Gravity MTB newsletter

Welcome to the second newsletter. This newsletter is leaning toward gravity oriented mountain bikers so if you are a road cyclist or cc rider we apologize for geeking out on gravity MTB and won't take it personal if you don't read this article.

We will dive in to these topics:
- Pedal kickback
- Chain tensioner
- Pedals without axles

Pedal Kickback
This article was already posted on Pinkbike on the 29.10.2025

You probably are sick of reading about pedal kickback, but as a new company, it is necessary to promote our products. Maybe you give this non-AI-written article a chance; otherwise, feel free to go directly to the comments or to the pros and cons.

I became aware of pedal kickback a long time ago when O-Chain was still a small company, having a tiny stand at Eurobike with a bike full of telematic devices. This bike, full of electric cables during a time when e-bikes didn’t exist, scared me more than it made me curious. When trying to talk to friends about it, they quickly shut the conversation down by saying, “If you would run a non-single-pivot modern bike, you wouldn’t need this or why are no pros riding this?”

Now, 10 years later, times have changed. Pros specking their modern high-pivot idler bikes with an O-Chain gives this conversation a new chance, and we can go full geek.

“Pedal kickback isn’t even possible if you ride fast enough.”
“What you feel is the chain slap, not the pedal kickback.”
“I tried my bike without a chain and could not feel a difference.”

These are some of the things riders say. To be honest, I’ve tried my bike on a rough section of trail with and without a chain back-to-back and couldn’t feel any difference. Then I tried an O-Chain and could definetely feel it. I did some blind testing where a friend set it up at an angle or locked it, and I is very noticeable on rough sections where the rear brake is needed. Mostly narrow tech trails that can’t be ridden fast enough to gap or ride without braking.


Then, after 8 months on the O-Chain, I decided to make a service, and let me tell you, this was a nightmare. I had the latest O-Chain R, and there was a video online, but mine had different internals. My unconditional love for my O-Chain was shaken. The mission was to get the same performance without having to service it. When I heard about Jackson Goldstone riding a specially tuned O-Chain with 25 degrees of movement, I had an idea. Why not bring the OG freecoaster spacer back? This is an old, simple solution. Sam Pilgrim made a funny video of this in 2018.

I quickly had a prototype and could test it back-to-back against the O-Chain. As expected, the prototype worked better because of the unlimited range of motion.

It then took many more prototypes to also shift back to the sprocket.

This product is not as sophisticated as an O-Chain, and I don’t recommend it for racers who are chasing every second, but for all other riders, it is a very cheap solution that needs no service.

Positive
• Low price
• Support small businesses
• ∞° degrees of movement
• Made in Switzerland
• Pedals uphill like before
• Half the weight of the 10 & 12t sprockets
• No service required
• Compatible with all hubs, chainring sizes, and frames

 Negatives
• Only 10 instead of 12 gears
• Having to shift in and out of it takes a bit of time to get used to it
• Only Microspline compatible
• Not fancy, no flex

Please note that the first batch of Freecoasters mentioned in the article is completely sold out. The current batch you can buy here has two small improvements. The cassette spacer is integrated in the design and there are splines on the front to secure a better grip of the lockring. There is no CNC version because print is lighter quieter and especially the splines would be extremely expensive to manufacture out of metal.

Chain Tensioner
We already talked about pedal kickback and found solutions for the upper side of the chain.
The lower side has the same two problems:
1. Gravity is pulling the chain down when hitting and obstacle, landing or cornering.
2. Chain growth when using the travel

1. Is even worst on the lower side because there is no chain stay to support the chain
2. It is also worse because the distance from the lower part of the chainring increases more on the lower side.
You can see in this picture how the upper side is stopped by the chain stay.
The momentum of the heavy steel chain with no support can’t be supported by the rear derailleur clutch so the lower side basically hits the floor. It is especially bad near the chainring.

Chain tensioners were a must have on retro bikes.

Rear derailers got better and you can ride your bike without chain tensioners without dropping the chain. Nevertheless, the benefits of less chain slap are something gravity-oriented mountain bikers should not underestimate. I designed a chain tensioner because there are not many options and I thought it was a simple product. But nowadays with all the different not cross compatible chains and tooth profiles it isn’t easy. Also, I wanted metal plates to keep the chain on. They were expensive to manufacture but did not keep the chain on, looked unproportionaly bulky and even rubbed against the chain in some gears.

I took the bullet and designed some plastic chain guide. It looks much better now and works flawlessly.
All customers that have bought a chain tensioner have already received the new updated chain guide free of charge.

Pedals without axles

Obviously it makes a lot of sense now, but flat pedals try to generate grip with platform size and pins. This is necessary because the platform is higher than the axle. This means fighting the symptoms, not the cause because the cause is the platform being higher than the axle. Here is a simple picture to illustrate it.

I tried Pendulum pedals this summer and fell in love with them. Some friends also rode them and switched to shorter cranks, but then also friends that kept their normal pedals switched to shorter cranks. I would recommend checking and probably lowering your saddle height, but personally I did not change anything else in my setup. The Outlier pedals, critics say that they are lower to the ground, and bearings will not last for long.

1. The pedals are lower. Yes, there's no point in denying that. The lower side is thinner and has no pins, but compared to normal pedals, they are around 7 mm lower. Imagine the underside of a boat. In my personal experience, pedal clips happen from time to time, and these pedals are no exception, but they just slide over rock or roots much smoother than pedals with pins on the bottom.

2. The bearings will not last. This point also has some truth because normal ball-bearings like to spin and to take radial load, but they will not last long under axial load. This is the reason why MTBs have wider boost spacing hubs or bottom brackets moved from square taper BB to external BB.

It is true in theory with the exact same load and bearings, but Outlier uses massive 28mm bearings. Other brands use 6-10mm bearings and sometimes even bushings. To put the 28mm bearings in perspective, this is the bearing size Orange Bikes utilizes for their enduro, downhill, and e-bikes. Starling Cycles also uses 28mm bearings, but like Orange Bikes, they only use two bearings for the complete suspension layout. Outlier uses FOUR 28mm bearings in a set of pedals, so trust us, bearing life will be no issue. Aston and The Loam Wolf both tested these pedals under extreme bike park and downhill conditions for 8 months, and the bearings are still like new.

We offer both models:
The more extreme Pendulum and the dual-sided Void.

We sincerely thank you for your time and attention. Those are the most precious values you can give, and we truly appreciate it.