What better way to celebrate the Asia cyclocross season than with a new cyclocross friendly pedal from Ritchey Logic?

• Name/model: Ritchey Paradigm Mountain Bike Pedal
• Compatible with: Ritchey and Shimano style cleats
• Axle: CroMo
• Body: Aluminium
• Weight: 230 grams
• Company website: www.ritcheylogic.com
• Competitors: Shimano, Crank Bros Eggbeaters, Time ATAC

This product can be purchased in:

Hong Kong at: P.C. Sportech
Singapore at: Kian Hong Cycling
Korea at: Spomate Inc.
Japan at: Tokyo San-Esu

Intro. . .

The Paradigm is the top of the Ritchey MTB hierarchy build on a CroMo axle with an Aluminium body. When the Paradigms landed in my hands I was impressed with their weight and workmanship. The pedals look tough and with very little by way of pedal body they looked like they would shed mud well. I bolted them onto our Lake test shoes and looked forward to breaking them in for a couple of weeks before racing them in our local Cyclocross series.

Firstly, you may be asking "Wait a moment, what's a paradigm? Ritchey pedals used to be called 'V' (V1, V2, V3) etc. I am very confused (and probably slightly dehydrated)"

Well we're glad you asked! Thomas Kuhn first coined the idea of a 'paradigm shift' in his influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962)

A scientific revolution occurs, according to Kuhn, when scientists encounter anomalies which cannot be explained by the universally accepted paradigm within which scientific progress has thereto been made. The paradigm, in Kuhn's view, is not simply the current theory, but the entire worldview in which it exists, and all of the implications which come with it. It is based on features of landscape of knowledge that scientists can identify around them.

Aren't you glad you asked? According to the name - these pedals will change the way the world looks at pedals.

Ritchey History

Ritchey has been involved in making pedals for almost as long as industry giant Shimano Inc. We have been involved in riding Ritchey pedals since they released their very first pair a looooooooong time ago as I have always liked their basic, easy to use, easy to service, lightweight designs. The Paradigm finally breaks from the Ritchey 'V' moniker and move to a new series of pedals called “Paradigm”.

Tom Ritchey is a passionate, former national level racer, with a bit of a product design flair. At the end of the day Ritchey, similar to Keith Bontrager has always had a unique, common sense approach to building the best road and mountain components available.

Tom was on the scene with other pioneers in the early days of mountain biking and he saw numerous ways to improve the equipment they were using. But his desire to build better parts wasn't rooted in some grand business plan - many parts simply didn't exist and the ones that did required substantial improvement. Tom saw an opportunity to develop lighter, stronger, better components.

Starting in high school, Tom was focused on saving weight without compromising the strength of the racing bicycles he built for himself. Over the years Tom's focus has shifted from frame building to component design, but his obsession with functional, lightweight and reliable equipment has not waivered.

Tom's interest in adventurous travel while having his own bike available, led him to create the perfect solution - the Break-Away travel bike, which easily checks through as personal luggage.

A knack for developing and refining manufacturing processes and using the best resources available has furthered Ritchey's reputation as one of the most prolific component manufacturers in the industry. Many Ritchey designs and manufacturing methods have become industry standards. The success of Ritchey products in international competition has validated Tom's ideas and generated valuable feedback to further refine and develop new Ritchey products.

Tom still puts in 10,000 miles (16,000 km's) a year on his bike, constantly thinking of ways to make it better. These miles of experience and unending passion for bicycles shine through in every detail of a Ritchey component.

Marketing blurb

'The latest classic pedal design from Tom Ritchey'

This is truly what I like, and have always liked about Ritchey as a company - their marketing is amazingly basic. They use the equivalent of the "buy soap because it makes you clean" approach to marketing. For us at cyclingnewsasia this is simple, clean, quality fun and this also summarises Ritchey for us. Nice people who make nice stuff.

Reality

I immediately attached the pedals to my Cyclocross bike which sports Campagnolo cranks. We had no problems with installation (8mm hex wrench) and with a touch of grease added to the pedal spindles the pedals threaded in easily.

The pedals are very easy to adjust via one adjustor bolt on each side of the pedal. The adjustment is rather minute and we moved the pedals from very loose to very tight – neither adjustment worried us too much or was too loose or too tight.

Mounting the cleats was also extremely straight forward, however there were no instructions included with our pedals. We always read the instructions as some pedals allow you to mount cleats on either right or left shoes to increase or decrease the amount of float they offer. Still not sure on that one.

Interestingly on the package the product comes in there is a warning “NOT FOR USE ON EXERCISE BIKES” I still have no idea why. . . are exercise bikes dangerous for pedals? I then mounted the pedals on my exercise bike – the pedals were unharmed.

One thing I noticed on these pedals was I never felt like I could make a clean exit from them. During dismounts for cross run-ups I never developed the confidence to unclip on the run. This could be because I have become too used to the heel out school of exit but I never managed to get that nice “Snap and release”. Other users may have had better experiences, or it may have been the test shoes. Watch this space as we have mounted our pedals on another set of shoes to further test.

In the mud the pedals started well, but in thicker gunk the pedals got quite clogged. In the dry the pedals had no issues to speak of, and bearings (which have previously been tricky for Ritchey) were great.

Look

We received the Paradigm pedals in the prototype red colour. The pedal body is a matte red colour with a chrome pedal axle. Basically they look like your typical mountain bike pedal with a design aimed at an ease of mud clearance.

Looks are typically all about personal preference, so in my opinion I wouldn't buy red but, there are certainly other colours available (black). No worries. Ritchey still offers the 340 gram Comp, the 280 gram Pro, and the titanium-bodied 245 gram WCS.

Feel/Fit

At no stage did the pedals flex or cause any issues with our shoes. We have heard certain pedal systems to break carbon soles or cause damage – we had no reports of this with the Ritcheys.

Features

• Light weight
• An easy to use, set up and maintain
• If clogged with mud they clean very easily with water and a brush or a bit of pressure spray
• Retention worked flawlessly for us

Pro's!

• Weight – for riders who are looking for a light weight pedal system - 230 grams is excellent for something that is also so durable
• Colours – not many pedal companies offer a range of colours to match your rig (red and black)
• Easy to maintain and find parts for – you can open these guys up pretty easily and a medium to advance mechanic should be able to keep them running flawlessly
• A great pedal for dry, dusty conditions

Not so pros. . . .

• Exit – our test rider never got that definite ‘SNAP! YOU’RE OUT’
• Not as good clearing mud as we hoped

Bottom Line

We really liked these pedals – they were light, robust and simple. Our only issue was getting used to the exit which was something we couldn’t master.

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