Senathon

Just got my new Poseidon X bike and one of the pedals are stiff? Is that supposed to happen? I was planning to get new flat pedal any ways. Any recommendation for a gravel bike that used on light gravel and mainly roads? I was looking at Crank Brothers, Fookers and Raceface but can not decided what series to go with.

GamblerGORD53

Yah, most pedals are stupidly stiff when new. Take them apart and figure out why and how they are made. Could be both sides cup and cone or 2 sealed bearings or 1 bearing and the other side is a bushing. These don't really have an adjustment, the cap over the nut is the lateral limiter.
The rubber seals are mostly what limits the twirling now.

KerryIrons

The fact that one is stiff while the other is not suggests bearing adjustment, seal clearance, or even excess grease in the stiff pedal. Taking them apart is the only way to discover the cause.

maddog34

While waiting for your newpedals, try loosening the bearing adjustment on the tight one 1/16 turn at a time until loose but free of any slop.

the "Too Tight!" thing is common with pedals.. poor quality control.

Sending them back seems to only add delay to the process since you may get the same problem again...

Sigh.

veganbikes

The pedals that come with most bikes if they come with pedals are usually cheap test ride pedals designed to be cheap and nothing else functionality is not really there. You can ride them and some people do for long periods but in the end I would just throw them in a bin either to save them or toss them. Yes you can take the time to try and take them apart but I would only do that if you wanted to learn not to actually improve the pedals.

In terms of replacements DO NOT BUY FAKES/KNOCKOFFS. Crank Brothers or RaceFace would be fine (I personally love my Crank Bros Stamp 7s) but faux brands like Fooker are just knocking off the look of normally designed and tested pedals they aren't doing the work themselves they are just making them look like in this case the Race Face Chesters but without the quality and support behind them.

dsbrantjr

I find that pedals typically come from the factory skimpily lubed and too tightly adjusted; I always lube and adjust new pedals before putting them into service. I specifically only buy pedals which re easy to service; MKS are good in this repect, once you spring for the little dust cap tool.

Iride01 

Don't underestimate how much drag a bearing stuffed full of grease will have compared to one that has been used a while or has no more than just enough grease at the very start. Some greases can take some time to get the excess pushed out of the way so they feel as if they are moving freely.

sweeks

Just out of curiosity, is there a tool for removing the grey plastic dust caps on some MKS pedals, such as the AR2 EZY? I manage to get these off by prying, but it takes a toll on them eventually.

This dust cap *looks* like it ought to have a tool to remove it. Does such a tool exist?

JohnDThompson 

That's true, but unloaded "stiffness," whether from excess grease, tight pre-load adjustment, or seal drag is trivial to the point of insignificance when the bearing is loaded in use.

RB1-luvr

I recently test spun all of the Speedplay pedals I have (on four bikes), and three of them spun easily and continued to spin for a while, and one set stopped spinning immediately though it felt smooth. I injected grease in the three spinners, and now they are all smooth feeling, but do not spin excessively, which according to the Park video I watched, is how they are supposed to be.

Iride01 

Yes I totally agree. It's many times over looked that the amount of force we perceive as being a big difference when turning things with our hand or fingers really isn't that much. And the amount of force to keep something moving once it is put in motion is very often much less than what it took to get it moving.