Fresh Produce | Prototype Gamut Podium pedals
When the first set of products from Point One racing arrived in the office five years ago now they caused a bit of a stir, since then Point One have produced a few cracking bits of kit. Their first Podium pedals made the Dirt 100 back in 2010.
A few months back we found out that Gamut had aquired Point One and with that they intended to bring the design and engineering from the Split Second stem and the rest of their range under the Gamut brand. Jimmy Amaral, co-founder of Point One joined the Gamut team as designer and engineer and the UK distributors Madison dropped in the other day to show us what’s new from San Jose.
Gamut Podium Flat Pedals
The original Podium flat pedals were machined exposing the axle to give mud shedding capability as well as looking rather trick. Design like this can be a nightmare but the thing is, these worked, thin body, decent pins and good bearings meant they kept spinning through all the UK mud and crud we could throw at them. Now the Podium pedals are back and even though the small number ‘1’ engraving will be disappear the quality and style from Point One is staying firmly put.
Body
The size of the body and platform substantial, comparable to the new DMR V12’s but they don’t feel as big as the well loved DMR Vaults. They are thin too, not flimsy but svelte enough to improve ground clearance, Gamut have also taken a few ideas we’ve seen on other pedals and gone to their maximum. The outside edge of the pedal has a shallow chamfer, something we’ve seen on Spank, DMR and a number of other pedals in recent years but these have the most extreme shape to them. The leading edge sweeps back at an angle to the opposite edge of the pedal, designed to give maximum potential for deflection, should you encounter a rock or root the idea is that you skim off them rather than digging in. Like we said, nothing new but this is a pretty extreme version of it and it definitely adds to the speedy look.
Gamut have also have a scalloped channels across the pedals similar to Hope’s F20 pedals but there are fewer larger channels compared to the machined 2014 T6 coming out of Barnoldswick. They don’t have any consistent curvature for your foot to sit into, they are definitely flats and only time will tell if that’s noticeable. It’s also worth pointing out that what you see here is a prototype pedal, the holes through the front and rear faces of the Podiums will disappear for the production versions, adding a few grams of weight but also giving no spaces for stones to get stuck.
Pins
These proto pedals had smooth aluminium pins with a round head 2.5mm allen key at one end to fit them from the back of the body, always a good idea. These are available in a load of different colours if you want them to match your (wheel) nipples or something but if you are after something more solid you can fit a set of stainless ones. The aluminium pins are hollow so might not be the best choice if you are expecting to brush over a few rocks but as they are soft and screw in from the back they will be easy to replace.
Each side gets 9 pins, three up front and a line of four at the rear with one extending to the outer edge of the rear corner and two more either side of the axle. With the additional scalloping across the middle of the body these should offer plenty of grip. When we get a set bolted on a test bike we’ll let you know how they go.
Bearings & Axle
The earlier pedals ran an exposed axle but the new versions have a shorter one enclosed in the pedal body. The internal bearing is a decent size and spins within a bulge that fits against the crank arm. We’ve not been fans of pedals with big bulges here in the past but this one seems cut pretty close and is shaped to fit the edge of a shoe rather than forcing the sole to sit on top. The outer bearing is just that, a fully sealed bearing, no bushes in here and if they do wear out you can replace the lot on both pedals for £25, the same price as a kit for DMR Vaults.
This lot spins on a steel axle and a 6mm allen key will tighten them into your cranks, even with a steel axle the pedals are claimed to weigh 295g a pair and we can confirm that should be about bang on with the design adjustments mentioned above. We weighed a single pedal at 145g before they were swiftly taken back by the Madison guys as these are the last prototype version and we weren’t allowed to keep them.
It’s good to see a brand like Gamut taking the design ideas and quality from Point One forward. We’ve a bunch of other products from Gamut that we’ll post up next week but for now we’re looking forward to giving these new Podium pedals a good thrashing. There will be a review up on the site as soon as we have done just that.
Colours – Black, Raw
Price £109.99
0870 034 7226
