Newmen Components Beskar Flat Pedal

How do you make something very light yet very strong? In the Star Wars universe, it’s simple: use Mandalorian beskar, a super-tough alloy that can even resist direct lightsaber hits for some time. In the real world, most of us don’t need our stuff to be lightsaber-resistant, so Newmen settled for a regular Earthly aluminum body with a titanium spindle for their first foray into the flat pedal galaxy. To check their work, we laid our hands on a sample pair and put it to the test under our resident, clumsy old Stormtrooper’s size 12 battle boots. Keep reading to find out how it went!

Newmen Beskar Highlights

• Pedal Body: Aluminum
• Preloaded ball bearings
• Pedal Axle: Titanium
• Weight: 295g/pair (verified)
• Pins: 16/pedal
• Platform dimensions: 110 (W) x 113 (L)
• MSRP: 168 EUR

Initial Impressions

The first thing that stood out to us when pulling the new Beskar pedal from the box was the weight, or the distinct lack thereof. 295 grams for the pair is SIGNIFICANTLY lighter than any current pedal we’ve tested, including other pedals with titanium spindles. The shape is quite classic, with an open, offset platform that is completely empty between the outer rim and the axle area. It should be noted that Newmen have not put a weight limit on these pedals, citing the titanium axle’s ability to withstand 5000N of force without deformation.

Regular readers will know that we have our own set of metrics to help compare pedals and see how they match up to each other. Here are the numbers for the Beskar:

• PTA: 110 mm
• Platform 110 (W) x 113 (L)
• Height (with pins): 26 mm
• Thickness (at thickest): 16 mm
• Concavity: 7 mm
• Weight: 295 grams/pair (verified)

The Beskar presents a lot of concavity, right up with the leading pedals in our Flat Pedal Face Off article, while the “PTA” (Pin-To-Axle) measurement is slightly on the conservative side (because the Beskar’s spindle is designed so that the pedal body sits right up next to the crankarm). As we already alluded to in the previous paragraph, the weight is seriously low, which will help the Beskar place in the very upper echelons of our shootout if the grip is good on the trail (spoiler: it is).

Looking closer at the pins, they screw in from the top, but not with a traditional allen wrench interface. Instead they have a small hex bolt interface at the base, which gives them more stability and should also make sure that they can always be removed even if you mangle the top part. The pins are slightly thicker than a regular grub screw, but do feature threading that continues all the way to the top (generally a good feature as far as grip is concerned). Interestingly, the pins can be inversed, which might help restore grip if they get a bit worn out (although at that point, chances are they could be too worn to thread in properly should you inverse them…anyway…). There are 8 pins per side which have been placed all around the edge of the platform. There are no pins in the area closest to the crankarm, where a small bearing bulge resides.

When it comes to the bearings, Newmen didn’t want to use bushings or needle bearings which are quite sensitive to dirt, water and the peak loads occurring on pedals. Instead, Newmen has their pedal spinning on a floating, preloaded system which uses standard cageless bearings and a pair of washers (one brass and one composite) to distribute axial loads more evenly.

The bearings have no seals, instead the whole bearing system chamber gets filled with grease from factory and a zerk grease gun adapter will be available to fill the pedal up again at home – a spare pin kit will also be available later this year. The pedal can be opened up with normal workshop tools and should be easy to service when the time comes.

On The Trail

The Beskar sits quite close to the crankarm, but the platform is big enough to provide ample room even for bigger feet. The pronounced concavity with the pins placed around the edges really helps the foot “sink into” the pedal, which results in a lot of grip. The small bearing bulge did not bother this tester (who likes a wide stance), but may get in your way if you prefer to place your feet right up against the crank arms. The pedal spins quite freely, but not completely loose – you’ll find it where you left it if you take the foot off.

As previously mentioned, the pins are slightly thicker than regular grub screws, which may make them a tiny bit less grippy in our experience. Make no mistake, the Beskar is still phenomenally grippy, but it’s worth pointing out this minor design difference with some of its competitors. As for the form factor itself, the Beskar is quite thin and has little problem slipping past most trailside obstacles thanks to the chamfered edges of the platform corners. During our two months of testing we’ve managed to bash our samples into quite a few rocks with only minor scuff marks to show for it to date, which bodes well for longevity. Newmen is known for making very light yet very strong wheels, and it seems like this design objective has indeed carried over to their new pedal.

What’s The Bottom Line?

168 euros for a flat pedal is not exactly cheap, but it’s actually far from the most expensive titanium-axle option out there. In return for some of your hard-earned, the Beskar provides tons of concavity at easily the lowest weight of any of the flat pedals we’ve tested here at Vital to date. If you want your pedal to provide as much real estate as possible (as measured by our PTA metric), the Beskar gives up a few millimeters to some of its competitors, but our tester’s size 12 paws had no trouble finding a suitable landing spot regardless. As for longevity, we haven’t found any lightsabers to test with (yet), but the Beskars have shrugged off pretty much everything else and are still going strong at this point. Pretty impressive for such a lightweight pair of pedals!

More information at: www.newmen-components.de.

About The Reviewer

Johan Hjord - Age: 50 // Years Riding MTB: 18 // Weight: 190-pounds (87-kg) // Height: 6'0" (1.84m)

Johan loves bikes, which strangely doesn’t make him any better at riding them. After many years spent practicing falling off cliffs with his snowboard, he took up mountain biking in 2005. Ever since, he’s mostly been riding bikes with too much suspension travel to cover up his many flaws as a rider. His 200-pound body weight coupled with unique skill for poor line choice and clumsy landings make him an expert on durability - if parts survive Johan, they’re pretty much okay for anybody. Johan rides flat pedals with a riding style that he describes as "none" (when in actuality he rips!). Having found most trail features to be not to his liking, Johan uses much of his spare time building his own. Johan’s other accomplishments include surviving this far and helping keep the Vital Media Machine’s stoke dial firmly on 11.

Photos by Johan Hjord and Tal Rozow