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ritchey echelon pedals - the story so far

ritchey echelon pedals

rather humorously (i thought), on sunday i posted on twitter, details of how to replicate on zwift, my weekend ride. this involved placing bicycle and turbo in a refrigerated container with enough space to accommodate two, pratt & whitney turbo fan engines. it would then be a simple case of setting the temperature to zero degrees and firing up both engines. in truth, actually attempting the latter would likely cause serious injury, so i fervently hope that nobody was daft enough to try. that said, spending most of the weekend ploughing into galeforce, or near-galeforce winds that had lowered the temperature sufficiently to create ice at springbank, was a state of affairs that bright sunshine had convinced was unlikely.

i was more than thankful of the opportunity to turn right onto the high road and savour a tailwind for about seven kilometres, affording my hands a set of circumstances allowing them to defrost. perhaps this was not the ideal time to have stowed away my winter gloves in favour of a nice new pair of track mitts?

riding into strong headwinds could reasonably be considered the birthright of any cyclist in the hebrides, north or south, the skills for which have been honed over decades of acknowledged intrepid stupidity and tenacity. and, in order to do so, it is necessary to have the wherewithal, both physical, mechanical and actual, whether trained, acquired or purchased. more recently, very much in my favour, i have had the invaluable assistance of a pair of ritchey echelon road pedals.

ritchey echelon pedals

much like food recipes promulgated by margarine or flour purveyors, i cannot deny that, for those without the above mentioned pedals, there are comparable substitutes. but for those of you keen to accessorise the road bike du jour with suitable accoutrements, on the basis of several weeks pounding decrepit roads into the teeth of disfavourable draughts, i can heartily recommend these as the sole food for which you might be searching.

their predecessors, also from the ritchey stable, were a pair of micro-road pedals, highly aesthetically pleasing in a minimalist manner, but whose cleats shared similarity with their offroad brethren, in using a two-bolt fixing. thus, only offroad footwear need apply. the echelon hardwear adopts a more traditional road-based stance with triangular, red, three-bolt fixings, ideally suited to rapha's latest pro-team footwear. currently, those shoes are the only ones on which i have suitable cleats attached. with a larger cleat, clipped into pedals that dwarf their micro siblings, there is an increased surface area to which one's cultivated power output might be applied, theoretically resulting in greater forward speed.

i'd dearly love to have scientific evidence that supports that particular contention, but any increase in my average speed over the past few weeks appears to have been minimal. what has altered, however, is the ease with which escape velocity is achieved, accompanied by a satisfying, foot-based ritchey echelon pedals sensation of more focussed energy transfer. with spd pedals, such as the aforementioned micro-road pedals, any power input is concentrated over a far smaller area, potentially creating a hotspot on the sole of your foot. though the consitution of rapha's carbon sole is doubtless a contributing factor, over the past few weeks there has been a tangible difference not only in the ease of pedalling on the flat, but particularly when climbing under duress.

if all the above just sounds like an overly detailed account of which many of you take for granted, the most specific and noticeable aspect of riding with feet clipped into the echelon pedals, is the smoothness of operation. granted, the bottom bracket bearings are every bit as responsible, but the combination of the two brings to mind the 'hot knife through butter' syndrome of which many of us are familiar (or not, as the case may be).

if there's a downside to all this, it's getting in and out. the ritchey echelon pedals undoubtedly require a tad more effort to achieve both than the average pair of offroad pedals. i believe i mentioned in my original review that, after a day or two of riding, i felt twinges in my calf muscles and ankles, apparently the result of the necessary unclipping motion. that strain subsided very quickly, but even having set both pedals to near their lowest tension, there is still more effort required than, until now, has been the case.

ritchey echelon pedals

this may simply be a part of the pain and suffering expected of the contemporary road-cyclist.

there's no doubting the fact that three-point road cleats make you walk funny, and are not ideal for descending the stairs at ardbeg distillery, or walking on shiny floors. but in the same way that seals are rarely at home on dry land, cleated shoes were hardly designed for hiking. their forte shines when clipped into pedals such as ritchey's echelons, propelling you at near light speed towards the coffee stop. the red, notched adjusters on the stainless steel axles, are every bit as red as they were out the box, and though the shiny logo'd top plates have more than just a few scuff marks, the composite body remains almost pristine.

if ever you needed an excuse to upgrade your road pedals, consider this your 'get out of jail free' card, or if you need comparable quality to go with a new pair of shoes, the same applies. a truly excellent and smooth pair of pedals, that share look keo compatibility, widening the purchase options for additional cleats.

ritchey echelon road pedals

tuesday 31 march 2020

twmp ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................