Why dont bikes come with pedals

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Why do today's bikes come without pedals, but WITH saddles?

Been a long, long time since I purchased a new bike; and in the past two years I purchased two of them. In my pre- and post-purchase research, I've noticed that any bike above a certain quality level does not come with pedals. I assume that the choice of which pedal to use is a very personal decision, with many options available to suit every style. So, what about saddles? On both bikes I purchased in the past two years, the saddles had to be swapped out for something more in tune with my personal preference and anatomy. Seems like a bike should come without either. Every thing else on a bike is either "standard" or can be adjusted to fit a particular rider's physical size and preference.

Just wondering.

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Good observation but I'd venture that plenty of people do use the original saddle, at least for awhile. On the other hand, assuming road bikes, if you are a Look guy and the thing came spec'd with shimano or speedplay pedals you would ride exactly 0 miles before swapping them.

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Pedals are part of a system and saddles are standalone.

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My new Giant came with a Selle Royal "Seta M" saddle which is surprisingly agreeable with my backside. I just may keep it and see how it does long term.

Usually, the saddle is the first thing I replace on any bike.

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Quote:

Seems like a bike should come without either.

At bike Friday its true .. We [Trek dealer] get a fairly cheap platform pedal with all our mountain bikes, for the test rides. Saddle change, and pedal or pedal system and shoes are a Point Of Sale thing .

then the OEM saddles go in the Take Off box.

Last edited by fietsbob; 05-19-11 at 03:08 PM.

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My Bike Friday came without either pedals or saddle - presumably since many customers would already have their own favorite type. But I can see the sense in including a saddle since it can at least be used for awhile by most customers whereas a Look pedal is worthless for someone using SPD cleats, etc.

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Before clipless pedals were around, everyone used the same pedal, now there are pedals from Look, Time, Shimano, Speedplay, CrankBros, and others, all with different cleat requirement, for road and off road, there are too many options for bike manufactures to support, so it is easier to leave it to the consumer to choose their own pedal seperate to the bike

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i bet it's also possible to make a saddle super-cheap in a way that's relatively durable, not so much for pedals with any perceived quality.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by jchabalk

i bet it's also possible to make a saddle super-cheap in a way that's relatively durable, not so much for pedals with any perceived quality.

I suspect this is the true reason. Even the saddles people pay $100 for are probably just as cheap to make as the $30 or $40 models.

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because people couldn't sit on the bikes without a saddle. no pedals so people can't pedal away with the high-end bikes..

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You could say the same for the bars and stem in that case. Where do you draw the line?

Saddles and pedals are a good place to stop.

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People may already have well over $100 invested in a specific shoe/cleat system. Chances are they'll want pedals to match the shoes they already have.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by operator

You could say the same for the bars and stem in that case. Where do you draw the line?

That's what I was thinking... is it the shop applying bar tape on nice bikes, or is that how they arrive?

IMO customers in that price range should understand why leaving the tape off would be a good thing.

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The last bike I bought that came with pedals was a '92 Trek 1420 and it came with Look PP76 clipless pedals. I guess that was before there were so many types and styles of clipless pedals and clipless was so prevelant that choosing Looks as OEM made sense.