Regarding Pedal Sleeve Bearings

Spinelli · Oct 25, 2023

I asked the guy who makes these pedals why the pedals come with narrow copper sleeve bearings instead of the wider ones (pics of both below). At first I thought the wider ones were an upgrade - similar to how Heusinkveld upgraded their sleeve bearings to wider ones on the Ultimate+ and later revisions of the original Ultimates (although these wider ones are obviously no match compared to Heusinkveld's beautiful wider ones).

The guy said that, actually, the wider ones are the original design and the narrower ones are the newest. He said he switched to the narrow ones because he thought they looked better/cleaner.

Thinking about how Heusinkveld's upgraded versions happen to also be wider than the originals, I started thinking - all else being equal - will wider sleeve-bearings have a performance and/or reliability advantage over narrower ones?

He told me the performance, smoothness, reliability, etc. is the same and it's just a cosmetic difference in this case.

Because he's the actual maker of the pedals rather than one of the 10 or so resellers (on AliExpress and eBay), he told me he could make my set like he used to, ie. with the wider ones if I wanted.

So my question. Should I tell him to use the wider ones? Or does it, like he said, make no difference in this case?

Narrow Copper Sleeve Bearings:

Wide Copper Sleeve Bearings:

Neilski · Oct 25, 2023

Without drawings (and tolerances) I am struggling to understand what mechanism could make them perform differently at all...

blekenbleu · Oct 26, 2023

Spinelli said:
So my question

Even so-called hard copper is relatively ductile;
probably only the part actually surrounded by pedal arm flanges will carry loads.
FWIW, oil-impregnated porous bronze is the material typically specified for sleeve bearings.

Deleted member 197115 · Oct 26, 2023

Narrow bearings on HE Pro I owned were not that great. Can imagine Heusinkveld upgraded to wider to improve things.
I am currently on pedals with ball bearing, HE do not even compare with their smoothness and play free movement.

Spinelli · Oct 26, 2023

Neilski said:
Without drawings (and tolerances) I am struggling to understand what mechanism could make them perform differently at all...

So assuming they're both the exact same design (besides width), there's no advantage to one or the other and therefore I should just tell him to leave the narrow ones on?

Neilski · Oct 26, 2023

Spinelli said:
So assuming they're both the exact same design (besides width), there's no advantage to one or the other and therefore I should just tell him to leave the narrow ones on?

Well that would be my instinct, yeah. If the guy making them says it's only a cosmetic difference, I'd be tempted to believe him.
If (depending on tolerances) the wider one had more stability to twisting (about an axis perpendicular to the pedal rotation axis, if that makes sense) then just maybe there might be a case for it being the better solution, but...