A Tale of Two (pairs of) Pedals

About 2 years ago my MTB Shimano LX bear cage pedals started to make grinding noises - past time for a bearing rebuild.

After 2 weeks and another ride looming, they still weren't sorted so I was on ebay and found a pair of cheap replacements to make sure I had good pedals available in case the apathy towards pedal maintenance continued.  Just as well, and as it turns out the new Wellgo pedals went on the bike and stayed there.  Two years later and the Wellgo pedals started to make grinding noises, so before it was too late, I set to the Shimano LX pedals for a rebuild.

And this is where it gets a bit more interesting.  I stripped off the toe clips and the outer cage to discover a plastic moulded main frame.  Unfastening the bolt that retains the shaft in the main body I find no seal on the outer bearings, and when the shaft came out, and very thin and clearly worn rubber washer (it wasn't substantial enough to call a seal) on the inner bearing.  Both sets of bearing cups were shot, but that could've been as much to do with sitting on a shelf for 2 years as it was to do with the materials. Bearings apart and I discover that the balls are a tiny 1mm in diameter, any wear on anything so small is going to have a large %age effect - 0.1mm of a 1mm ball is 10%, but only 5% of a 2mm ball.  And that's as far as it went before I threw the shaft and cages into the box where I collect metal for recycling down at the local tip, as the balls were beyond cleaning and the cups were very corroded.

So, back to the Wellgo (i.e. cheap brand) pedals for their rebuild.  The cages came away easily enough (although I preferred the positivity of the Shimano's allen bolts over the Wellgo's crosshead screws). Nice to see the main body of the pedal is a cast alloy material. Then I had to prise out a pretty well fitted plastic cap from the outer bearings to get to the shaft bolt.  When pulling the shaft out of the body I find a decently thick inner bearing rubber seal.  Although 3 out of the 4 bearings were clearly suffering from prolonged use and were running dry, there was no sign of emulsification that you might see if water had entered the bearings.  And the balls were a decent 2mm diameter - much more substantial.  Thoroughly cleaned out and fresh purple mountain grease installed and the pedals were soon back together.  Getting the play just right was a bit tricky as there are two nuts on the end of the shaft which have to be locked against each other - not the easiest thing to achieve when they're partially buried down the inside of the pedal body.  Once set correctly and installed back on the bike I found them running smoothly again and they've performed perfectly on the Llandegla Red twice now.

So, what I'm not saying is that all Wellgo pedals are better than all Shimano pedals, but just thought it was worth reporting back on this experience based on a statisically pointless sample of 1 pair of each - it might not always be wise to assume that a well respected brand is going to be the best.  I didn't weigh them, but the Wellgo pedals felt marginally lighter in the hand.

Shimano
Steel cage - good
Allen cage bolts - good
Plastic moulded body - not very strong looking
Bearing seals - no outer seal, thin inner seal - not good
Ball bearings - tiny (possibly inadequate) - not good

Wellgo
Steel cage - good
Cross head cage bolts - not very positive, good that they weren't partially siezed
Alloy moulded body - substantial but still light
Bearing seals - good outer plastic cap, good deep inner rubber seal
Ball bearings - decent size