I have only had my Catalyst pedals for a couple of weeks so I cannot give a full review. But my initial impression is they are the real deal.
I am 6 foot, 180lbs, size 11 shoe and ride most often in the dirt these days. I am also 61 years old so I have gone through the circular evolution of rubber pedal 'platforms' to toe clips to nailing cleats on Detto Pietros to Look clipless to SPD and now back to platforms. The Catalyst has a foot platform that is just over 5 inches long, compared to my other platform pedal, the VP Vice, that is 3.5 inches long. Both pedals extend off the crank arm by just over 4 inches. You can find the Vice at ~$45 while I got my Catalyst for $90, full retail $100. I was somewhat skeptical what an extra 1.5 inches of length would do for my cycling. I ride in hiking shoes with a stiff sole, Superfeet brand. I have also been riding with the pedal's axle well behind the ball of the foot for several years. So the move to the Catalyst was somewhat incremental. My impression: the Catalyst has shown its significance in very steep dirt climbing. I seem to get extra power out of the larger platform. As Pedal Innovations say, it feels like I am fully supported while doing the hard lift of climbing a steep dirt hill. The Catalyst comes with two sets of pins with the shorter ones installed. I changed out one pedal to the longer pins to compare and liked the additional grip. Just yesterday I put the longer pins in the other pedal. The pin change takes about an hour for a set of pedals because there are 56 total pins. That is 14 per pedal side. The Catalyst is a bit heavier. If that is important to you, we ride in different worlds. I am using the Catalyst on my Jones Plus that has a very long front end. There is no toe clip overlap problem on that bike. I would not want to use this pedal on a tighter front end bike like my Rivendells and Surlys. I am also not sure the Catalyst would shine for road riding. The Catalyst more-forward foot position effectively moves the BB forward, or slackens the seat tube angle a degree or two (1-2 cm). I have not moved my saddle forward. But some folks may want to do that and thus perhaps want a slightly longer stem. Compared to SPD pedals, the saddle will need to come down about 1/2 inch. I will have more to say about the Catalyst pedals by next spring or so. But for dirt, demanding rides on bikes with long front ends, I think they offer a significant advantage over other platforms. Joe in GJT On Friday, December 8, 2017 at 7:18:23 AM UTC-7, Philip Kim wrote: > Did you have to lower your saddle? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
