on our models. Imagine team riders getting custom cages that not only suite their riding style but even their shoe brand and shoe size.
The other point you mention is the plastic we use, and the damage it causes to the environment. With our design we hope people will no-longer have to throw a set away just because they damage one, and so reduce the amount of these pedals being thrown in the landfill. But also we want to develop a more environmentally friendly bioplastic. If anyone reading this is an expert in this area, get in touch.
And don't worry we will be steadily adding new cages, different shapes, profiles and sizes to the range,
as well as some really crazy ones we can't talk about yet.

 That's the plan, we just don't have the resources to launch with lots of options, but we will be expanding the range as soon as we can.

 @squidworx: Very cool. I'm an industrial designer at one of the major 3D printing companies. I wouldn't call myself an expert in bio-plastics but it's definitely an area I'm familiar with and interested in. I'd be happy to help if I can.

 I went through 3 crank Bros pedals in less than a year each due to spindle fails. I'd rather ride a brand that doesn't fail. Warranties don't help you get out of the woods when your pedal breaks. Not to mention it's downright dangerous.

 Hi @snl1200 A clipless attachment is in the pipeline. It will attach using the 4 inner pin holes. Don't expect to see this for a while though.

 @squidworx: Thanks! I'll keep an eye out for it in the future. I like the idea of it as I do vacillate between wanting a bigger platform in the wet or more challenging trails and wanting more clearance on typical rides. A modular solution would be cool to try for that!

 you missed the pins. it's 170 CAD if you buy all the separate pieces and you end up with 2 extra pins.

if you buy the complete set for 160, you get "1 spare cage (black), 4 spare pins, 2 spare inserts and the axle removal tool."


but still, a touch on the high side for an unproven product that's manufactured off-shore

 Yes but you can have up to 4 different cage colors per set if you really wanted. And we're only just getting started

 Bad maths... you can mix pins within pedals (say you do black inside silver outside and the opposite, plus two versions matched =4) that alone gets you one 1000 combinations. And different colours different sides, or other different pin patterns... several 1000s. Only bothering to respond because claim is accurate.

 Well youve got it now so there XD