Generation 5 Bike Pedal Development and Testing
We are back in this update with more bicycle pedal development and testing!
To catch you up, we've made design refinements to the generation 4 pedal that we tested here which we detailed in our generation 5 bike pedal development post.
Here are ALL the previous bike pedal development and testing posts for your reading pleasure:
- Part-1 - Generation 4 Bike Pedal Development
- Part-2 - Generation 4 Bike Pedal Testing
- Part-3 - Generation 5 Bike Pedal Development
In this Part-4 post, we test those gen 5 design improvements and get the pedal ready for commercial sale!
Pedals Fitted to Bike
Here below are several pictures of the gen 5 bike pedals fitted to my e-bike. They fit and installed great! I really enjoy the large size and the ability to adjust my foot around while pedaling back and forth to work (about 12 miles each way).
I'm also working on a YouTube video which will show our Gen 5 pedal in action - stay tuned for that!
Miles Tested
Testing of these pedals consisted of 1,000+ miles of road commuting back and forth in the sun and rain. Some rain conditions were absolute downpour!
Over these amounts of miles and conditions, I experienced absolutely zero issues with these bike pedals. As mentioned, the extra large size of these is a real godsend for me because I like to adjust my foot placement from time to time while riding to help with comfort.
The longest single ride I had these on was ~32 miles during one weekend.
Unfortunate Accident
For the pics below - blood warning!
In mid-September I took a nasty spill on my e-bike while going ~25 mph around a turn at the bottom of a hill. I think my front tire got a flat during my ride to work, pavement was wet, and the tire rolled on me and threw me to the side.
A kind stranger helped me out and got me to the nearby ER. 4 hours, 5 staples, and $3K in bills later, and I am OK. Pics below - blood warning!
Why am I telling you this info? Because the gen 5 pedals came out nearly unscathed after this accident and I have continued to ride with them over the past 3.5 months without any issue! See below for some pics of the extent of the impact to the pedals.
Bike Pedal Naming
Our team has been hard at work designing three other completely different types of pedal designs. More info on that to come in the following weeks. But, we kept finding ourselves referring to these pedals as "Sasquatch" style because they are so large.
Over the past couple of weeks, the name sort of stuck, and it has kind of grown on me. One fun fact I discovered when researching the name Sasquatch is that it actually means "wild men" in Salish. The pedal name feels fitting of "wild men" and has an Oregonian feeling to it. Sasquatches are said to come from the PNW, namely Washington and Oregon state, so there you go!
Therefore, from hence forth these generation 5 bicycle pedals will be known as " Sasquatch XL " pedals!
Final Thoughts
With the 1,000+ miles of testing, hardiness of surviving a pretty intense accident, and making it through several downpours, we are now happy with this bike pedal design. No further changes are planned for this design.
The team is now working on getting this design fully launched. By the time you are reading this article, the bike pedals will be available for sale!
Here below is a quick picture of the team creating the custom carboard box to house the Sasquatch XL pedals while ensuring minimum waste and maximum recyclability!
Did I mention that the final design came out to only weigh 176 grams per pedal?!? Pretty nice!
The team is also fast at work taking this design and modifying it to come up with a smaller version with similar geometry. More to come on that soon!
Get Yours Now!
What are you waiting for? Jump over to the Sasquatch XL product page and order your own set now!
