Last August offered during the team time trial and final weekend of the Hel van Voerendaal a last chance for the climbers. The Clubcompetitie editors had a special reason for dropping down to the hills of Zuid-Limburg ahead of the competition: testing the Trivio carbon pedals.

Installation

Just before leaving home, we exchanged our old pedals for the Trivio black carbon pedals. Installation was pretty straightforward. As you would expect, the pedals fit on the conventional crank arms. All you need to install the pedals is a pedal spanner and a little anti-seize paste.

Sitting in the back of the car on the way to our destination, Voerendaal, we screwed the cleats onto our shoes. A striking feature is that the back of the cleats looks the same as the cleats by Look and Shimano. This makes it easy to fit the cleats so your foot position on the bike stays the same.

Lightweight

On arrival in Limburg we were ready to start the test right away. We set out a round with plenty of climbs to test manufacturer Trivio's claims that they have developed a truly lightweight set of carbon pedals. This claim is unequivocally true: together the pedals weigh in around 80 grams lighter than the new Shimano Ultegra pedals. And every gram counts.

Clip in

It was time to clip in. From the start it was clear that Trivio has invested a great deal in user-friendliness. The cleats clip effortlessly into the pedals. And another important aspect to our way of thinking: the clipping in is silent. So if you don't get it right first time around, no-one will hear it and no-one will laugh at you. Besides this, the clip mechanism is compatible with Look Keo cleats.

The pedal has a tension screw that allows you to determine how tight you want the pedal to be and how much force you need to unclip. We didn't need to make any tension adjustments, as the factory setting was fine.

Climbing

A few kilometres in, we came to the first climb. Time to stand up on those pedals. The pedal surface has a brushed aluminium finish which, besides being good looking, makes sure every stroke counts. Combined with the light weight, this pedal is a welcome addition to the arsenal of a climbing bike. And once you've reached the top, the pedal has another advantage: its aerodynamic design gives you just a little bit more speed in the descent.

Our verdict. We're convinced, and return home with the pedals firmly fixed to our bikes. And we've got good news for you. You too could soon be cycling on these pedals. You could even win a pair! Just answer the following question for a chance to win a set of Trivio Race Carbon pedals.