HOPE F22 PEDALS
Locked in.
Unbothered.
Flourishing.
Words and images: Justin Henehan
Back in 1981, when the shorts were stubby and the beer bottles tall, Shimano created a mini-revolution with their DX BMX pedal.
Until then, bear-trap pedals had ruled the roost. Constructed from a cast aluminium body wrapped in a denticulated semi-circle of spikes, the bear trap was a design that boasted both mediocre grip and the potential to julienne your shin if you put a foot wrong. They were also prone to exploding when bashed into anything more solid than your calf muscle.
The DX pedal, on the other hand, relied on a convex-shaped cast aluminium body with an array of small metal pins. They were grippy and comfortable while also being much, much stronger than bear traps.
It’s fair to say every flat pedal on the market today can trace its lineage directly back to the DX in some way. Pulling the new Hope F22 pedals out of their packaging, the resemblance to the venerable DX pedal is clear. The pedal body is larger and more intricately machined, but it’s still clearly a progeny of the DX, albeit one that’s evolved a number of steps.
In the past 30 years, Hope has become synonymous with beautifully machined chunks of aluminium. Produced at its Barnoldswick factory in the United Kingdom, the F22 pedal is no exception—featuring intricately machined details in a range of annodized colours, the F22 is a very pretty bit of kit. And they’re not heavy either—at 360g per pair, the F22s are among the lighter-weight options out there.
Riding
The first thing I noticed about the F22 during the winch up my local hill was the size—they were comfortable enough, and my size 10 shoes didn’t feel like they were hanging over the outer edges, but I wouldn’t want them to be any smaller. Riders with bigger or wider feet may find the Hope pedals on the small side.
Like the classic DX pedal, there’s a fair bit of fore-aft offset of the platform to the axle. This places the pedal body further forward on your shoe relative to the axle. Having ridden flat pedals for a very long time, I’m used to more symmetrical pedals and a more centre-of-the-foot platform position. However, it didn’t take long to adapt, and the offset will feel natural to people who also ride clipless pedals.
On my first run down, the F22s felt slightly vague, kind of like my foot was hovering on top of the pins above the pedal body. Mountain bike shoes tend to be quite stiff, so I think the combination of shoe, pedal size, and tall pins meant there wasn’t enough room for my shoe to sink into the concave space between the pins. Fitting the spacers to lower the front and rear pins reduced this sensation somewhat, allowing the sole of my shoe to flex into the concave zone more, but I’d happily go even shorter for more positive contact with the pedal body itself.
Even with the shorter pins, the grip created by the F22 pedals was immense. Heels dropped, ploughing through the type of chopped up terrain that kicks like a deranged destrier, my feet always felt serenely locked in and secure. That extra grip encouraged me to push more forcefully through the pedals in the knowledge that no matter how squirrelly things got my feet would stay unbothered.
Who are they for?
The Hope F22 pedals, with their tall pins, create huge amounts of grip and a secure, locked-in feel that riders who love bombing fast and rough trails will enjoy.
While the pedal platform is on the smaller size, so probably best suited to riders with narrower feet and shoe sizes US10 and below, I found the F22s to be very solid-feeling and comfortable.
At $300, they’re priced in the premium bracket, but I reckon that’s very reasonable for a beautiful and well-designed product, that’s made in the UK, and user serviceable for the foreseeable future.
For more information, check out hopetech.com or hit up your local dealer to order a pair.