Thanks for tuning in this is The Sweet
Cyclists, today we're going to be
reviewing the Bontrager Commuter bike
pedals. Here we have Bontrager's
Commuter pedal. What's really cool
about these is that they are dual sided pedals,
they combine SPD on one side and
platform on the other which means
you can wear your normal shoes on one day and
then you can flip the pedal and use your
SPD cleats so the other. With this is you
have dual functionality.
SPD pedals are really something that is
more common in mountain biking but you
see them in spin classes and both
commuting because they provide a really
cool recessed cleat design that means
you can actually walk around and
you're not going to sound like you're in
high heels as you would with the SPD SL
pedals or other three bolt style which
have a cleat that actually sticks out.
With the Commuter pedal they are actually
affordable an pedal that combines a lot
of the nice features of both clipless
and platform pedals. Now we'll go ahead and take
this out of the box. The retail price on this
is $70 so fairly expensive but
compared to other pedals on the market
it's actually quite well priced. These
are an aluminum constructed pedals and as
I mentioned they're SPD and platform so
dual sided with the sealed cartridge.
For maintenance you have to pull this
out and just grease it every once.
It has a nice big platform on one
side and then SPD on the other and with
this you actually get the cleats. what's
interesting is that this comes with the
Commuter pedals and the SPD style cleat
since it's not a Shimano product. They're
only available in black, that's one
downside a lot of other pedal companies
and mountain biking pedals come in
really cool colors that let you color
coordinator with your bike and even oil
slick to really make it pop. At 70
dollars I think this is still a really
good price, these pedals are typically
quite expensive. So you see here we get
all the mounting hardware and actual
cleat that attaches to the shoe. These
are adjustable tension as well so you
can really dial in the release tension
that lets you, especially if you're new
to clipless and let you really loosen it
up when you're first learning or make it
really tight once you're really
comfortable for that nice firm fit. You
get the instruction manual, you get the
hardware cleats and then the two pedals.
Now let's take a look at the weight
of the Bontrager pedals, if we put the right
side pedal that comes in at 152 grams
while the other one should come in about
the same 154, so slight difference. As
I mentioned aluminum construction so
still fairly light for what they are. Now
let's take a look at the fit and finish
of the Bontrager Commuter pedals.
What's really cool about these dual
functionality pedals is how you get the
platform on one side and SPD on the other.
You can get dual sided SPD pedals and you
get dual sided platform pedals but with
this it's the best of both worlds.
When you're looking at pedals
there's a couple things you want to look
for, you want to look for the material.
What it's made is important because that can really
dictate the weight pedals. They come in from
everything from composite, titanium to
aluminum. This one's an aluminum so
really robust and well designed and
still pretty light. The next thing
you want to look for is the axle design.
With really cheap ones you get nylon
bushings or even cheaper designs that
make the rotation really stiff and can
be difficult to ride with. With these you
get a Chromoly design with a sealed
cartridge so it is serviceable. You can
remove the bolt here and pull this out and
regrease it as necessary once this
becomes less smooth to rotate. The
other thing is the design. If we take
our closer look at the platform side you
can see there's protrusion here's for
grip. With our higher-end
mountain-biking pedals they have
removable pins that protrude out and
provide a lot of grip especially when
you're off-roading. For commuting these
protrusions should be more than enough.
Also the height factor
on here is fairly thin, you can see it's
really dictated by the axle and the
extra distance for the SPD engagement
points. On the SPD side it is really simple,
you have a spring on one side and
the cleat would fall into place here.
Overall it is a really nice design. The
finish on this is not bad either,
it's not quite a matte I would say semi-gloss
finish. Unfortunately they don't offer a
bunch of color options as you would
get with higher end pedals but at 70
dollars it is actually a pretty good deal.
