If both flat pedal form and function matter to you, Yoshimura’s first mountain bike product will certainly pique interest.
The Californian company is renowned for its exotic motorcycle exhausts, but among Yoshimura’s employees there are ardent mountain bikers - and these riders convinced management that branching out into flat pedals would be a worthwhile business expansion.
Unlike most other flat pedals, the Yoshimura Chilao’s have a beautifully organic shape to their structure. Where you’d expect to find sharp edges on a conventional mountain bike flat pedal, the Chilao’s feature a much rounder profile.
The aesthetic appeal of these pedals is further enhanced by Yoshimura’s KashiKote colour option, which is akin to a peppery saffron hue. Riders also have a choice of pewter, which is the standard finish.
In terms of mechanics, these Yoshimura pedals spin on a heat-treated nickel chromoly steel spindle, sealed by two cartridge bearings.
Overall platform size is 110mm x 105mm with a very low profile height only 14mm. The Chilao’s thinnest is a number which is most important when evaluating the ability of a flat pedal design to avoid rock strikes. Yoshimura will also be offering a smaller platform size of 100mm x 95mm.
Providing the traction interface with your shoes are ten aluminium pins, with 2.5mm hex heads. Yoshimura has chosen to equip the Chilao pedals with M4x8 screws, which are readily soured at your local hardware outlet.
Flat pedal purists might question the choice of aluminium screws in a 6061-aluminium platform structure, but Yoshimura is convinced their design logic is sound and pin extraction and replacement won’t become an annoyance.
Overall weight for the full-size platform Chilao pedal is 375g and the pedal service kit costs $25.
Pricing for the Yoshimura Chilao pedals are $190, whilst the smaller platform size sells at $180.
