Really how is it a bicycle if the normal accompaniments are not included…if anyone trots out the it’s a personal thing ,then grips bars saddles ,you know contact points should maybe excluded from the supply also.

What a load of shit

I’d rather that if they didn’t supply pedals it couldn’t be classed as a bike…..

That way every time I buy a new complete bike I don’t need to waste the first half hour of it’s life decrapifying it by taking off all the reflectors, spoke protectors & BS sticker

That said…. pedals, grips and saddles are such a personal choice, 9/10 they all go in the parts bin anyway

I agree that saddles are as personal as pedals, but saddles are just more or less comfortable, whereas pedals might be totally incompatible with your shoes.

What pedals would you stick on a bike? Decent flats?

Edit: mork, good point, forgot about that! Pretty key!

Just realised: I’ve never bought a new, complete bike. Was given a birthday present mountain bike when I was 14, since then, it’s been 2 x second hand complete, and a mix of new and old, built from parts.

The supplied pedals usually get just the bin, without the “parts” bit.

The only bike that come with pedals are the ones I won’t touch. Which pedals do I want? I have no idea which ones you want.

If pedals were mandatory all that would happen is a set of £2 pedals would be included, which go straight in the bin so not a good idea for anyone. Maybe a choice of pedal would be the answer but even then can you expect options of flat, SPD, Time, Speedplay, Crank Bros etc,.etc, and the differing costs of those pedals?

Err, most do, albeit they’re crap plastic ones that go straight into the bin.

Why? It’d just add to the price of the bike. They ain’t gonna give anything for free. I’m sure most shops will throw in a free sort of cheap pedals anyway if it’s that much of a big deal.

If pedals were mandatory all that would happen is a set of £2 pedals would be included

That’s exactly what happens… as above, many people will try a saddle or grips out. If you want flats then you probably don’t want a £100 pair of SPDs on your bike.

A basic set of spd pedals would be nice even cheaper last a year before you need to upgrade them who honestly specs plastic flat pedals on a 3k bike in the real world .my point is as sold its not even use able for its intended purpose

My latest edition (Kona Jake)arrived with plastic pedals with toe clips! Having size 11 feet I could literally just get my toe’s in there. But as least it had pedals.

There are some pretty acceptable plastic flats around for not much money nowadays, I don’t think that any bike should be supplied without pedals. Ok, they get swapped out pretty quickly to the riders pedal of choice but a cheap pair of spares in the shed can be priceless when desperate.

There are some pretty acceptable plastic flats around for not much money nowadays, I don’t think that any bike should be supplied without pedals.

I do think ride flats, I don’t want cheap plastic flats, I don’t need more pedals. Why should I pay for something I will never use that has no resale value that will probably just end up in a landfill?

Is it just an urban myth that better quality bikes don’t come with pedals as then they’d be a “complete bike” and would have to be fitted with a bell?

Before clipless pedals pretty well every bike used either flat pedals or toe straps (which could be fitted to many flats anyway) so there wasn’t much option. My first decent road bike was kitted out with a full Shimano 105 groupset which came with pedals (with toe clips).

I bought a Genesis Croix de Fer last year and that came with some cheap plastic flat pedals, I just swapped them out for a set of SPDs when I got home.

A basic set of spd pedals would be nice even cheaper last a year before you need to upgrade them

*You* may want a set of spd pedals on your £3k bike but many, many people do not. That’s a lot of pedals to supply for no reason.

SPDs? But I use Time/Cranks Bros/flats

There are some awkward customers out their. Our tandem, by negotiation, came with SPDs on the front, Times on the back.

A set of spd or flats similar money your not given an option

If you bought a car with no steering wheel you wouldn’t be able to drive it so how could it be sold as fit for purpose

@slowoldgit does that mean you actually spoke while in the shop? I always assumed most people just paid quietly and ran away before the scary people said something…
A mate would find something if you insisted your bike had to come with pedals or sell you a pair of what you wanted at a discount.

Is it just an urban myth that better quality bikes don’t come with pedals as then they’d be a “complete bike” and would have to be fitted with a bell?

That will all be supplied as reflectors and bell are legal requirements. Pedals a not and for the reasons listed really subjective.

philxx1975 – Member
A set of spd or flats similar money your not given an option

As try this handy phrase “hello mr/Mrs bike shop person, I’d like some pedals on my new bike. I’d like those ones please.”

If you bought a car with no steering wheel you wouldn’t be able to drive it so how could it be sold as fit for purpose

Bikes with pedals are available to those who want them. You’re comparing a car – a piece of utilitarian consumer product – with a piece of competition orientated sports equipment for enthusiasts. Utilitatran transportational bicycles come ready to ride straight out of the shop, compete with a pedals, a bell and a kickstand but the kind of bike you’re talking about is something different. I expect if you bought a Formula 1 car it would come without a seat.

I’m fairly confident that the shop could have offered get-you-home pedals from their recycling box. Yes, mike, we discussed it, chatted about sizes, possibly put down a deposit, went back and collected it. We may even have specced a suss seatpost. Awkward is as awkward does.

All our bikes came with pedals.

I think that shop is trying to rip you off again mate.

