Originally Posted by
mwandaw
I am a little concerned that each pedal apparently has one sealed bearing and one "DU" bearing. That is apparently a teflon-impregnated metal bushing. Should I worry about this?
I'm big fan of the Wellgo MG-52 pedals, which are similar to these but more aggressive. I rode BMX a lot as a kid and still prefer that type of shoes and pedals for road cycling. These look pretty good -- now I'm considering them for our tandem (which has junk pedals on it right now)...
I'm not a huge fan of the bushing design on these Wellgo pedals, but it's OK. You can disassemble the pedal each season to clean and grease the bushing, and it seems to be more smooth-spinning and durable than the non-rebuildable ball bearings in cheap pedals. I've got about 2000 miles on mine and they're fine.
I think the bushing is part of an engineering compromise... Fitting a real bearing on the proximal side of the pedal would require either a super-thick platform or a fairly thin spindle. Since these pedals need to be strong enough for dirt-jumping, BMX, and other abusive uses, they seem to have decided to forgo the bearing to get a thick spindle to fit inside a thin platform. Thinking about it that way, I'm more willing to accept the bushing.
My advice is "go for it!"