The Catalyst Pedals Are Guaranteed To Be The Best Performing, Most Comfortable Bike Pedals Ever….No Matter What Type of Riding You Do.
Our Patented Design gives you:
1) More Power
2) Better Efficiency
3) Less Pain
The Story Behind The Catalyst Pedal…
A few years ago I was sitting on the trail pissed off at the lack of support I was getting from my shoes and pedals.
Like a lot of you, I constantly had to deal with the compromises that came between a stiff soled shoe for performance and a pliable soled shoe for comfort. As a flat pedal rider I also dealt with the constant adjustments I felt like I had to make to get my foot just right on the pedal and how easily it could get knocked out of that position.
While I sat there I wondered to myself why don’t I need a stiff soled shoe to squat or deadlift in the gym? As a strength coach I often worked out barefoot or with minimalist shoes and encouraged clients to train the same way.
I had lifted hundreds of pounds in bare feet – putting them under far more stress than they ever saw on the bike – so I knew that the foot was a naturally strong and stable platform. But for some reason my feet turned into an unstable, unbalanced mess on the bike.
And suddenly it hit me – when lifting in the gym the ground supports both ends of the arch of my foot. The arch is one of the strongest forms in nature but only if it is supported on both ends.
Once you support both ends of the arch the foot is strong, stable and balanced. This is why you don’t need stiff soled shoes in the gym and good coaches will actually tell you not to come up on your toes. Pushing through the ball of the foot in the gym destabilizes the arch of the foot and make it harder to recruit the hips, which are the strongest muscles in the lower body.
How It Works...
To accomplish this the Catalyst Pedal features a full 5 inches/ 128 mm of contact space for your foot. This allows the pedal body to support both the ball of the foot and the heel while also resulting in a true mid-foot placement of the axle.
However, the Catalyst Pedal isn’t any wider than a normal flat pedal – 3.75 inches/ 95 mm to be exact. This means that it disappears under your foot and doesn’t expose any extra pedal body to rock strikes. This also means that the Catalyst Pedal is actually smaller underfoot than any other “oversized” flat pedal.
In order to get the most out of your Catalyst Pedals you just need to do one simple thing…
Make sure that axle is in the middle of your arch.
On the Catalyst Pedal this foot position will make sure that you are able to support both ends of your arch. No other pedal on the market is long enough to accomplish this, which is what makes the Catalyst Pedal so effective.
A REGULAR PEDAL CREATING A FORWARD PUSH INTO THE PEDAL.
With the ball of the foot on the pedal you are forced to push forward – literally trying to kick your foot off of the pedal as you pedal.
THE CATALYST PEDAL CREATING A BALANCED PUSH INTO THE PEDAL.
But when you move the foot forward it balances the forces going into the pedal. Now you can drive down into a strong, stable platform without having to fight those forward forces.
This foot placement improves your pedaling in 3 ways:
Power
By supporting both ends of the arch of the foot you naturally support the arch itself, which gets rid of flex in the arch.
An arch that is only supported on one side is weak and flexible while one that is supported on both sides is strong and stable. By supporting the arch with the pedal body itself you get rid of the foot flex you usually need stiff soled shoes for. This improves power transfer since the pedal body itself is far stiffer than even the stiffest soled shoes, which means every bit of power your legs produce go straight into the crank arms.
Efficiency
The mid-foot placement of the axle balances the foot, which takes stress off of the ankle joint and allows for better recruitment of the hips.
The hips have also been shown to be the major muscles used when pedaling, not your quads (ELMER, S. J., P. R. BARRATT, T. KORFF, and J. C. MARTIN. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 2011). The mid-foot position has also been shown to shift the stress from the ankles to the hips (J.R. Van Sickle Jr, M.L Hull/ Journal of Biomechanics 2007). This means the mid-foot position allows your body to better recruit the main muscles powering the pedal stroke.
Comfort & Stability
The more balanced foot position achieved from this pedal design will result in a more balanced application of force into the pedals.
Instead of pushing forward into the pedal through the ball of the foot you will push straight down through the entire foot. This will result in less stress on the feet since you aren’t pushing them into the toe box of your shoes with every pedal stroke, plus your feet won’t push over the top and come off during hard sprints on the trail.
Now you can let your foot move naturally on the pedal with the same type of articulation and support it was designed to thrive on. The Catalyst Pedal is the only pedal in the world that looks first at how the foot and lower leg optimally move and then applies that insight to the bike.
Design Highlights:
– Extruded and Machined using our exclusive mold using 6061 Aluminum with T6 Heat Treatment
– Manufactured by VP Components using parts and materials with a proven track record for durability and quality
– Designed to connect the front and back ends of arch of the foot, it is the longest platform for your foot on the market
– Dual sealed bearings and DU Bushing internals
– Heat treated Cr-Mo Spindle that is compatible with a standard 15mm wrench or 6mm allen
– 18 pins per side strategically placed to maximize the new, optimized foot position possible with this design
– Shipped with longer (8mm) replacement grub screws to swap out for extra traction
– Available in 4 anodized colors: Black, Blue, Red and Grey
