Pedals – Soooo 'un'-photogenic

Gorgeous looking bikes, but why do so many press shots in mags etc not include any pedals? Surely they form quite an important part of any bike… they look unfinished and in the case of the shot above where presumably we are supposed to believe the bike is being ridden where it should, how did it get there without pedals….

Just wonderin’ loike…

Lots of ‘fully built’ bikes don’t include pedals… so may be for advertising standards purposes. The same reason that food packages always have to have ‘serving suggestion’ written on them.

Also, people have strong preferences for spds vs. flats – they might not want to alienate people.

Dave

Maybe they’re saying ‘look there’s even room for you to put your own ‘stamp’ on the bike’

Maybe they think some people are so polarised and crap with the spanners they think putting flats or spds on will lose sales. EDIT So what Dave said ^ whilst I was taking too long to write this.

And, why do bikes in press shots stand up with no visible means of support?

There should be a warning on these shots. Something like: Don’t leave your bike upright with no means of support, cos it’s gonna fall over.

partly because they dont want to imply the bike comes with pedals, partly because pedals might imply type of bike to some (SPDs = xc flats = gnar MAX). Also I suppose it draws your eye to the cranks, so you can see what spec it is easily.

The story I was fed when I was ‘in the trade’ was that it was not a complete bike without pedals, therefore could be shipped/photographed/advertised without lots of manky reflectors and bells hanging off it.

This makes sense for the photos above, all advertising shots? any reflectors or bells in them? 8)