Pedals can go up in price pretty
significantly. What's cool about this it
also has the adjustable tension so you
can see with the SPD pedals there's a
spring here and you can adjust a preload
on here and that will dictate how easy
it is to release. Right now it's on the loosest
setting so it has indicators here, I
don't know if they show up, but the L is
here for low and as you go clockwise you
can make the tension higher so higher
force required for removal. That means
you have a firmer connection between the
pedal and you but harder to disengage so
that's something you can really tune as
you ride. They come in the full loose
setting right now and as someone new to
SPD pedals myself I'm gonna keep it
there and then as I ride with it. I'll
come and adjust it, you need a three
millimeter adjustment and you can see it
has a little cut out here so you simply
place it in here and go clockwise to
tighten it. You can see with a little use,
the paint will start chipping off
here so that's one downside. An anodized
kind of finish or composite would hold
its color a little bit better. Cleat wise
these are pretty nice, I'm more used to
the Look Keo pedals which are plastic.
These are all metal so they look like
they'll definitely last a long time.
You can see I have these little grooves
or indentations here for extra grip when
you're attached, pretty decent hardware
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Now let's set up my commuter shoes
with these Commuter pedals. Now what's
really cool about SPD pedals is not only
are they great for mountain biking but you
can get commuter style shoes like this
DZR S24Os. What's really cool about this is
the recessed design means you can
continue to walk even with the cleats
attached
unlike other pedals. First up with the
DZR is we have to remove the little
cover on here. So get a little allen key
pop this off and that will expose the
mounting surface.
With that off this is what you would
typically see you see a two bolt design.
It has some adjustability here as far
as placement so you can move this back
and forth. The actual cleats come with
the Bontrager pedals or SPD compatible
but pretty similar to SPD. You can see
they're not left or right specific so
the idea here is we simply place the
little indentation forward with the
arrow pointing forward and position it
however you want. You want
to really get this about mid foot for
optimal power transfer. We'll take our
shoe, make sure it's still pointing
forward line up the bolts. You don't
want to over tighten these beyond the
torque limit but what you can see
even with them installed it actually
sits flush. You can still walk which
is a really cool feature. Now lets take a look
at the installation of the pedals, this
is a pretty standard install. You have to
remove your old pedals and remember that
they are reverse threaded on the
non-drive side so righty tighty here but
righty loosey on the other side so
something to remember. To put them on you
simply align them, make sure you clean
the threads and then apply a little
grease on here just to avoid any
creaking. Hand tighten them initially
and avoid a wrench. Then simply hand
tighten a little bit before you take an
allen key and then go right clockwise to
tighten.
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Now let's take a look at the pedals on
the road, one of the big advantages of
the SPD compatibility is that you can
have commuter shoes like the DZR shoes
that are shown here. These have a
recessed SPD cleat design, they'll let
you use them as either platform shoes to
walk around with or as clipless. I highly
recommend going clipless as you have a
lot better power transfer. My only
complaint here is with the SPD's it's a
little difficult to unclip as they
get caught on the sole of the shoes
due to the recessed design. We are not sure
if other shoes are maybe a little bit
easier to on the clip if they have a
larger recess. Now let's go over the pros
and cons for the Bontrager Commuter
pedals, I think they're really well
priced at $70. They're not the cheapest
pedal on the market but they're far from
the most expensive. They provide a lot of
value for what they are, also Bontrager
includes the cleats and hardware inside
the box so you don't need to purchase
any additional parts to put this on your
bike. Finally the aluminum
construction gives it really a lightweight
and robust design. Some of the cons for
the pedals is the fact that they're only
available in black, other manufacturers
provide a lot of cool color schemes
including oil slick that really give you
a personalized touch with the pedals.
Also we noticed there's a lot of visible
wear at the contact point especially
where the cleats attach or any tools
might touch the pedal so some of the
black paint actually starts to wear off.
Finally the SPD cleats themselves
are really not that suited for longer
road cycling. We found that the three
bolt Look Keo or SPD-SL provide a
lot better fit for road cycling but
obviously the recessed design of SPD is
really a great option for commuting.
Taking everything into account I would
give the pedals a 9 out of 10, I think
they're really well designed
commuter pedals. With the dual
functionality you can wear your SPD
cleats or just normal shoes to go around
town. Thanks for watching the review
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reminding you to enjoy the ride!
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