Plastic Pedals vs. Alloy Pedals - Which is Best?

The pedals on your BMX bike may seem like a really insignificant upgrade, but depending on your style

of riding and your preference, they actually make a pretty big deal. I remember early on when I first

got my bike and I started upgrading it, pedals were one of the first things that I'd upgrade

mostly because they were affordable and it was a cheap, easy way to like add different colors to

my bike. I think I bought some shadow bright blue pedals, then bright white pedals, then bright yellow

pedals. Like I just changed them out and bought a bunch of pedals because I couldn't afford forks

spars, cranks, anything like that. And if you're upgrading your pedals, make sure that you're doing

it for the right reasons. There are some really cheap pedals out there and there are some really

high quality expensive pedals out there and you need to find somewhere in the middle that fits

with your style of riding. Someone in the discord asked, I need y'all's opinion about pedals and

suggestions which one to buy. He's wondering what's the difference and which one's better between

plastic pedals and alloy pedals and that's what we're going to talk about in this video. So plastic

pedals are made of plastic. Typically they're a little bit lighter and they don't last nearly as

long. The plastic on the pedals can get ground down if you put your pedal down anytime, you know

anytime your pedal touches the ground and your bike's moving, the ground's going to be shaving

off plastic pieces. And so this tends to make your pedals not last very long. On the live stream last

week we did talk about some new pedals from Eclav that are designed for pedal slides, but we're not

covering those in this video. Basically plastic pedals don't last as long. They're a little bit

bit lighter and they're a lot cheaper. Alloy pedals are for the more serious people who need quite a bit more grip

Typically alloy pedals are going to last longer. They not a whole lot heavier than plastic pedals I mean they are technically heavier but not a whole lot heavier And they got more pins and sharper pins that are going to grip a lot better to your shoes So typically you going to see street riders riding plastic pedals and you may see park and dirt riders riding alloy pedals

with pins because they're doing all these tail whips and taking their feet off a lot and they want

their feet to be glued as soon as their feet go back on the pedals they want their feet to be

locked on. And so you're going to see different types of people riding different types of pedals

So basically, here's the overall breakdown. Okay. Plastic pedals are a lot more affordable

Alloy pedals are more expensive. Alloy pedals are going to last a little bit longer, so then you can

justify spending a little bit more money. Plastic pedals aren't going to last near as long. Alloy

pedals tend to have better grip, and the grip tends to last longer. Another cool thing about

alloy pedals is if your grip, you know, if your pins wear down, you can usually unscrew your pins

and re-screw new pins in for a fresh new grip. So that way, if your plastic pedals are worn down

you've got to replace the whole pedal. If your alloy pedals are worn down, you can just replace

the pins, assuming that it's the pins that's worn down. So you get more bang for your buck in multiple

uses out of the alloy pedals. The price ranges, though, depend on the type of pedal you get. I've

seen alloy pedals cost well over $100, while most high-end plastic pedals are going to cost you less

than $30. So that's what you can consider spending if you're thinking about doing alloy. Do you really

need pedals that are going to grip that much better and last that much longer? Is it worth spending

three times the price on them, that's something that you're going to have to decide. And if you

want help from other BMX nerds to figure out what you should buy to upgrade your bike, ask a question

in the BMX nerds discord and the BMX nerds network community. Come over into that community. There's

a ton of other BMX nerds ready to answer your questions and help you learn more about BMX

I can't wait to see you in there. The link for that is in the description