Like most bike manufacturers, Canyon offers a range of in-house components, including bars, stems, saddles, and this new addition, the Performance Flat Pedal. The difference here is Canyon isn’t just buying from a Taiwanese catalogue, it actually puts some effort into the design. How does it compare to the best mountain bike flat pedals though?

Like the Crankbrothers Stamp, the pedal is offered in two platform sizes – small for size 36-42 EU feet and large for 43-48, although there’s nothing stopping you up or downsizing.

I like a big pedal, so I’m testing the large, which has a 110x110mm platform. It’s 17mm thick measured at the perimeter, and 15.5mm over the axle. Having a concave profile helps centre your foot on the platform, but for added security the Performance flat has 10 pins per side, and these are thin set-screws that really bite into the sole of the shoe. The pins are threaded in from the backside, which, despite what companies claim, doesn’t make them any easier to remove. However, you can adjust the pin’s height by adding washers.

The Performance Flat spins on a cro-mo axle with a sealed DU bushing. Most modern pedals use a similar dry bearing because you don’t really need to lube it. There’s actually a mini cartridge bearing in this pedal too. After a couple of months use, everything felt smooth, but when I removed the axle there was some rust at the thick end. It only has a thin rubber seal, and water seems to get past it.

The Canyon Performance Flat has a similarly broad platform size to the DMR Vault, and there are a few scuff marks on the outside edges as a result, but with its heavy chamfer, there’s none on the leading edge. It does have marginally less concavity than DMR’s classic flat pedal, but your foot does genuinely feel planted on the platform.

Canyon claims it has ‘strategically placed different pin heights to keep your feet in place’, and also machined some ‘signature stripes’ into the platform surface to enhance the grip, but I couldn’t feel an advantage from either of these when riding.