Design Classic - Shimano DX
Posted on March 23, 2007 @ 9:51 AM
These days, platform pedals are taken for granted and are the bike world standard for flat pedal users. The simple reasons are that they are strong, grip your soles like nothing else and look good to boot.
Today there are all types of platform pedals to suit all styles of riding, be it low profile race pedals, burly street and dirt versions or super lightweights. There’s a huge selection of platform pedals to suit your needs and it’s all down to one pedal, the original Shimano DX (not to be confused with the updated version brought out a few of years ago). We owe a lot to the designers over at Shimano who at the time produced the oddest looking footplate ever invented for a bike.
Life wasn’t always this shape and for many ‘back in the day’ pedals were a simple caged affair where manufactures cut teeth into a piece of flat metal and curved it around a body like those made by Skyway. This simple design was then taken one step further by adding sharper teeth. It was this design that manufactures played with but on the whole the pedal was too small and rolled easily under your feet if you didn’t have the perfect position. People even customized their own with hacksaws and files to make them grippier but these often ended up as truly dangerous.
Then in 1981 at the Long Beach Bicycler Dealer Showcase EXPO (BSD EXPO) the pedal world was about to be revolutionized. Two new styles of pedal were both launched at the show. The first was Triton’s circular shaped pedal with a lethal looking rounded cage dubbed the ‘Bear Trap’, for obvious reasons. The other was Shimano’s as part of their DX groupset. Various prototypes of this had been kicking around for a couple of years. Some were clocked on Bob Encinas’ bike at the Watsonville BMX Spring National fitted on their adjustable length DX cranks but these were only one sided and not as good as the finished product. The released version was double sided but still an odd looking thing which was described as a parallelogram pedal and had just 12 little pins sticking out of the cast aluminium platform for grip.
OK it had a slight concave but how the hell were 12 little pins going to work better than a cage of filed razor sharp teeth you could you shave a bears chest with? Like most things at this time in BMX people were willing to ride anything they were told would work, be it plastic chain covers that got tangled up, useless rear number plates or flexi rims that would have you off. It wasn’t like people really needed to market this stuff either. Being kids we all lapped it up.
The DX pedal was different though. They weren’t hyped on their own claiming to change the world like all the other stuff out there, they were first advertised in July ’81 in BMX Plus alongside all the products in the DX range, like their superb two finger brake levers of time. Naturally people tried them and those that did found something truly special. Those 12 little pins sat on the funky looking convex box shaped pedal actually gripped better than the lethal teeth of the Bear trap. To be honest the DX pedal was possibly the greatest invention for dirt bikes during the whole of the eighties decade.
At forty a quid a pop back then they weren’t cheap but those that spent the cash invested wisely. Not only did they offer great grip, your feet didn’t roll off them so easily and they were much stronger than most. The DX was a huge success. It wasn’t just Shimano who were enjoying the pedal revolution. In the background the Triton pedal, which were later made by Hutch, were gaining popularity, especially among racers despite their hefty price tag.
While the DX might not have had the same sex appeal of shiny chromed razor sharp cages there was a certain aesthetic. A special little element that grew on you the more you looked at them. It wasn’t just the look either. The noise they made when they span around on the spindle, especially when attached to an aluminium crank, it was magical.
Many manufactures tried to follow suit but nothing came close. Even Shimano tried to make a budget version they called the SX with molded teeth but it was nothing compared to the original. Over time this was the pedal that everyone used. For some reason in the mid to late eighties the big S stopped making the DX. Nobody knew why. Maybe they had a plan to release the next great pedal but nothing came for months and then years. It was just the end of an era.
This left the market wide open for bear trap style pedals, which not only tore holes in the soles of your low top 95s but would leave shins shredded and pouring with blood if you were ever unlucky enough to slip them. And slipping them was inevitable. It was just a matter of time and almost a right of passage. The bloody mess and scars were a badge of honour and always a talking point among bikers. Many will still have the scars today and are able to tell you exactly when and where they got them, and what they were trying to do at the time. Talk about anecdote value. Funnily enough shin pads were only just gaining popularity.
Meanwhile hardcore riders and early BMX freestylers realised that the DX was a better option for both grip and shin health. People stocked up on supplies but the DX just slowly and sadly faded away. It wasn’t until many years later that the design was resurrected and copied in the Far East. DMR were among the first to bring back this amazing shaped pedal, much to the relief of flat pedal users everywhere.
It wasn’t long before everyone was getting similar pedals with their own logo splashed across ‘em. As a result the old DX was left redundant because the riders had a plentiful supply of the pedals they needed. Naturally there was a certain retro chic in owning a pair of originals but that was about as far as it went.
Soon the market became flooded with the basic original design, which was OK but with riding getting bigger and gnarlier it was starting to feel the pressure and something stronger and longer lasting was required. First came sealed bearings, then new cages, removable pins and bigger tougher spindles. This led to all sorts of bastardized versions of the originals hitting the shelves.
Today we have some of the best flat pedals ever. Easton’s Cully’s have become a classic with their low profile design and burly cages, Atomlab have a similar set up and DMR have a huge range including the super light magnesium body with titanium spindles version. And how could we ever forget about Brooklyn’s version with possibly the scariest looking platform in history, the Shinburger. But what about Shimano in the middle all of this flat pedal revolution?
Shimano were without a flat pedal for a very long time and it wasn’t until this century that they relaunched the DX and called it the MX30. To be honest it was too late and lots of other brands had established themselves in the market. That said everybody was itching to see what Shimano would do in case of another revolution. Sadly there was no revolution but a good solid pedal that slotted perfectly into the flat pedal market.
It was similar to the old design but slicker and stronger with chromoly axles and sealed bearings to meet modern needs. It has just 10 pins per side and ice cool looks with its silvery grey finish. These days it has replaceable pins and comes with two lengths, which is no bad thing since the short ones barely poke above the cast aluminium body. Like we say it is good but not revolutionary in design but then why should it be? Shimano already started that 24 years ago.
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