Fixing the flaws with Nukeproof pedals

Now the first thing I have to say is I love my Nukeproof Horizon Comp and Electron Evo Pedals, however both have minor niggles that need to be taken care of. I put Electron Evos on my hard tail and instantly loved them, the only real problem with them was that the axle comes loose over time. This is easily sorted with a drop of lock tight on the threads, not sure why this isn’t done from the factory to be honest, no biggy we can sort it and live with it. Just remember you need an 8mm hex key in case it comes loose, thanks to F for having one the first time it happened.

So having had my Electrons for about a year the only other problem was that I managed to destroy one of the plastic pins got taken out. So when I build my Santa Cruz Bronson I decided that I could have the ‘in theory’ better Horizon Comp pedals being slightly lighter and having all metal pins front and back with plastic at the sides. On the bike they looked great, however after only a couple of rides, pedal strikes had taken out all the plastic pins on one pedal, the other was missing some as well.

Horrified at the thought of having to buy new pedals so soon and knowing I’d only do the same to the new ones anyway I embarked on a mission to fix and ‘improve’ my now well worn pedals. For me it worked out quite well, the pedals are still in one piece and I haven’t yet had to stoop to buy new pedals saving valuable beer money.

I’m sharing what I did to rejuvenate my pedals, I’m not recommending you do the same, nor do I take any responsibility for any permanent damage or personal injury. If you have some reasonable mechanical skills and the tools to do it and your pedals are already ‘broken’ you may have. like me, nothing more to lose.

So what you will need

• 2.5mm drill bit
• 5.5mm drill bit
• 2.5mm hex key
• drill, preferably a pillar drill
• knife / file
• Replacement pins

So let’s begin, firstly you’ll need the pedal off the bike, unless you’re a real maverick ;), I know goes without saying but I might have thought about it :D. It probably also helps to clean it at this stage, er as you may well be able to see I didn’t, to be honest I only just remembered to take the photos.

Anyway the first thing to do is to remove the remnants of the old broken pins, the easiest way I found to do this is with an 5.5mm drill bit, we’ll be using it to drill here anyway so two birds an’ all.  What I did was centre the tip of the drill in the middle of the pin and drill until the pin and fake nut is gone, don’t go all the way through! Next we need to drill a 2.5mm hole through where the pins once were, this should be nice and easy now we’ve removed the old pin remains, the tip of the last drill giving a nice pilot to follow, this time it’s all the way through, you can go from either side but you should end up coming out through the pin on the oppressive side if your drilling is accurate.

It’s worth noting at this point that we won’t end up with four new pins where the four old ones were, it just isn’t going to happen, I went for the back pin being where the old plastic one was and the front pin being in a new location, this is just the easiest way to get the replacement pins in. Each hole will need a counter sink for the nut (strictly you don’t have to but it just works better if you do) again this is the 5.5mm drill bit this is on the top side of the pedal, be careful not to go all the way through. The two pins that go where the old ones were will need a 5.5mm hole drilling on the other side of the pedal to allow the pin to be inserted and screwed up.

They say a picture speaks a thousand words so I’ll stop waffling and you can just look at the pictures and decide either to repair your own or just buy some new ones, happy Engineering.

If you liked this guide then check out our other maintenance guides and toolbox for more.