You can never play down the importance of installing good pedals on your commuting bike. It helps you ride better, bring a lot of comfortability, and efficiency to your bike riding. But you will need a SHIMANO SPD Clipless Pedals to enjoy a smooth ride. It tops our list of the best bike pedals for commuting due to its enhanced features that help to reduce the loss of pedaling power and makes shifting easy.
Nonetheless, getting the best pedals for commuting may seem to be a problem after you’ve got the best bike. But you won’t want anything to compromise your efficacy and riding experience. Hence, you should look for excellent road bike pedals for your commuting needs.
Luckily, you won’t have to look far, as we have taken the time to test and select best bike pedals for commuting.
Top 5 Best Bike Pedals for Commuting
1. SHIMANO SPD Pedal Clipless Pedals
Get yourself a SHIMANO SPD Clipless Pedals and enjoy the best of your work trips. It features the amazing Shimano pedaling dynamics SPD that increases efficiency in riding. It is compatible with many shoe types making the perfect pedal for your commuter.
It comes with a design that eliminates toe clips and integrates the outsole into a unified power transfer system. This feature helps to increase and maintain your pedaling power. You can also practice stunts with safety assured as the SPD enhances the rider’s control.
Moreover, the efficiency you get from the pedal aids your absolute comfort and stability. It provides a rhythmic control to the front and rear to enable speed maintenance.
The Shimano pedals also help in better acceleration. Besides, the SPD cleats give you a stable footing when riding a road or mountain bike.
The rigid structure provides you with effortless shifting operation. This means that with little strength, you can move the front and rear of the commuter even when its suspensions aren’t aligned. You also enjoy chain retention of drivetrain even in the roughest conditions.
It also features a layout that enables mud and dirt to shed from the bike when you mount your bike. It’s easy to install with a one-touch procedure.
Drawbacks
One major letdown of this bike pedal is that it starts to click after using it for a while. Also, the grease on it begins to leak out as well. For a top-ranking bike pedal, the seal on it should be longer, but that’s not the case as it wears out almost immediately with use.
2. Imrider Lightweight Polyamide Bike Pedals
The nylon composite pedals are best for the fall season. Imrider Lightweight Polyamide Bike Pedals would last for a long time on any bike because they come with a rugged fiber surface finish. This layout helps to ensure better shock absorption as well as abrasion resistance.
You need not worry about the climate disturbance on the bearings as they come with a seal that helps prevent damages. The threaded traction pins provide adequate control and grip. Also, if the threaded pins wear out, you can replace them easily with a new one.
The washers on the pedals are made with DU material, which helps prevent wear and tear. Besides, then you need not worry about corrosion or element attack as the spindles are resistant. The glass fiber body ensures you have a solid and reliable bike pedal.
The market contains several types of bike pedals, but many can’t reduce foot skidding the way Imrider does. You commuting just got more efficient with this comfortable road bike pedal.
Drawbacks
These pedals don’t even shed any debris on the way. Most pedals have the mud-shedding ability that helps to keep them clean but this model does not have this feature.
The bearings on the pedals are also loose and need further tightening before use. Amazing pedals but would succumb to rust in a short time.
3. Venzo Bike Bicycle Clipless Pedals
Looking for the best pedals for road bikes? Consider the Venzo Bike Bicycle Clipless Pedals. It provides you with a safe means of commuting with its adjustable cleat tension and perfect clip-in feeling. The pedals are sturdy and durable, made with a fiberglass body, and finished with a reinforced thermoplastic.
The expertise used in the spindles assembling ensures a stable pedal system. Moreover, the cartridge bearings are smooth and sealed to avoid constant loosening.
The cleats are top-notch quality and are compatible with each other. Hence, they sit tight in the pedal cage during and after riding.
But you can release them easily from the cage if you want. It also offers you much better and high-speed performance than ball bearing pedals.
Overall, you don’t need much maintenance when using these pedals, and they offer low friction footing.
Drawbacks
The biggest downside of this commuter bike pedal is the bearings. The seal on the cartridge bearings may not allow full spin on them making rotation a bit difficult. Also, some parts of the product may be carcinogenic if exposed to human skin.
4. Crankbrothers Doubleshot Hybrid Bike Pedal
If you’re looking for the most diverse pedal for your road or mountain bike, then, here you go. Crankbrothers Doubleshot Hybrid Bike Pedal goes with your commuter and cycling bikes.
It’s easily one of the best clip pedals for mountain bikes because you get to enjoy excellent endurance on racing tracks due to longer spindles.
One interesting fact about Crankbrothers pedals is that it has an integration traction pad technology. This design enables a better power transfer to the wheels. Therefore, if you intend on outrunning your mates on a bike race, you should go for these pedals.
Besides, it doesn’t have the regular Crankbrothers 4-way engagement. Instead, it features a dual-side engagement which aids in clipped riding on cycling shoes. You can also use street shoes without the disturbance of the pedal cage under your foot.
