The French accessory powerhouse Ekoi is developing a new aero-top-of-the-line road pedal. If you follow the French continental team Nice Métropole (you should), you’ll notice some pretty large clipless pedals on their rides.
Ekoi PW8 — What is it?
The piece catching everyone off guard is the size of the platform of this new design. If you look at some of the photos posted on their Instagram account, it’s obvious. The pedal length compared to the crank arm is telling; this is a long, lean pedal.
The French cycling outlet LeCycle.fr first broke the news, reporting that the new Ekoi PW8 pedal will offer a modern twist to the road clipless pedal. The pedal may cover more surface area while also offering a thinner stack height.
From the picture above, it looks as if the ‘cleat’ may extend all the way to the edge of the shoe around the toe, with the pedal then recessed inside it when clipped in. That could result in a more aerodynamic connection between the pedal and shoe. It also could create a more walkable platform on the bottom of your shoes.
A New Standard?
If that is the case, it seems likely this system could require a new mounting system, though it’s possible it could be added to a shoe around the traditional 3-bolt interface currently used by most pedals. We’re guessing that’s where the new Ekoi road shoes come into play.
We contacted Ekoi for comment but all they would divulge at this time is that the pedal is currently being tested with various teams. If you want to learn more, I recommend watching the Nice Métropole Team, Burgos-BH Team, or the Ekoi website.
Update:
As reported by Canadian Cycling Magazine and many others, it seems the UCI has already banned the Ekoi pedals from use in competition – at least for now. Apparently, even though the proper paperwork for prototype use in competition had been filed, it hasn’t been approved yet by the UCI. So even though they had already used the pedals in one stage, the UCI made the team scramble to find replacement shoes just before the race started thanks to their last-minute decision.
