Deity Bladerunner Pedals: Rider Review

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for. 

Do you ride flats or clipless? The debate will never get old. There's certainly still plenty of people on either side of the fence. However, with the advent of sticky rubber shoes, flats have made a comeback like none other. Our friend, Ryan Wolfe, recently made the switch from clipless to flats and isn't looking back. Check out his review below!

Introduction

Recently I purchased a set of Deity Bladerunner platform pedals from Worldwide Cyclery to replace the stock pedals on my newest bike, and even though I’ve ridden nothing but clipless pedals for several years it didn’t take me long to fall in love with these. Initially, I was having quite a bit of trouble keeping my feet on the stock pedals of my new bike, but after replacing them with the bladerunners I was loving flat pedal riding in no time

Performance

The thing I like the most about these is how wide and thin they are, even though losing grip on them is pretty uncommon it does still happen occasionally with all platform pedals, and it’s much easier to find my place again on the Bladerunner pedals than with smaller pedals. Sadly this also comes with a small drawback; if you aren’t already wearing a rugged set of knee/shin guards, you’re going to want them with these. The pedals stick out far enough from the bike that I regularly find myself scraping my legs on them when I’m trying to walk the bike, and since they’ve got metal pins they tend to tear up cheaper sets of knee pads and also my legs when I’m too forgetful to bring my good knee pads. If you’ve got a good set of pads though, this won’t be an issue.

Final Thoughts

Despite being thin, they’ve held up pretty well to the abuse I’ve put them through. The Stumpjumper Evo I put my pedals on has a pretty low bottom bracket, and most days I smash my Bladerunners on a rock at least once, but they’re still doing just as well as they did when I first got them.

The bottom line is this; you can certainly find useable pedals for a cheaper price, but I’m skeptical that you can find pedals that are as rugged, grippy, and aesthetically pleasing as the Bladerunner pedals, so I’d highly recommend them.

Have you been considering flats but are still on the fence? Dig a little deeper and check out our top composite flat pedal picks. Like Ryan mentioned, a pair of leg guards may come in handy as well. Take a look at our favorite picks for those too!