Review
Something you’ve always been able to count on with composite flat pedals is price: they are much easier on the wallet than their swankier aluminum counterparts. While there is a price advantage here, it’s not as significant as we’ve come to expect. These Tectonic Alibis are 140 CAD / 100 USD per pair and have some premium features you don’t get with other composite pedals. OneUp’s composites (for example) are 60 CAD / 50 USD, a fairly typical price for a good composite pedal. That puts a hefty premium on the Alibis.
Tectonic Alibi Flat Pedal Specs and Features
- 108mm (W) x 128mm (L) platform area
- 2.5mm dual concavity
- 14mm thick at centre
- ReVibe carbon fiber-reinforced nylon pedal body
- 10 Sharktooth traction pins per side (2.9 mm thick)
- Inboard bushing / outboard bearing spindle system
- 390g/pair (396 on my scale)
- Limited Lifetime Warranty
- Designed in Durango, Colorado
At 397g apiece, the Alibis are lighter than Tectonic’s 200 USD Altar V2 aluminum pedals.
Tectonic uses post-consumer carbon fibre along with nylon in the Alibi pedal body.
According to Andrew McKee from Tectonic: “ReVibe is a carbon-fibre reinforced nylon, unlike the glass fibre reinforced nylon materials used in other composite pedals. The biggest appeal for this material is the substantial increase in impact resistance and strength; the strength-to-weight ratio is better than aluminum, and it tends to slide better over rocks. The +/- 75% recycled content is a nice bonus as well.”
I managed to put some gouges in these, but nothing structural, and I hit one of them very hard once.
I did my worst with these, and this surface gouge was all I could muster. I smacked a pin so hard once that I was sure it would be sheared off, but the unique structure of Tectonic’s pin didn’t even reveal a blemish. In fact, looking at them now, there is no evidence of pin damage at all. No anodizing to wear off means that composite pedal bodies look fresh far longer than aluminum ones.
Pedal Pins Like No Other
I have seen pins that thread directly through the pedal body, but these don’t thread into the pedal at all. Instead, they have set screws that mate with holes in the pins’ waists, holding them firmly from the middle. There is nothing that could be ripped from the pedal body, and no threads that could be damaged. And, based on my evidence, this has resulted in very strong pins indeed.
A set screw threads into every pin’s waist, holding it in place with no threads in the pedal body. I tightened every pin after this. They weren’t very loose, but there was no thread locker on them either.
Here you can see the threaded mid-section of the pin within the pedal body.
I smoked a pin into a rock with a sickening scrape and crack that surely indicated failure. Upon inspection, not only was there no failure, I couldn’t determine which pin had struck rock at all. Virtually every other pedal I have used would have sustained damage from the impact. OneUp’s new breakaway pins do that by design to prevent damage to the threads in the pedal body, but it takes very little force to shear them, so I have been replacing them regularly.
Tectonic provides every spare part you could need at reasonable prices. 10 pins cost 9 USD, two spindles are 14, and a bearing kit for two pedals is 10.
On The Trail
One of the big benefits of composite pedals is that when you smash them into a rock, it doesn’t sound like you’ve crashed a helicopter. The material damps the impact, even when you strike a pin. This has been evident with most of my pedal strikes, but snagging a pin still feels nasty. The pedal shape matches nicely with shoes, and they are longer than they are wide, making it easier to sneak through tight spaces. Unlike most aluminum pedals, they don’t have a bevelled leading edge, but thus far this hasn’t been an issue because they are relatively thin.
This is a bushing-outboard, bearing-inboard design. Getting inside is easy with a thin-walled 8 mm socket. These were well-lubricated from the start and they spin great.
After several rides, these are spinning with Swiss precision. They actually feel so smooth after a good number of rides that it’s hard to believe there is a bushing on one side.
If you came here to hear about the grip, it’s very good, but not without a downside. The pins measure 2.9 mm in diameter on my callipers, and they sink into rubber soles very well. The cost of that is that they will also sink into flesh with the same enthusiasm. In my experience, a hard shin strike without protection, with 3 mm pins or less, is much more likely to result in a stitch-worthy laceration compared to 4 mm pins. Further adventures with flat pedals have suggested that round-edged* pins mitigate the damage somewhat, compared to threaded pins.
*like those on the new Shimano Saint pedals
These pins are effective and strong but only 2.9 mm in diameter. This is great for grip but not for smashing your shins into.
Normally, threads are essential because the pins thread directly into the top of the pedal. As mentioned above, these don’t thread in, and yet the ends are threaded for some reason. I emailed Andrew at Tectonic about this because I was curious whether these pins were co-opted from some other application that requires threads. Here was his response:
“We experimented quite a bit on the profiling of the business end of the pins, using a local Swiss-machine operation. The grippiest option was an hourglass shape, but it was particularly brutal on socks and flesh alike. We found the threads helped with traction in situations where foot placement was less than ideal, relative to a smooth pin shape. These are a custom part for us; but I did a fair bit of searching for an off-the-shelf solution.”
My foot placement on the Alibis. I appreciate the way the entire platform fits beneath the shadow of all my shoes. This makes estimating width, as you head into a narrow cravasse, more precise in my experience.
The platform size and shape are quite similar to a size small Crankbrothers Stamp Evos and OneUp Waves. It’s an ideal platform shape for me, and I got along with them right away. The aforementioned high grip didn’t prevent me from repositioning my foot while standing, tested while wearing three different shoes. These are pedals I could ride every day without a second thought.
If I were paying for them, that would become a different calculation. Obviously, if they last longer than other composite pedals and perform better, that could justify the extra cash. Based on my experience thus far, I see no reason to doubt that, but time is the only reliable arbiter of durability.
Tectonic Alibi Flat Pedals 100 USD / 140 CAD