Hope F20 Pedals

Hope's F20 pedals offer a wide, solid and superbly grippy pedalling platform with excellent build quality and impressive weight. They're pricey, though – and don't plan to fit them in a rush.

Lancashire firm Hope Technology makes some of the most exquisite bike parts of any manufacturer in these isles, and straight out of the box, it's clear the F20 pedals are something special.

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Beautifully machined from CNC'ed 2014 T6 aluminium and finished in one of six anodised colours, these wide flat pedals come festooned with 10-a-side holes for the included screw-in pins. The F20 axle is made from high-strength chromoly and, Hope says, 'Each pedal uses a Norglide bush and three cartridge bearings in a fully sealed chamber to give a long smooth life.'

Even if the full meaning of all that detail is a little lost on you, be assured that you won't fail to be impressed by how silky-smooth they feel when spinning on their axle. Meanwhile, the sealed bearings should also guarantee the F20s will be durable.

Get them set up and on the bike – which we'll come to in a minute – and the F20s perform nigh-on faultlessly. Those 20 pins really come into their own when used with flat shoes or even trainers and, for riders who might otherwise pooh-pooh the notion of non-clip-in pedals, they provide a fantastically secure connection between sole and bike. Even in the wet, they grip on well.

There's a slightly concave shape to the platform surface to further aid pedalling performance, and the sharp wave-like pedal surface helps dig into shoe tread well, even without the pins. With so much of the T6 aluminium drilled and machined away, at 200g a pedal, the F20s are surprisingly light, too.

If I had to name one grievance, it's getting the F20s set up to ride. Don't be too impatient to start spinning your legs – with 20 pins needing to be fitted to each pedal, you'll want to set aside a good 30 minutes or more of preparation. If you've got a longer 2mm hex key than the one provided, that'll help too. And don't try this straight after a fresh manicure – these bad boys have enough bite even without the pins in place to scratch your nails.

Finally, I should make the disclaimer that while ardent off-roaders and gravity-gobbling downhillers have more exacting requirements from their pedals, I have been testing the F20s in purely an urban, commuting and leisure cycling state of mind. If these don't do it for you on the red run at Morzine, don't blame me – but they're more than strong and durable enough to work a treat on a wet Monday morning in town.

Value and conclusion

It's not often that any of us can afford to buy a top of the range product, but in the case of the Hope F20 pedals, that's within reach of anybody with £130 in their wallet, and they do feel like a genuinely premium product. However, that £130 pits them against fairly stiff competition.

For the same cost, you could have Race Face's awesome Atlas pedals, which Jim at our sister site off-road.cc said are 'great for all kinds of trail riding'. And for £130 you could also buy Deity's equally superb TMAC pedals.

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So they are excellent, but are the F20s and their rivals a little overkill for 'normal' cycling? Very probably. But when you can have such an exquisitely manufactured bit of kit – and especially one that does its job so well – few people should begrudge this little bit of contact point luxury. With fantastic grip, build quality, durability – and probably a suitable colour to match your bike – Hope's F20s flat pedals should appeal to more than just mud-pluggers.

Verdict

Fantastic flat pedals that provide high-end grip, durability, build quality and direct power transfer – pricey, though