Wolf Tooth Ripsaw Pedals

Credit to Wolf Tooth, they have people thinking about where they place their foot on a bicycle pedal. It’s not often that a marketing campaign inspires actual thought about how one rides a bicycle, but there are now a whole lot of words written about the Ripsaw and foot placement. Turns out I’m a ball-of-the-foot at center kind of person. I knew that I was a hang-my-foot-off-the-side-of-the-pedal guy, but I had never really considered that there were options of where my foot went fore and aft. So, in that sense, the Ripsaw isn’t exactly the pedal for me. But in another sense, it’s perfect.

The key here is how I hang my foot off the edge of the pedal. Like Larry Craig I find I prefer a bit of a wide stance, and I get my feet out a little bit wider than normal for no justifiable reason. Hanging my foot over the outer edge of the pedal may be why I have gravitated towards flatter styles of pedal? For the last several years I’ve mostly been on either a pair of Spank Spikes or OneUp Aluminums, both relatively flat. The Ripsaw is a refined (and extreme) elevation of this concept.

Why another pedal from Wolf Tooth?

That’s kind of how we got here, isn’t it? Didn’t they just launch a pedal? Why another one? Well, you’ve got the Waveform, with a bit more of a classic concave shape, and then you’ve got the Ripsaw, which is flatter, convex even. So you’d better figure out a way to explain to people why you’ve done that. And then, of course, once you tell somebody something they need to figure out where they stand on the subject and why everybody else is wrong. So really, these pedals are just another chance to argue about something bicycle related.

Honestly, I don’t really notice pedal profile all that much when I ride, other than a really concave pedal, after years on flatter things. This seems to be the evolution of flat pedals though, moving to flatter profiles as we’ve developed stiffer, mountain bike specific flat pedal shoes. Look at some of the BMX pedals that we used to ride back in the day, and it’s a pretty extreme change. Those feel pretty weird under my feet, these days.

My shoe wear pattern supports this. A deep analysis shows that my shoes are all perimeter. Grip is coming to me via the outside edge of the pedal, so I guess what I’m looking for is something that maximizes that. I thought that really flat, thin pedals looked a little bit dumb when I first saw them, but I think it actually perfectly fits what I am looking for. With the magnet pedal test I remember just how much thought I had to put to shoe/pedal interface while making that work, but I never really took that back to my flat pedal riding. Now might be a good time for you to go have a look yourself.

The Waveform and the Ripsaw share a lot but there are also some key differences. They’re both machined out of a solid block of 6061-T6. Both are fully manufactured by Wolf Tooth in their Minnesota factory. Both can be rebuilt and you can buy each and every part to fix your pedals from Wolf Tooth. Heck, you could build up your own pair just through offered spare parts. This handy service guide will walk you through the process.

As for differences, there’s the platform shape, pin placement, and the axle. Shape is pretty obvious, but pin placement is a bit less so. The Waveform has a higher concentration of pins near the center of the pedal, while the Ripsaw adds an extra pin and hits the perimeter a bit harder. On the Waveform, the axle threads all the way through the pedal, while the Ripsaw has the axle held in place via an aluminum cartridge threaded in from the inside. It’s curious that Wolf Tooth chose a completely different axle design for this. Why wouldn’t you just work around the axle design you already had? The new axle does allow for that wafer thin outside edge (it’s a thick wafer, but still in the realm of wafers), so it seems like they put some thought into this. The major trade-off is your bearing spread, but with three tiny little outboard bearings and an inboard Igus bearing/bushing you should be fine. A full refresh kit is only $32 if you’re not.

The Nitty Gritty

Let’s talk specifics for the Wolf Tooth Ripsaw:

- 118mm long x 102mm wide, 6061-T6 aluminum body
- 7mm thick at the leading edge (body without pins)
- Twelve stainless steel, rear loading pins – 4.5mm stock and 3.0mm available for purchase
- 380g weight
- Stainless steel axle held in via an aluminum cartridge spinning on 3 cartridge bearings and 1 Igus bushing per side
- Rubber lip seal to keep out the bad stuff
- They’ll cost you 320 CAD or 200 USD. Fire up your Blaine, W.A. PO box for these!

What more do you want? They’re pedals.

