Pedal choice can be a very personal thing, and my personal preference is for flat pedals. This stems from way back when I was a kid riding and racing BMX, where at the time flat pedals were the only choice.

There have been many styles and variations of flat pedal over the years including cage pedals like the old classic Hutch Bear Traps and the pedal that is famous for spawning the parallelogram platform pedal revolution, the original Shimano DX.

This style of pedal has been my favourite design and personal choice over the years and I have tried a few different brands in the hope of finding the perfect compromise between feel and quality.

The main problem I have encountered over the years is down to the bearings collapsing, resulting in the pedal being stripped off the spindle or seizing solid, and in mid flight that can only mean one thing, you got it, a major off!

It was this concern that led me to look for something different, and that’s where the Straitline SC pedal comes into the equation. The guys at Straitline have opted to do away with the conventional DU bushing and outer sealed bearing configuration and have instead incorporated a unique approach to this problem by implementing high quality proprietary polymer bushings.

Polymer bushings have many advantages over traditional bearings in that they are much lighter and are impervious to damage from water ingress as there are no metal parts to get contaminated and fail. They also run much quieter, and due to the small diameter it has been possible to produce a very slim profile pedal.

The main pedal body is a work of modern engineering and is beautifully CNC machined with no sharp edges and an overall look and feel that exudes quality. The attention to detail is apparent from the reduction of excess material to shed unwanted weight right down to the lazer etched graphics.

The parallelogram design features the upper section of the body being placed slightly off centre to the front of the pedal creating a foot position where the weight bias is toward the front of the pedal which results in a better transfer of power to the down stroke increasing pedalling efficiency.

The pedal body has been drilled and tapped to receive up to 14 pins per side, which allows the rider to customize the level of grip attained from the included stainless steel traction pins. These stainless steel pins are a much better option than the usual pins supplied with platform pedals in that they will not bend or break on their first impact the way normal pins do, I can testify to this myself as I have clipped my pedals loads of times and the traction pins still remain in perfect condition.

The traction pins are screwed into place via a 3mm socket or spanner which means that should you ever damage them they will be easily removed for replacement.

The large platform offers loads of grip, so much so that I have opted to run pins on the outer edges of the pedal only which leaves me some of the included 56 pins as spares.

Straitline have also developed another unique method of keeping the body of the pedal attached to the spindle with the use of two poodle clips. The pedal body is held in place by a machined washer and the first poodle clip, this is then housed inside the second washer, which has been stepped like a dish to completely enclose the first clip and is in turn held in place by the second poodle clip. This should be enough reassurance that in the event of the first poodle clip being dislodged (which will be highly unlikely given the nature of their removal) there will be a second clip to hold the body in place.

These pedals come in a variety of anodised colours and weigh in at 518g per pair with Chromo spindles.

First impressions of these pedals are very good and after two months of use, or should that be abuse in my case, they are still going strong and running as smooth as the day I bought them. If you are after a low maintenance slim profile flat pedal then I strongly suggest you check these out before committing yourself to anything else.

Thanks to Nigel Elder for the pedal reviews.

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