Arclight Pedals: Review

What are they?

Quite simply, they are pedals with lights in them. You replace your pedal with a new one that has two slots for light modules. Each light module automatically changes colour as the pedal is flipped so that white always faces forwards and red always faces backwards. The materials feel very good quality - as you'd expect for the high price tag (>£100)!

What's the point?

The arclight pedals exist for two main goals:

• Improve road safety.
• Make you look really cool.

And wow do they achieve both of these. Visibility at night can be a big problem, especially when there's lots of lights around to divert people's attention. The movement of a pedal light is unmistakable for a cyclist, and significantly improves your visibility to other road users. It also means that if one of your lights goes out, you've got plenty more!

The lights are extremely well engineered. Taking them out and charging them is easy, they are very well built, and the way they automatically switch off when left is very well done. This is a product you can tell someone has really thought through and done a great job of engineering it.

The cool factor is also not to be understated - they don't look tacky or cheap, they just look really cool. Riding at night in winter can be tough, but these pedals certainly make the experience more enjoyable. I'd say this is even more of a benefit than the road safety for me. It's also a cool party trick to flip the pedals round and watch the colours change.

The bad stuff

The pedals are not really useful in daytime, and they can be a bit annoying to put in and take out frequently. However, it's about as easy as it could be to replace the light modules so I can't complain.

The pedals are also significantly heavier than normal pedals, which takes some getting used to and does reduce the efficiency. However, when you get used to it, you won't notice. It is noticeably heavier, but it doesn't ruin the experience of cycling.

The price

Finally, the biggest weakness is the price tag. This product costs over £100, which can seem like a lot of money for some pedals, because it is. This isn't cheap, and the price will put off most people. Would I prefer if it was cheaper? Of course. However, for a product selling such low volumes, this is honestly a reasonable price that reflects the amount of engineering that's gone into it. Yes it's expensive, yes it could be cheaper, but I don't think it's completely unreasonable.

The verdict

However, despite the high price I can say that it's one of the best things I got for my bike. It's one of those things that makes cycling more fun and makes your own bike feel more special. If they got nicked, I'd definitely buy another set straight away as I love riding with them!

Do I recommend this product? In general, yes. It's up to you how much you value (1) road safety, (2) looking cool, and (3) your money, but I think if you appreciate cool bike gadgets (which is probably why you're here...) then I think this is an extremely well engineered product that will not disappoint.