If you’ve ever fancied turning your bike into a tandem, these new pedals from Vigurvant will allow you to do it on the cheap – for €39, to be precise.
Well, that's kind of true… These are pedals with extensions that you flip out to allow two people to push on them at once. It’s a novel approach (as far as we know).
Vigurvant say, “If your bicycle has a rear rack, then you probably already know that it’s always a pleasure to give a lift for your best friends.”
I’d take issue with that, to be honest. I mean, if you’re 12 years old and someone says, “Give us a backie,” that’s one thing, but once they’re safely into adulthood, they should be getting down the shops by their own steam really. I’ve always suspected that my mate Martin sold his bike because he knew he could get a lift on the back of mine whenever he wanted, by the way, although I have no proof. He bought an Atari.
Anyway, the Vigurvant pedals, which come from Estonia, allow your passengers to pay their way rather than just sitting there cadging a free ride.
Are they legal in the UK? According to the Road Traffic Act, two people can’t ride a single bike unless it is “constructed or adapted for the carriage of more than one person”. So, a tandem is okay, obviously, as is carrying a child in a child seat that complies with the relevant European Standard.
Would fitting these pedals mean the bike is suitably “adapted for the carriage of more than one person”? Unfortunately, there’s no explicit guidance on that in law. In other words, nobody knows.
Of course, that’s all avoiding the issue of whether the Vigurvant pedals look like they’re worth having in the first place. We’ve not had them in here at road.cc so you’ll have to make up your own mind on that.
As we said up at the top, the price is €39. Worldwide shipping is included in that price. You can pre-order now at www.vigurvant.com.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now pushing 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.