Comments by a couple posters here piqued my curiosity so ordered a couple pairs through the Canadian distributor with the initial booking order for the season. For all those guys that think bike shops can't keep up with Internet on-line stores - that was October last year. They just showed up last week. Obviously - either something's in stock and available - or it doesn't matter WHO'S selling it.

But I digress. The idea was to post some initial impressions - which were mixed. They're big and clunky looking, but thats intended to give a large support area even when wearing dumb things like sandals. Surprisingly, in spite of the oversize appearance - they're a little lighter than regular platform pedals.

They're supposed to be ergonomically designed. Guess that must work OK because initially I kept looking down to see if the placement was good. It was - I just couldn't feel the pedal. They kinda cup your foot in a way that eliminates pressure points altogether. A little unnerving at first cause even with large BMX platforms I could tell I was on a pedal.

So so far so good. Bearings are smooth, wraparound reflectors are huge and comfort is top notch. No - they can't be used with PowerStraps on fixies or clipless shoes on road bikes but probably won't chew up leather soles like pins and screws on BMX style pedals either. Ideal for around the city and probably great for my kind of touribg. At this point my only concern is durability. The bearings are apparently synthetic material - anyone have any real world experience with how long they'll stand up to regular use?

I'm on the second, wet.. year , of using them on my bike friday.. functionally, still same as new ..

Thanks for the heads-up! Some of your initial posts regarding these were a big part of the decision to try them out.

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I've been meaning to post a review of these, sorry I didn't do so sooner, as I found them disappointing. I was partially holding off given that I was only able to find two reviews online 6 months ago when I ended up purchasing these, and one of the reviews said that the bushing (in place of bearings on this design) failed after less than 3000 miles, so I wanted to put some miles on them and see how they did. I picked up a pair in December of last year and so I now have almost 1500 miles on my set.

First off, I was looking for a very wide pair of pedals, as even with pedal extenders I still find my feet on the outer half of big pedals. No solution for me here, the Ergon's actively tried to move their pedals inward, but I'm an odd duck, so that really isn't a strike against them for most folks. Also, they advertised that they tried to offset the fact that the pedals were so wide by moving them inboard, so I'm not complaining on that front, just pointing out that as big as they appear to be, they might not be what you are looking for if you've got a "wide stance" as it were! Unfortunately, pedal extenders still didn't solve my problem in this case, so my quest for a durable, wide, platform pedal continues. Unfortunately, I basically blew my budget for pedals with these and so am soldiering on with them for now, as they aren't any worse than anything else I've been riding. Well, in some ways anyway, more on that below.

I like that they have a reflector, because I'm like that.

FYI: I commute 3 to 7 days a week (work+school), about 15 miles round trip (varies depending on the route I choose), it is literally hilly both directions, and being Seattle, it is wet much of the time, but we have had an unusually dry winter and spring.

To me $70 seems high for these. Especially since they make a big deal about all the German engineering that went into them and one of the things they make a big deal about is their supposedly specially engineered grip surface. Well, that is a TOTAL failure. They could have saved their money and used skateboard grip tape, and I'm positive that it would've had better traction. In fact, there are a number of off-the-shelf applications that would've worked quite well. Instead, I'm paying a premium for something THAT DOESN'T WORK AS ADVERTISED. As a student of history, it did bring a wry smile to my face to see that much touted German engineering is still spending too much effort to over engineer something only to have it not work right when a perfectly acceptable solution is already available. Most days I wear my 510 (Minaar) shoes and these are "ok" on them in the rain, but on days when I wear my Chrome (Kursk) shoes and get caught out in the rain the surface of the pedals might as well be slick moss over granite. I'm exaggerating here, but you get the picture. I lost my footing multiple times on Friday when I was commuting in the wet. I was lucky not to rack my nards. I don't often not wear cycling specific shoes, despite running platforms, because I like a stiff sole when I'm cycling and I don't want the wear and tear on my other shoes, but IIRC the few times I've been caught out in the rain in other shoes they were slippery then too, and all my non-cycling shoes have a rather rubbery (grippy) bottom. On top of everything else about the grippy surface, 50 cent piece sized patches of it have worn off of the pedals as well, which I'm sure exacerbated the problem yesterday, but the problem existed when they were brand new, it's just worse now that their high tech fancy grip tape has already worn off.

I haven't noticed any problems with the bushing (instead of bearing) system yet, so as far as I can tell they are holding up so far in that regard, but somehow I think it may be harder to tell when this starts to go compared to a bearing unit. *shrugs*

Although some of my stuff is Fredly in some ways, I still like things to look good. The Ergon pedals pretty much fail in this department. When you first pull them out of the box they look HUGE, but they look a little less bad actually on the bike (at least on my 22" MTB), but they still look like pedals some mad scientist made specifically for Frankensteins' giant feet. They're a drab color to begin with that seems to have already faded in my case, which makes them look cheap and beat up, which is only exacerbated by the grip surface having partially worn off. Perhaps that is partially my fault as I still have yet to find a solution that puts my feet where they are comfortable so my feet are riding somewhat outboard on these pedals (even with pedal extenders), but for $70 of high tech German engineering I would expect them to hold up.

I won't be buying another pair of these disappointing pedals, as soon as I can afford a quality pair of large platforms these will get kicked to my mountain bike that is only used a few times a year for off-road and the rare icy day here. I need to remember to stop by a skateboard shop and pick up some grip tape to try and rectify their shortcomings in that regard.

