I like my Pendulums, but don't love them. The real issue is that real time gets spent f**king with having my foot standing on the incorrect side of the pedal, when I critically need it to be on the correct side. I still think that the real future is a clipless Pendulum combined with around a 160-165mm crank for XC/ trail riding as my feet come out way less while doing this and the thickness and height of clipless pedals is a significant downside.
Where I'm at on my next bike (almost certainly a Crestline, with a somewhat poor dropper insertion length anyways) is that if I am stuck on a 180mm dropper on a normal pedal OR a pendulum, then I'll stick with the Pendulums. However, if a normal pedal will jump me up to a 200+ dropper whereas the Pendulum has me on a 180 dropper, I'll need to swap back to my normal pedals. Or God forbid that on the Pendulums I can't even manage the 180mm drop!
I get all of the arguments about center of gravity, etc. however I can't feel any of that, at all.
What I find with the Pendulums is:
Pros: Definitely foot holds better, like a LOT better. This is the pedal's superpower. Like it's phenomenal.
Cons: 1) You better buy some shorter cranks because the pedal strikes come often otherwise, but this is fixable with modern options and modern e-bikes are showing up with 155s and not super low BBs & 2) ending up on the wrong side of the pedal is a regular occurrence for me. Maybe my feet just come off too often?
It's not a pedal I'd choose for racing that's for certain, as I've had to stop and reset for entire jump sections and what not due to the foot being on the wrong side. I of course try to kick them around and sometimes I catch the grippy side, and sometimes I don't. Either way I have to verify that I'm on the correct side before going all out or something bad could happen. This isn't a criticism, and I do like them, it's just my reality.
I do wonder if I have the most updated bearings because my Pendulums can be balanced upside down quite easily.
www.outliermtb.com
