One of the most tenacious pedals around, and the tall pins and the centrally dished out zone combination really lock your shoes down
ANVL Tilt V3 flat pedal review
Transition Bike Company’s component division ANVL has a completely redesigned Tilt flat pedal. The new 6061-aluminium platform is 105mm across, 17mm tall and uses an offset parallelogram design.
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The Tilt isn’t super low on leading and outer edges, but the middle section dips 2mm lower to achieve concavity. This is a slightly different approach to other flats, where only front and rear edges (rather than sides) are usually higher to create a fore and aft concave, rather than the centrally dished-out shape here.
ANVL’s steel, top-loading, pins are shin-scaringly tall at almost 6mm and extend all around the platform’s circumference, with 10 on each side. A Chromoly axle pierces two sealed bearings and a bushing on each pedal, and, both in terms of spinning lifespan and axle strength, the Tilt proved rock solid during testing.
The ‘standard’ axle design extends out of the platform enough to play nicely with carbon crank boots too, without the need for mods or extra crank arm washers.
With extreme grip levels, the Tilt’s one of the most tenacious pedals around, and the tall pins and the centrally dished out zone combination really lock your shoes down in all weather and trail conditions.
There’s a less supportive, spread-the-load, feeing underfoot compared directly to the Deity T-Mac I’ve been using a lot though, so comfort doesn’t quite match. And, despite always moaning about poor grip on flat pedals, I met my match here, and had an issue with excessive grip, which meant it was almost impossible to shuffle feet around if needed.
Somewhat at odds with this, I also flipped the pedals accidentally multiple times. I’m assigning this to the tall pins and slightly taller pedal, but it’s possibly related to the dished out shape too. Either way, this could be very damaging to shins if you get unlucky.
If you lust after maximum grip, these pedals are well built and a good shout, but I still prefer a few other lower profile options that seem to offer more comfort and resistance to flipping – for my shoe size (43) and riding style at least.