Reply to PH's post at
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=13356.msg100314#msg100314 VP-191 sealed-bearing trekking pedals https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/search/?term=VP-191 (the pair on my Kranich are on their third bike, eighteen years of use and still smooth as silk),
Interesting, I need some flat pedals, what's the grip like on those Andre? The plastic ones I've tried can be lethal in the wet and the rugged metal ones can ruin a decent pair of shoes... if I have to change shoes to ride I might as well use SPD's.
The rubber your foot rests on, either side of the pedal, is serrated and very hardwearing but very effective. I routinely cycle with rubber-soled street shoes or in the summer sandals, and have never had a problem with grip on the VP-191, wet or dry. Its only problem, which I've long learned to live with, is that the pedal is a bit on the narrow side for my size 12 shoes. But the only wider pedals I could find were a) vintage and not quite as smooth-turning or b) those metal things with the studs that ruin your shoe-soles and your shins. I bought a pair of nicely wide vintage Phillips "block" pedals on the net and used them for a while until they were destroyed in an incident of a sort the VP-191 just shrugs off, and went back to the VP-191 as not quite perfect but much more than adequately sufficient.
It may be of interest how I discovered the VP-191. I bought a Trek with an automatic gearbox and adaptive suspension, all of it electronic, but the designer had been a bit confused about what sort of person would buy such a bike, and made it overly sporting so that I had to reengineer it lightly to fit my style of riding. Trek Benelux proved extremely helpful, and in the box of components they sent me FOC was a pair of VP-191 off the boss's bike, so to speak, which I found vastly superior to the expensive boutique items on the bike as delivered. Several years later my Kranich arrived from Utopia, a firm that fits nothing but the best, with their standard pedals: VP-191; I hadn't even considered the optional pedals they offered because I don't see how a pedal can be better than the VP-191 for my use except if it were a wider version of the 191, all other elements the same.
Basically, the VP-191 is a fit and forget pedal.
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VP stands for Victor Pedals. Pedals are VP's core business, and was for decades their only business. Many of the expensively other-branded pedals you can buy are in fact made by VP and what you pay for is not a better pedal but a greater percentage of the purchase price spent on advertising to build a boutique brand. I once saw what were clearly rebranded VP-191 sold as a "limited edition" for £199 a pair -- and doing roaring business.