I owe a couple of threads promised pictures of things that I haven't been able to get to between work and school, but I finally have some time tomorrow, so I'll snap some photos of the wear on these pedals and put them up here.

One other thing that I'll mention. I've been wearing those 510 Minaar shoes for two years now and haven't had any issues with them. Now the soles on these are orange colored material (rubbery plastic?). I live in Seattle, so I ride in wet conditions for much of the year. Like I said, no problems. Until I bought the Ergon pedals. I assume the materials of the fancy grip tape stuff they so carefully designed at great expense to me interacted with the material of my shoes soles, but I left my shoes under the kitchen table after taking them off after a wet ride right after mounting these pedals and was rewarded with nice orange stains to the carpet. Although I haven't given the shoes an opportunity to do this to the carpet since, I have noticed that a distinct orange stain growing on the pedals. I'd be tempted to blame the shoes, but like I said, I didn't have any problems the first year and a half+ I used the shoes and rode in the wet quite regularly, it's got to be that fancy grip tape they went to all that trouble to design.

I have my Bean boots on in the winter & Keens clones in the summer.. ..

I suppose there is a 'fred' detracting peerage level in Seattle , that I skip, Or Aged past it..

@ Medic Zero

Read your review - can't help but think that the fact that you were using SPD shoes on those probablyaccelerated chewing up the grip surface and greatly lessened the grip effectiveness anyway.

Its actually covered under 'Compatible Shoes' and spelt out on page 24 of the Ergon PC2 manual (reading those things can ocassionally save a lot of greif and misplaced blame).

Same for the stains - its a lot more likely since the liners and soles of those shoes are both orange, that you've just got dye leaking out from wet shoes.

The friction material used on those pedals is a 3M product which is CANADIAN, not German - so clearly - being Canadian, its all my fault! Sorry about that!

Yeah, I noticed it came with a BOOK, I gave up on reading every page before the 24th (!) one and must have missed that when I tried skimming the rest of the manual for useful information. I doubt many others will either. Also, the Chrome shoes I wear don't have an orange liner or sole, I don't know where you are getting that from. I've seen them in olive, grey, and black, mine are black. Funny how I didn't have any problem with the shoes with the orange soles for the first year and a half of wearing them virtually every day, but immediately had a problem when I switched to the Ergons.

What I did read before I bought the pedals (& IIRC on the packaging) touted how scientists in Germany (Ergon) developed a special friction material in conjunction with 3M. Haven't had any problems with any other 3M products. As I said, the grip sucked to begin with, it just got worse. Who designs pedals that aren't compatible with cycling shoes?! That's even worse fail than wasting effort designing an unnecessary special grip tape that doesn't work and then charging me for it!

I'll accept the blame for not having read all the way to page 24 of the manual to discover that the stiff soled cycling shoes I favor and already own and hadn't had any problems with weren't compatible with my $70 high tech pedals. I don't see where it warned me about the pedals causing stains though. BTW, the Chrome Kursks are anything but aggressive mountain biking shoes. They're like Keds or Converse All Stars with a bit stiffer sole. When I read the manual it appeared to be a few pages of information repeated over and over in many different languages. If they are going to include information about destroying the pedals in the middle of the manual buried after multiple sections in different languages, well they can expect a lot of pedals are going to be destroyed by people riding on them in shoes that they had every reason to expect to be appropriate.

I love(d) my Ergon PC2s in every regard with one exception: bushing failure. the right pedal developed a little lateral play after about six months. Be sure to remove the end caps and check your PC2s have a little lubricant visible. I don't know what type Ergon uses but its red.

You explained at great length that you 'mostly' wore Five Ten 5.10 Minnaar SPD Shoes and ocassionally Chrome (Kursk) shoes. Ninty percent of the Five Ten's I've seen have orange interiors as well as orange soles.

As far as the manual is concerned - the English section starts on page 18 with a table of contents. The fourth heading is 'Compatible Shoes'

https://www.ergon-bike.com/de/de/file...120808_Web.pdf

Sure hope you don't drive the same way you shop!

Thanks for the heads-up! Does that cap unscrew or does it pop out? Checked for maintenaince instructions and didn't find any

Ergon US rep is in Metro Seattle. maybe they will service them.

Unscrews with a hex key. I don't remember what size but it's pretty standard on any bike multi-tool.

The initial pedals used a hex key but the ones I just got have two small holes that must take some kind of tool similar to whats used for circlips. But that does give me a good hint - thanks - I'll see if they can be turned.

Hi,


Does anyone know how to remove the outboard/inboard caps to release the spindle inside the Ergon PC2 pedals? I have removed the dust cap (the one with two holes - it turns) but can't figure out what to use to remove the caps holding in the spindle.


Thanks!

This is a thread that is 11 years old you might get better traction asking in the bicycle mechanics subforum and you can ask the moderators to move it there. Unfortunately I haven't yet used the pedals but I bet Ergon has the info on their website or could help if nothing else here.

Apparently (Ergon replacement parts list) the only replacement parts available for these pedals are "griptapes" and reflectors.

Based on some googling and a Youtube video, it takes a deep socket for the single locknut and it's got plastic maintenance-free plain bearings inside, not ball bearings. They might be replaceable, if you can measure the size. But Ergon does not have them for sale. You would have to figure it out yourself. You can obviously still clean everything.