It surely cannot be possible that this whole ridiculous thread is gurgling away because someone doesn’t know how to fit pedals to a bicycle, can it?

😯

I’m just at a total loss to understand how this is happening otherwise though. The bike doesn’t come with pedals. So you just buy the sort of pedals you want (if you don’t have any already) and you fit them, using an allen key and a smear of grease.

The mind boggles…..

@slowoldgit I hope you washed your hands after 😉

My Demo came with Spesh Bennies which are supposed to be pretty good, but they were swapped out for Vaults.

I genuinely believe that it is be because at a certain level people do get funny about pedals – certain flats, SPD’s, Time etc. When I worked in a shop, we’d often chuck in the customers preferred pedals.

A basic set of spd pedals would be nice even cheaper last a year before you need to upgrade them

But I ride Time ATACs not SPD, so I’d have to throw those away as well.

Do you get so upset and angry about, well, everything?

@mikenewsmith – I said “fitted” not “supplied”, there’s a difference 8) The CdF I bought came “with” a bell but it wasn’t “fitted”. Reflectors are a legal requirement for the road in the UK but a bell isn’t (except in Northern Ireland).

Have a (single) set of cheap pedals at home can be useful to check that the annoying click isn’t your pedals.

Reflectors are a legal requirement for the road

And there is another issue… pedals supplied with a complete bike *must* have pedals reflectors fitted which kind of limits the options 🙂

My last new bike came with a pretty decent set of proper metal flat pedals with decent bearings and proper pins as standard equipment.

Granted I changed them for a set of massive bright orange superstar nanos that I got for fathers day, but that’s not the point.

@whitestone I’ve got pedals I don’t need more and I don’t want to pay for things I don’t need. If you want some pick up the cheapest set in the shop.

My last new bike came with a pretty decent set of proper metal flat pedals with decent bearings and proper pins as standard equipment.

Well at least you could probably sell them on for a couple of quid…

This thread is going nowhere without pedals.

depends on who’s buying doesn’t it – some people just want a bike
Unfortunately I have become so anal I can only buy frames now – otherwise everything comes off 😀

I’m not saying I want any more either! I’ve three pedal “systems” on my bikes: Look Keo on the road bike; SPDs on the commuter and SPDs or Flats on my MTB. Having one set of cheap pedals that haven’t seen any use can be useful just to check things.

Of course if (generic) you don’t want the pedals then the shop is left with an ever increasing pile of unwanted pedals. As mentioned above, there’s a difference between utility/commuter/play bikes and sports bikes in that buyers of bikes from the former groups just want to ride them whereas buyers of the latter want to set them up how they want.

I find this thread mind blowing! Why would you want to be forced to use a specific set of pedals? Far better than you ask the bike shop to provide the set of pedals you want. If it came with SPDs then you’d get people asking for shoes to use them with, and saying how is it a bike if you cannot people it.
The first ever bikes were in effect like balance bikes so of course it is still classed as a bike. And the analogy with cars is daft – the car doesn’t come with tax or insurance so you cannot drive it on the road. You need to sort these things out yourself.

Put the pedals you want on the bike and ride it. 🙄

Cars aren’t fit for purpose either. You can’t drive them out of the showroom unless you have bought insurance, on top of the cost of the car.

Gah! Beaten to it!

I expect if you bought a Formula 1 car it would come without a seat.

from memory they are molded to the driver so its an odd one that.

for balance i think a trek i bought once came with some crank beaters or something which i did swap for just spd shimano jobbies

If you bought a car with no steering wheel you wouldn’t be able to drive it so how could it be sold as fit for purpose

You don’t get a steering wheel until it’s time for some war.

You may as well just throw a fiver in the bin every time you buy a bike as that is effectively what you will be doing.

If they supply pedals you will be paying for them in the price. They are probably not going to be pedals you want so they are going straight in the parts box/jumble/charity pile.

Admittedly if they put something decent on there might be a small increase in the possibility they will be okay for you and certainly they will have some value to sell on if not but there doesnt seem to be any point.

If they supply flats or SPDs then which flats? Which type of SPD? Do they list bikes with flats and SPDs separately (same model) or just choose which will have which?

Personally I would rather manufacturers stopped supplying rubbish OEM stuff that come straight off a bike and reduced the price a little bit – in particular tyres. I think tyres and pedals are the two parts you are most likely to take straight off a bike. Grips you can generally live with and it’s only really those who need large grips that have a problem but they are the minority.

Grips and saddles will still function as a grip and saddle regardless of whether the person actually likes them but pedals might be completely unusable to some people. I don’t own any flat pedal cycling shoes so a bike with flats is un-ridable to me, likewise a lot of people dont have SPD compatible shoes.

I don’t own any flat pedal cycling shoes so a bike with flats is un-ridable to me

Maybe not, but you do own ‘shoes’ I assume? ergo a bike with flat pedals will still function safely

Maybe not, but you do own ‘shoes’ I assume? ergo a bike with flat pedals will still function safely

They might do but for the 30s before I put the ones I wanted on it hardly seems worth it. I might even treat myself to some new pedals in the shop and save the time removing and binning the pedals that are of no real use to me.