Yoshimura Pedals Review: We Can’t Get Enough of These Yoshimura Chilao MTB Pedals – john watson | The Radavist | A group of individuals who share a love of cycling and the outdoors.

I’m a collector of goods by nature. When I find a pair of pants, backpack, shorts, or even shoes I love and cannot live without, I tend to buy a “backup” or secondary set to hold onto. Sometimes, this can get expensive, especially when it comes to bike parts but with the uncertainty of the current supply chain shortage brought on by the pandemic, my hoarding has been elevated. Take for instance these Yoshimura Chilao Pedals. When we first posted about them back in 2020, I bought a set for a few reasons…

First of which is the name, as they’re dubbed Chilao, after one of my favorite – if not the favorite – SoCal MTB trail systems. Second, is my undying support for American production. One of the things the supply chain shortage has shown is that our dependence on making all our crap in China can leave us vulnerable when something like an 18-month long pandemic comes into the picture. I’d say the latter is a whole ‘nother conversation but my main model of consumerism is buying products made in their country of design origin. This acts as a filter for consumerism. If I like something, it’ll often be the deciding factor for if I purchase it or not.

In years past, I’ve bought Hope’s made in the UK pedals, or back when Race Face made their pedals in Canada but it’s been a while since a US manufacturer has been milling out MTB pedals.

Yoshimura is best known for its street bike/moto products but recently they began making MTB components as well, with the Chilao pedal being its flagship product. I’ve now bought two pairs of these pedals, after giving the first pair a rundown on my touring bikes over the past year and now, since the only fix for this reoccurring knee issue I have is a migration to flat pedals on my mountain bikes, I had to buy another pair – this time in Pewter – for the Womble.

Pedals are simple but they tend to get complicated when speaking to aficionados. Some cyclists like wider platforms, others like thicker pedals. Some want bigger, dagger-like pins, while others file the stock pins down. For me, with a size 12 shoe, the “Large” design’s dimensions of 110mm (long) x 107.25mm (wide) fit my feet perfectly, while avoiding carving into off-camber, bench-cut trails. This is partially to do with their dimensions and also thanks to the in-board position of the platform on the spindle, which as you can see in the photos, puts the pedals super close to the crankarm.

They’re also light, at 375grams, and spin effortlessly on their CNC machined, heat-treated spindles atop of two sealed bearings. The pedal platforms themselves are milled from 6061-T6 billet aluminum, making them resilient to rock bashing. There’s even a nice and subtle “cupping” profile, which allows your feet to sit in, rather than on the platform. Each pedal is anodized in a durable surface coloration with laser-etched graphics, in pewter or brown.