Review: Twenty6 Predator Ti Pedal (Updated)

The Twenty6 Predator testing is finally over, and the conclusion is crystal clear. Tyler (the man behind Twenty6) promised an evolution of the much acclaimed Prerunner pedal. Pretty much everything was reviewed and improved upon... And Tyler delivered.
The result is the Predator pedal; thin, big, lightweight, grippy, and more expensive than your car. I wanted to find out whether this pedal is worth your hard earned cash, or whether this a CNC adventure gone wrong? Read on and find out. But first the basics:

Enduro sealed bearing, and quad o-ring seals should keep this sucker going strong for a long time.

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Self lubricating tapered turcite bushing, on a burly nitride coated titanium spindle. The CNC milled pedal body is has a concave and offset design, and each pin is isolated and raised so that the foot is resting less on the pedal body, and more on the pin itself. This pedal has more tech than your flat screen tv.

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My pin-system is smarter than your pin-system. No seriously, have a look at this picture to fully understand why this is such a smart system.

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The Predator is slightly taller than the 11mm Point One Racing Podium Pedal. But overall the Predator is bigger. If some of you would want some more comparison pics, please say so in the comments field, and Ill upload them. Comments does not require a sign-in.

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Predator with a Ti-axle. 343grams. Pretty close to the claimed 340 grams

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The amount of grip is just insane. If you are a 5.10 shoe user (and if you are not, you should be), be prepared to experience a new level of grip. The pedal body is large and thin, finally a pedal where there is enough real estate to rest the entire width of your foot, and I really like that.

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14 months of testing has given me a very good idea of what the Predator pedal has to offer; a lot. The huge platform with the amazing grip are definitely the highlights, and are quickly apparent. What comes after months of testing is the question about durability, and there is nothing to put my finger on here either. These pedals are tough, and durable, and continue to take heat. Top that of with the fact that they are thin as well, and offer a innovative pin-system, and you have yourself a winner, and a product above the competition. If you got the cash, then there are no excuses not to get these.

UPDATE

After 17 months of intense use, this pedal had a catastrophic failure. The pedal body snapped during a jump session. I wasn't hurt, and there was no drama, it just felt weird, and my foot "collapsed" into the remaining pedal body, allowing me to ride-it out - so to speak.

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There is no room for failures like this, so early, on a such an expensive product. Score reflects that. I will add that Tyler of 26 Components has been awesome, I got a new and improved version of the Predator Pedal, after a few emails. Read more about that here.

The Good:

-Huge platform

-Amazing grip

-Thin

-Lightweight

-Smart pin-system

The Bad:

-Replacement pins are expensive (and so is the pedal)

-Overall price?
-17 months into testing the pedal had a catastrophic failure. 

Score: 0/6

Fabulous Four

4 different rides, 4 different dudes, all recent shots.

In particular order:

1) Drea going all in on a manual
2) I go steep
3) Mr. Madsen hitting the trail gap
4) Karl showing the bender-style

Willingen Bikepark Freeride Line

Willingen Freeride Line, it has nothing to do with freeride actually, its more a tribute to A-Line imo. Lots of tables, some jumps, a few drops, berms, and a few wide switchbacks.  

Watch in HD HERE

I start of solo, and meet up with Anders and Drea midway. Last part is sped up due to its triviality. Enjoy - we sure did.

 

Embedded version. 2m45sec:

First Person Shooter Part 2/2

Second day of our roadtrip was off to Willingen Bikepark. It has just two lines - but don't let that fool you.

Probably the closest I've been to pull of a table on a dc-bike. Smiles followed. I had my first real table scrub this day as well. Yay.

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Now the DH line in Willingen isn't just something you hit full force the first time you ride it. Blind drops and jumps are everywhere, and some of it is pretty damn big! We had tremendous luck meeting this friendly German LOCAL dude, who took out about 45min out of his park-time, to walk us through the lines of this former World Cup track, giving hints and advises. I don't remember his name, but thanks man. Here you see him on the right, advising Drea to the left.

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You know its good when a DH line starts of with a drop into 3 massive tables ; ) This DH track is a blast to ride, and I wish we rode it even more, "There is plenty left for next time, then" as Drea puts it.

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Don't ask.

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Drea throwing a whip on the Freeride line. Second day was a peak for all of us I think, we where feeding of each other, and fucking nailed that line.

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Anders hitting a roadgap on the DH track.

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That's it. For now.

First Person Shooter Part 1/2

10 guys on a 3-day trip to Winterberg and Willingen, 2 different bikeparks half an hour ride from each other. Top that of with awesome sunny weather all 3 days, and beer, and you got yourself a recipe of good times.

But instead of editing 18 gigs of GoPro footage, I decided to extract some frames, check it out:

Welcome to Winterberg, where line choice is up to you. 

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I have been practicing manuals, but it takes time to dial in, a had more than a few instances where I managed to manual an entire table and beyond, but its still inconsistent. I need more practice, and I need to dial in my hip-movement.

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Anders taking a spill in front of me of the drop to the right.

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Some french dudes hitting the roadgap.

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Hitting a table at the same time.

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Next two days was off to Willingen, stick around.

Faster and Sharper

So, my "old" cam finally died. Big surprise there.

In comes the new Casio EX-ZR-700, its relatively cheap, yet very powerful. I'm really not into cams, as some are, or have a particular interest in the tech behind, but I do enjoy shooting a good pic, or capturering some cool high-speed footage.

And the reason I make a post about it here on my blog, is that you will see a some improvements of the pics, but particular the vids. Casio made an upgrade to its Exilim High-speed processor, and this is what it shoots:

I can now shoot 120FPS (frames per second) in (640x480), check it out:
(no sound, simple edit)

Or 240 FPS in an upgraded resolution of 512x384, check it out:
(no sound, simple edit)

Its also possible to shoot at 480 FPS, or a massive 1000 FPS, but  resolution quality suffers so much, that I don't expect it to be used here on my blog. Anyway, just a rare update on the cam-side of things.