Riding the Ripsaw

The pedals that I have been riding the most lately are a pair of pretty old OneUps that I got from Cam (a pair of Cam-me-downs, as it were). I think he rebuilt them once before sending them my way. Right now, with bearings devoid of lube they spin like a pair of 70s roller skates and have more back-and-forth play than Bjorn Borg and Guillermo Vilas at the 1978 French Open.

There are a lot of similarities between the OneUps and the Ripsaw, from the weight, to the size, to how they feel under foot. The largest differences would be the axle design (The OneUp has one large inboard bearing and one outside brass bushing), parts availability (OneUp will sell you most of the parts necessary for a rebuild, but not the axle or the pedal body), the price (the OneUp is less than half the cost of the Wolf Tooth, right now), and the ability for the Wolf Tooths to actually be installed on my current bike (the large inboard bearing of the OneUp doesn’t jive with the booted carbon cranks that I’m running).

Grip wise, the pedals are very similar. And why wouldn’t they be? They both have a similar number of sharp steel pins that stick up at a similar height in a similar pattern. I find it easy to position my foot on both of these pedals and my foot tends to stay where I want. I seldom find myself hunting for the right spot on either set.

The biggest difference is how solid the Ripsaws feel under foot. They spin, and that’s it. There’s no rattle or movement from the axle/bearing system at all. Not a wiggle. Sure, they’re brand new and you’d really hope that would be the case, but it seems like they have designed any extra movement out of their axle.

Are these for you?

These are really, really nice pedals built for the long haul. I have no doubt that they will move across many different bicycles over a long period of time. Their longevity will be measured in decades, not years. Is that worth the money for you? Are they “better” than a pair of pedals that cost $100 less? $200 less? Honestly, most of the pedals that I’ve owned in my life have lasted many, many years and I primarily move on to something else out of boredom.

These are a premium product and they feel like it. They scream quality, they look great, and they are just that extra little bit of solid. They grip well and they put themselves in just the right place. To me, they seem like one of those purchases that I would have a tough time pulling the trigger on but would be happy about for a long time into the future. I liken them to a nice, high quality Japanese kitchen knife. Why would you spend $300+ on a small batch, hand crafted Japanese knife when a $200 Zwilling chef’s knife is going to do the same job?* I own both and I find that my 25 year old Henckel stays in the drawer most of the time now as I reach for the Japanese steel. At a certain point a quality kitchen knife just does the job and additional money spent doesn’t improve the experience. But the only time I have regretted spending money on a knife is as I left the store, while I generally feel a sense of frustration and annoyance whenever I’m forced into using a cheap knife. A good knife is something that you can use almost every day and it makes every job a little bit easier, produces a more consistent result and needs less maintenance. Your cost per use gets pretty small once you amortize across a lifetime. That’s what I’m expecting out of these pedals. Right now, the cost seems a bit crazy and it might be difficult to detect the difference between these and a cheaper pair. But 15 years from now these will likely still be hanging off one of my bicycles and a cheaper pair likely wouldn’t. I’ve spent crazier dollars on dumber things than that. We’re only 10 rides in though, and we’ll revisit at some time in the future once they’ve proven/disproven their worth.

Dave

Wolftooth Ripsaw Pedals

*Or an $80 Victorinox? Not to turn this into knife talk, but if you cook and you don’t own a quality chef knife, you’re missing out on life. Same if you own a quality chef knife and you don’t (properly!) sharpen it at least every year or so. It’s debatable how much you need to spend before you get a “quality” knife, but you only need one! Any quality German or Japanese made knife will likely do the trick. Are they making good knives elsewhere? Probably, but why bother when there are so many known quantities? Any 6” to 8” chef knife or 7” Santoku from Zwilling, Wusthof, Global, Shun or Miyabi will do almost all of the things that you need and you can shop around so that it won’t break the bank. My mother in law found me a banged up Global at a thrift store for $15. After less than an hour of work it turned into a magnificent blade and has needed nothing more than the odd touch up since.

Generally speaking, the German stuff is a bit heftier and dependable. The Japanese stuff is a bit lighter and sharper, but you have to be a bit less dumb about how you use them. My dad used to chop kindling for our fireplace with our kitchen knives. The German stuff lasted surprisingly long under this horrendous abuse and I think a Japanese knife would have caved in much sooner.