Xpedo Spry Flat Pedals

Xpedo Spry Flat Pedals

Reviewer info: 5’8”, 160 lbs

Manufacturers’s Stated Weight:
260 grams per set

Platform Material: Magnesium

Number of pins: 14 per pedal (7 on each side)

MSRP: $80

Test Locations: Park City, Moab, St. George, Utah; Fruita, Colorado

Days Ridden: 50

The Xpedo Spry pedals are light, have a very low stack height, and at $80, are some of the more affordable flat pedals on the market. As soon as I heard about the Spry, I wondered: what’s the catch? At 260 grams per set, they may be lightweight, but how seriously does this affect the pedals’ durability? And do they ride well in the first place?

Build

Each pedal’s platform is made of magnesium and rotates around two sealed bearings and one DU bushing. To provide grip, there are 7 replaceable pins on each side of each pedal. The Spry’s pins aren’t just repurposed bolts or set screws (as you’ll find on many flat pedals), but are purpose built. Each straight, cylindrical pin has hexagonal flanges with threads below it so it can be tightened or removed with a supplied miniature crescent wrench. Xpedo ships the Spry with spare pins, which I really appreciate. They also sell spiked pins for $16 a set if you want to get more grip out of the Spry.

The Ride

The Spry’s platform is fairly large (106mm x 100mm), quite thin (11mm), and is ever so slightly concave. I found the shape of the pedal to be very comfortable and supportive—plenty wide for my feet, which aren’t narrow by any means. The Spry’s thin profile also helps reduce pedal strikes on rocks, roots, logs, etc., which in turn helps your foot stay planted on the pedal.

Wearing the 5.10 Impact VXi and Freerider VXi, the grip on the Spry was good, yet loose enough to allow me to quickly re-position my foot if I needed to. I didn’t use the Spry in very muddy conditions too often, but when I did, I didn’t have any issues with mud getting clogged in them. Opting for a different set of Xpedo’s pins would likely provide you with more grip than the “straight” pins that come with the Spry. But, for what it’s worth, I would guess this would make shifting your foot position on the pedal more difficult, which is good or bad, depending on your preferences.

Pin Retention & Durability

I lost a pin twice from the outside corner of one of the pedals (the pin most likely to take a hit during a pedal strike). The pin deformed its socket when it was knocked out, stripping a number of the threads from the pedal body. Here, the downside of the Spry’s light magnesium construction became apparent.

I was still able to thread a new pin into the pedal, but it only stayed put for a single ride. Getting a pin to hold in the damaged socket would have required using JB Weld to fuse it in place. All in all, I wouldn’t say the loss of one pin from the Spry  is a huge deal after 50 days of testing, but given how malleable the pedal’s magnesium body is, its seems likely to eventually happen again. I wonder whether Xpedo could tweak the design of the Spry so that pin retention isn’t dependent upon the threaded sockets in the pedal body itself—maybe they could seat removable nuts in the pedal platform that pins could thread into?

The pedals are covered in scratches and small dings, which is to be expected, but otherwise they’ve held up very well to some very hard pedal strikes (the kind where you worry that the pedal might no longer be attached to the crank arm).

The Spry’s bearing performance has also been great. After a brief break-in period of a couple days, the pedals began to spin with little resistance, and still do. One pedal loosened up a bit from the crank arm recently, but I was able to tighten it again with a short hex key.

Bottom Line

If you’re looking for the most durable set of flat pedals that will be sure to withstand heavy abuse for multiple seasons to come, then you might be disappointed with the Spry. I see myself replacing them after another season or two if more pins tear out. Still, the pedals perform very well, and they’ll shave ~200g off your bike weight. If you don’t think the durability issues I’ve described will be a problem for you (given where you ride and how much you beat up your pedals), then spending $80 for the Spry could be a great choice.