Pretty boring looking pedals, huh? Well, that's because you don't know the secret of the Chameleons. When the sun hits them, they turn bright yellow:
When I first was looking at the bike shop for a pair of PC pedals, my biggest concern was grip. I have ridden plastic flats before and previous versions of these sorts of pedals were super-slippery, so I was concerned about changing over from convention metal petals with bolt-in pins. Of course my shins have certainly developed a distaste for the metal pins of my old pedals, which like to draw blood. Given that the PC pedals are relatively inexpensive and much lighter, I figured I would take the plunge.
The kid at the shop told me that the Odyssey Twisted had the best grip of those found in his cabinet of pedals, and that was my initial draw. He was all excited about them changing color and at first I balked at the extra $5 pricetag for such a goofy feature. But these were the best-gripping pedals in the shop, so I went with the color-changing feature.
The most important finding on my first few rides is that the grip on these pedals is probably better than those on my aging Eastern metal pedals. That might be because the old pedals are missing a few pins, but I think it actually has more to do with the difference in materials. Whereas the medal pedals are slippery everywhere except for where the pins dig into my shoes, the plastic pedals are more grippy overall, with the abundant plastic "pins" providing the extra holding power. We will see how this grip is maintained as the pedals wear, but so far so good.
And I have come to really love the "yellow in the sun" feature of these pedals. They sort of remind me to get out there when the weather is good and ride. And with the sky-blue paint on my bike the pedals evoke the sunny clear skies that should always beckon me to ride.