You also enjoy excellent traction thanks to the diamond plate pads. It also features a mud-shedding bearing. Whether you are looking for the best flat mountain bike pedals under 50 or clipless models for your road bike, this is the best option for you.
Drawbacks
These hybrid bike pedals have one notable downside, and that is having a narrow plate. The diamond plates are flat but don’t provide adequate grip for you. The tight screws do these flat road bike pedals a great disservice.
5. OneUp Components Aluminum Pedal
The OneUp Components Aluminum Pedal comes with an ultra-grip mechanism of 10-set pins. This setting helps to keep your feet planted firmly even when you’re riding on the roughest terrains.
The aluminum material helps to keep its weight to a minimum and doesn’t slow you down on the climbs. You don’t have to worry much when it’s time to grease your bearings as the design makes it easier. It comes with a unique cassette tool ring lock which you can easily pull to disassemble.
It provides ultimate stability with its exceptional wide platform design. Also, you get to enjoy a smoother feeling with the contoured shape.
Drawbacks
These aluminum pedals are a bit heavy and not all good if you will be commuting through hilly terrain. They are supposed to be light, but they tend to weigh more than normal due to the sealed cartridge bearing. Hence, you’d be better off with a mountain bike flat pedal under 50.
A Guide to Purchasing the Best Bike Pedals for Commuting
Aside from best bike pedals review provided above, there are important things that you must consider before buying one. Here, we’ll explain these factors for you, so you can make the right choice.
Clipless or Platform Pedals
The most important factor to consider before buying the best bike pedals for commuting is clipless pedals and platform pedals.
Platform pedals are the most common types of bike pedals. These pedals have a grippy surface for holding the feet on the pedal. But your foot doesn’t stay secured to the pedals.
On the other hand, clipless pedals are the common types used by experienced or professional mountain and road bike owners. They require special shoes that attach the foot to the pedal.
Cycling Efficiency
Cycling efficiency refers to how good a bike pedal is transforming power from a cyclist’s legs into the forward motion of the bike.
Clipless pedal bikes are more efficient than platform pedal bikes. Since the pedals attach the feet to the bike, you can put more power into each bike pedal stroke as you lift one leg and push down the other leg.
Paddling with the best clipless pedals generates additional power that can help you pedal faster without straining your quads or knees.
But some platform pedals have toe clips or webbing that covers the toes. You can cinch down toe clips over the shoes to add power to each upward pedal stroke.
The disadvantage of the platform pedal toe clips is that they can get too tight and uncomfortable for your feet. They still aren’t as powerful as the clipless pedals.
Shoe Choice
Clipless pedals require special cycling shoes with a designated bracket at the bottom that has a clip. This feature can be a disadvantage as clipless pedals from various manufacturers have their variant of cycling shoes. So, it could be inconvenient when changing pedals and shoes.
The bottom bracket of clip pedals for mountain bikes and other models are also difficult to walk in. So, if you are going to work or any other place, you might need to change shoes after cycling.
With that said, you need to carry an extra pair of shoes with you, or you leave your shoes behind.
However, some of the best bike pedals for commuting solved this problem by having the shoe soles’ bracket instead.
Another disadvantage of clipless pedals is that cycling shoes can get hot and stuffy than the regular comfortable shoes during the hot summer days.
During the winter season, you might need to wear shoes to keep your feet warm. But not all winter footwears are compatible with clipless pedals.
Convenience Vs. Safety
Platform pedals are more convenient than clipless pedals because you can climb on the bike, and start pedaling away without clipping in your shoes or changing shoes.
But you must understand that clipping your shoe in will reduce the way that your feet slip back and forth when pedaling. Most importantly, clipping your shoe in will prevent your feet from slipping off as you ride.
When your feet slip off, this affects your control, and you won’t maneuver well as you should.
But platform pedals, in this case, are often safer to prevent accidents. You might need to quickly put your feet down to prevent a bike crash or accident. But it becomes difficult with the clipless bike if you aren’t an experienced user.
In other words, clipless pedals release with a sort of quick twist that takes time to master. Hence, using this type of power can be more dangerous than you think when you need to stop the bike.
Cost
Clipless bike pedals are more expensive than platform or flat road bike pedals because they require you to purchase additional cycling shoes and weather-specific accessories. Accessories include overshoes for protection during cold weather and more.
Material Used to Make the Pedal
The material used to make a bike pedal varies. Plastic composite pedals are lighter and less expensive. But they have the disadvantage of quickly wearing out and not looking as nice as metal pedals.
So, consider the material choice before purchasing pedals for commuter bikes.
Hybrid Pedals
Hybrid bike pedals combine platform pedals and clipless pedals. It has a flat pedal on one side and a clipless pedal system on the other side. You can purchase a hybrid pedal if you want the best of both worlds.
Final Word
Commuters with a bike need top-notch pedals to ensure a smoother ride. Getting good bikes aren’t enough, pick out any of the best bike pedals for commuting to improve your riding efficiency. This review brings you the top picks on a plate, and we hope you make the right choice.
