XLC PD-M02 // MTB/ATB-Pedal

I’ve ridden almost 200 miles on these pedals so far. I use toe clips with straps. For reference, I’ve put about 14,000 miles on this bike in just over four years.1. The pedals are well made and have a nice finish. The reflectors are easy to pull/pry off and can be pushed back on. They are a good deal at such a low price.2. They have the little finger guide at the inside end for the straps. The pedals do not grip the strap – the strap rotates around your foot each time you pull on the strap end to tighten it. I fixed this by using a small cable tie to anchor the strap to the pedal body.3. As others have noted the bearings are set too tight – rotate the pedal by hand and you feel the bearings dragging and grinding. This will cause the bearing to fail. Not difficult to fix, but it does take a little bit of skill. These are adjustable cone bearings (as with most pedals). Two bearings, inner and outer, with two cones each – the adjustable cone is at the outer end. Pry off the plastic cap – I use the tip of a razor knife to catch the rim of the cap and lift it up a bit and then use finger nails to pull it off. Use a socket wrench to slightly loosen the jam nut (the end of the pedal cage has an access hole for a socket wrench). Under the jam nut is a slotted washer (prevents the cone from turning when the jam nut is tightened). Under the slotted washer is the adjustable cone. This cone is threaded on to the end of the spindle and has a hex head. Use a very small tool to reach in past the jam nut and washer and rotate the cone (I used a tiny blade screwdriver – a paper-clip wire would work). The bearings should rotate freely but not too loose. Snug down the jam nut and check the bearing tightness. If OK, fully tighten the jam and check again. If OK, press in the cap and you are done. If at any point the bearings become too tight (or too sloppy), you have to loosen the jam and readjust. The reason for this trial and error is that tightening the jam nut compresses the bearing a tiny bit, so you have to set the bearings a bit too loose and then tightening the jam to compress the bearings to their final clearance. It usually takes me three tries to set a cone bearing just right.4. In cone bearing the balls are loose. If you open a bearing the balls will fall out. Spread out a sheet of newspaper to make a clean area and to catch the balls that fall out (finding a tiny ball that falls to the floor is very difficult). I disassembled the bearing so I could pack them with Phil Wood bike grease. Remove the jam nut and slotted washer then unscrew the adjustable cone while holding the pedal vertical. Use a magnet to remove the balls from the outer bearing. Carefully pull out the spindle while keeping the pedal vertical. Make sure all of the balls are out of the inner bearing (inside the pedal). Fill the cone of the inner bearing (on the spindle) with grease and then put the balls into the cone (the grease holds the balls in place). Keeping the pedal vertical insert the spindle into the pedal and seat the inner bearing. Put grease into the outer bearing, put in the balls, and carefully screw in the cone until the bearings are snug. Put on the slotted washer and jam nut. Now you are ready to do the bearing adjustment (see above).5. These pedals are a bit narrow, and the toe clip mounting holes are positioned a bit to the inboard side. This caused my toe clip straps to rub against the crank arms (I have narrow sole shoes for riding). This might not be a problem depending on the design of your bike’s crank arms. My Suntour crank arms come straight up from the pedals for 4 cm before bending inward. If your crank arms angle inward right from the pedals this should not be a problem. I fixed this by using a 1.5 mm thick washer between the pedal mount and the crank arm and by moving the toe clips 4 mm to the outside. For the washer I used a 12 mm copper oil drain plug washer – slightly enlarged the 12 mm hole to get a snug fit over the pedal threads. To move the toe clips, I used a 5/32 round file to lengthen the mounting slots in the clips.Altogether about an hour of extra work to get the set-up just right.

These are an excellent set of pedals. I purchased them because they are the type known as loose ball bearing as opposed to so called sealed bearing. I own both types and much prefer the loose kind because they are able to be re-greased and adjusted so that they spin freely. And the fact that they are actually made by Wellgo. I also like that the platform is not concaved, which seems to be a selling point nowadays but hurts my feet in flexible soled shoes. The pedal cage and body is one piece cast aluminum, and it appears to be strong if a little heavy at 380 grams. It's too bad these are not usually adjusted correctly right out of the box but I wasn't at all expecting them to be. MKS brand suffers from this also, another good ball bearing pedal. The poor adjustment issue of the loose ball bearing design is well known but also accepted among the cycling crowd. I took mine apart right away because they both were grinding a bit, meaning adjusted too snug. The pedals spin on two groups of thirteen ball bearings each, set in a traditional and time proven cup and cone arrangement. Despite their low price, these are not your throw away pedals. The simple design enables, with periodic cleaning, a pedal that should last a very long time.

These are great open bearing pedals. They are made by Wellgo who make some very good (and some run of the mill OEM) pedals. The XLC Pedals are extremely stout and well constructed. These are some heavy duty pedals. I prefer this "cage" type of pedals over the studded "platform" type of pedal eg.:Diamondback Sound Pedal (Black Alloy, 9/16 - Inch, Pack of 2) for my Mountain Bikes. This is because I wear my Montrail Torre and Scarpa ZG 65 XCR mid height hiking boots for mountain biking here in the Bridger Mountains of Montana. My friends and I often de-mount and hike some when out on treks. The XLC Alloy MTB Pedals offer plenty of teeth biting grip for my boots.The pedals were an awesome deal for me as I have Amazon Prime. They arrived in fine condition. The pedals are precision made. I did end up adjusting the bearing tightness in both pedals, which is quite easy to do. Just remove the end cap and loosen the outer spindle nut. SEE PHOTOS ABOVE. Then use a narrow flat head screwdriver to rotate and either tighten or loosen the inner nut to adjust the amount of force/pressure on the bearings. I like the tightness set so that if you try to wiggle the pedal, there is no "play" at all; yet if you spin the pedal it rotates freely for as long as possible. With the XLC's set accordingly they are tight but spin freely for about 8 seconds. I Cleared the spindle and bearings of their factory lubricant (using 91% isopropyl alcohol). I then replaced it with Ultra Lube non toxic (actually edible) vegetable based high performance lubricantUltra Lube 10500 H1 Food Grade Chain and Cable Lube - 12 oz. Aerosol.The XLC Alloy MTB Pedals are great value with their high quality and affordable price. Open bearing pedals are highly serviceable pedals and can last indefinitely when maintained properly. They are quite at home on my high end Mongoose Mountain Bike. PHOTOS ABOVE.