Exposing Kootu folding pedals
 

Note: tds101 has kindly linked my video below

In August of 2021, I ordered Amazon's Best Choice for "folding pedals", which up until recently were Kootu Folding Pedals. Advertised as having ball bearings and rubber seals to keep the grease in order, I thought they were pretty good...until around 2 weeks into use.

I'd used the pedals for basic regular commuting on my folding bike, and they were already wobbling everywhere and leaked tons of grease! Furthermore, I tried servicing them and found that they weren't even serviceable. Unfortunately due to my tight budget and schedule I ended up having to use them until early 2022. One day in early 2022, I got curious and found on another site the same Kootu pedals listed, and they mentioned that the bearings were "metal-polymer". I quickly found out that this likely meant plastic bushings.

Upon finding out that the pedals likely didn't have any ball bearings (and feeling so disappointed in the pedals), I took it upon myself to expose Kootu for misleading me and other buyers. These pedals are designed to hide the terrible axle!

I then made this video of me grinding-open the pedals and posted it on YouTube (post below).

Upon inspection, I realized that the rubber seal doubles as a bushing. Of course that rubber was going to quickly wear out, causing the pedals to wobble and lose all their grease!

Edit: I found out that Kootu has a website for their pedals, they also misadavertise them as having ball bearings there too!

There is so much junk on Amazon. You'd like to think a company that big would care about what is on their platform but a lot of it isn't any better than what you find on Bangood or Ali express. Sometimes it's worth spending a little more and dealing with a reputable bike shop.

You do realize that Amazon's Choice is Amazon's choice for a reason, don't you? And you do know that in all the 330-or-so extant languages of Greater Amazonia, the phrase "Amazon's Choice" translates to "Worthless Crap" in English, don't you?

This. With very few exceptions, the only things that I would venture to order from Aliexpress or Amazon are the peripheral trivia, such as fenders that are more esthetic than functional; perhaps the occasional tube or two (I gotta admit, though - I am considering some full carbon wheels off of Aliexpress for both my Hemingway and my Mu!) But for the critical parts, the ones that make the bike work (and keep me alive,) I always fork out from actual, reputable shops, preferably brick-and-mortar ones that also have online sales channels.

Oop, I should have thanked you before!

Thanks a ton for putting the video here, that explains where all the traffic came from heh.

Update: Kootu claims pedals have Caged Bearings
 

Update!
Kootu is now advertising their pedals as having CAGED BEARINGS, if you quickly search up more recent ads by them they show them visually.
I really hope Kootu has actually made that change, but who knows?