I am often accused of being stuck in my ways, which is clearly illustrated by the fact I am still running flat pedals on my race bike exclusively, nearly a decade and a half after they started to become widely used by BMX racers. For me, enjoying BMX is more important than doing what everyone else is doing. I enjoy riding with flat pedals, so it only makes sense that I would enjoy my racing more on platform pedals too. For the longest time I had stuck with the old school Shimano DX style platforms. I had Sun Ringle Zu Zu Pedals and then the Sun Ringle Mag pedals, both were great pedals then I tried the Funn Soljam pedals because they were bigger and had more pins for grip, I thought I'd found perfection in a platform pedal. After a couple of seasons my Funn pedals were starting to get to the end of their life span and I found it very difficult to find some replacements.
I had started to talk to the guys at Speedline about their platforms. I told them how I'd heard good things, but at the time I was still dead set on getting another set of Funn pedals. Some time had passed and I was still struggling to find replacements, so the guys at Speedline insisted I tried their Speedline Platform pedals. They had been around for about a year and had already gone through some design improvements, and with all the positive comments I'd heard they had to be worth a shot, it's not like I had anything to lose.
They are quite a bit different to the Soljams and other pedals that I'd used in the past. The platform is larger but has a much lower profile. It also has fewer and shorter pins, which was one of my initial concerns. The Speedline platforms are marginally lighter and are available in a wider range of colours. Most importantly they are much easier to get your hands on since Speedline have an Australian distributor where Funn don't.
I grabbed some blue pedals to match the other blue parts on my bike, the colour is amazing, so vibrant. They looked far better than plain old black and that wasn't just my opinion, all of a sudden people started to notice the pedals and asked about them.
I spent two months using these pedals before writing the review. When it came to riding with them, they felt a lot more natural than the Soljam's. I have a size 13 foot so the larger platform was perfect, and despite the Speedline pedal having less pins it, surprisingly, they provided every bit as much grip as the Funn pedals. The shorter pins were a blessing, because not only would my shoes last a little longer my foot would sit flatter on the pedal.
Features:
Available in the following colours:
Quite clearly I have a new favourite pedal. They look awesome, feel great and function perfectly, they even went through some high tech quality assurance tests...ok so I crashed on them a couple of times. They still spin perfectly, are still in one piece, and only have a couple of scratches. While I have Funn pedals on nearly all of my bikes it might take me a while to roll out the Speedline pedals as they are a little on the expensive side but that's the only downside to these sweet platform pedals.
Rating 20/20:
| Value for money: | 5/5 |
| Weight: | 5/5 |
| Functionality: | 5/5 |
| Looks/Finish: | 5/5 |
Comments:
Australia specific information
Speedline Parts are distributed in Australia by www.bmxcompound.com.au
Reviewed by Shane Jenkins/bmxultra.com January 24, 2013