I’ve been watching the post-box in feverish anticipation of the Hope F20 pedals turning up. What can I say? Anything from Barnoldswick’s premium mtb craftsmen tends to have that effect on me …
The first thing you’ll probably say is “How much?!” and at £120 the F20 pedals are definitely not cheap… Given the high-end price tag they’re going to have to be something pretty special indeed. Do they walk the walk…?
First impressions are pretty damn good indeed and everything about these made-in-the-UK trail-smashers shouts “top quality!”.
The F20 pedal body is fully CNC’d in the Hope Factory here in the UK and crafted from 2014 T6 aluminium (geek data here). The axle is high-strength, heat treated and plated chromo. There’s no Ti option as far as we can tell but given the impressive weight (and price!) already there’s probably no issue there.
Something interesting that we spotted is that Hope list ‘left’ and ‘right’ pedals on their price list for your local bike shop. That means – yep – you can order mismatched colours if you so desire. Blue and Red anyone?!
The ‘Must Haves’
There’s a few things that a flat pedal can’t live without for me … And the F20’s tick all the boxes. Happy face.
Grippy pedal body – Check! The pedal body isn’t concave (Hope say it is but I’m not convinced!) but it’s machined to be grippy with little ridges all over to add extra foot friction. The axle also doesn’t sit proud of the pedal body and cause any slippage (the cardinal sin of pedal design). We’re keen to see whether the flat design – rather than concave – effects performance.
Replaceable pins – Yep. 20 of them that can be screwed in with a 1mm allen key from the underside of the pedal body. You’ll always be able to unscrew them when they’re mashed up and you can add or remove pins to get the grip right for you. Impact on meeting shins yet to be evaluated.
Sealed Bearings – There’s 3 fully sealed cartridge bearings and one bush in each pedal. Hope reckon they’re good against all the mud and grot we can throw at them. There’s no spare parts showing up on their site just yet … but knowing Hope everything will be replaceable.
Allen Key option for fitting – Again, yep. I don’t always have a pedal spanner handy so it’s good to be able to 8mm your pedals on and off. There’s no pedal spanner option here though, just allen key.
All the basics are ticked and they look even better sat here on my desk than they do on paper. All that’s left is to get them on a bike and out for a thrash in the woods. Full write up in issue 20 of Wideopenmag…
The F20 pedal is available in 7 colours. The 6 you can see here and a new ‘for girls’ pink colour. For more info see Hopetech.com.
