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Thin Gripster pedals

It takes a magnificent pedal to pull us a slight bit away from MKS in Japan, and this pedal here, made by Taiwanese parts magnate VP Components, is that kind of pedal. We won’t say it’s a better pedal, but it has enough (three things) going for it to be worth a look.

(1)         It comes with spikies, for super grip, already installed with threadlock.
(2)         It is thin top-to-bottom to improve cornering clearance. You should lower your saddle a hair.
(3)         It nestles up super close to the crank arm, to also help cornering.

Summary so far: Great grip, great cornering. They’re a little lighter than Grip Kings, but not enough to mention. Really.
 
The body is CNC machined. That means less than diddly in an application such as this, but it has to jack up the price. The bearings are sealed and noticeably smoother out of the box than are MKS bearings, but MKS bearings get smoother with time and have a track record so fantastic that --- whatever they do works good enough.

The thin-ness of the Thin Gripsters rules out mounting a pedal reflector, a minor bummer, because integral pedal reflectors are always on and they ID you as a bike rider at night. You CAN wear an ankle band, and we have the best one in the world. Or you can Just Ride in the day. The VP model is VP-001, so if you want to price shop online, there you go. But you violate the “buy from the introducer” rule at your risk and ours.

Dark grey, titanium-ish, an exclusive just for Rivendell color.

And if you just have to have extra security, take a look at the USA made Hold Fast Foot Retention System (FRS).  VP specifically designed the Thin Gripster to be compatible with FRS.