Fastway Air EXT Foot Pegs

Fastway Air EXT pegs are on a mission to reduce ankle injuries, or at least limit the severity when an impact goes wrong. The basic idea is a wide but fairly conventional 2024 billet aluminum footpeg with a teardrop-shaped sort of heel peg welded to the rear of the normal peg. The teardrop ankle-saving portion isn’t welded at the same level as the footpeg however. The contact point is lower than the surface of the peg, but the patented height, traction, and camber (tilt) adjustability, is fully customizable. The idea being that you never feel the Air EXT pegs until you suffer an extreme landing that puts excessive loads on your feet and/or ankles. The Universal Collar System (UCS) lets you customize your mount in either the stock or lowered positions on most bikes – simply by reversing the collar. Fastway’s patented replaceable traction cleat system allows you to customize the shape and traction level of your foot bed as well.

The reality is that you do feel the Air EXT’s rear portion fairly often on the track, but I only felt it in positive ways. No question, when you land short or long, your feet, ankles and even knees would be smiling if they had lips. Impacts that clank the suspension hard enough to hurt your ears don’t bother my 42 year old ankles. The Air EXT’s look like they will would limit the kickstarter, if you still have one of those, but they didn’t on our Suzuki RM-Z250 when we tried them on that machine. Perhaps if you were sloppy with foot placement, your boot heel could contact them and that would be annoying, but we didn’t have a problem. In whoop sections and while approaching jumps while standing up, you can even incorporate your heels to load the suspension to get increase height, similar to a seat-bounce. The bigger your feet, the more likely you are to feel the rear portion of the peg and that means in a positive way-absorbing abuse-and just being aware that it’s there. I wear a size 11, and I’d probably like the teardrop portion better with the teeth slightly dulled a little, but then again after about a couple hours on the pegs I was getting more used to them. I have never really feared landings, but I can appreciate what these pegs offer riders with Achilles and ankle injuries. Or maybe you’re learning how to ride on the balls of your feet, the Air EXT’s give the rider confidence when placing their feet back, when getting to the correct attack position. Ask Ryno how important riding on the balls of your feet are! #TwoChickens

While riding through deep ruts, these pegs can help allow large footed riders place their feet on the balls to keep their toes safe. I have had a couple of our bigger testers try the Air EXT’s and they comment they have less ankle/knee fatigue at the end of a long day of moto’ing. The Air EXT’s are like virtual floorboards for your dirt bike. The thing you have to remember when riding with these pegs is that the space to the rear brake pedal or shifter is greater. You will have to cover more ground and remember that when trying to make a shift or use the rear brake, when riding on the back of the Air EXT’s. 

I ended up going with the smallest cleat option on the pegs as those provided enough traction without feeling too tall on the bike. If you’re on the shorter side you could definitely benefit from the replaceable cleat height design and the difference it can make with your rider triangle. I didn’t however try the Universal Collar System (UCS) yet, which allows you to lower the footpegs from the stock position, but plan to with a couple test machines soon. 

At $255.95 for the Air EXT pegs and $19.99 for the fit kit, it’s not a cheap aftermarket footpeg purchase, but this is still a less expensive option than some other titanium offerings out on the market. Check these pegs out at Fastway.zone.com.

Specs:

•Weight: .85 pounds per set

•2024 billet aluminum

•Unique universal footpeg

•Precision engineered, manufactured, and assembled in the U.S.A.

•All footpegs ship with 2 sets of F3 threaded cleats– short 10mm, and tall 12mm cleats

•Requires Fastway Footpeg Fit Kit 

Acerbis Footpeg Protectors

Have you ever been ripping ruts or laying it over in a corner only to find that your footpegs are stuck upwards? You either spend the next straight slamming down on the peg (with your boot) or maybe you find yourself pulling off of the track to get the dirt out between your return pedal spring/pegs. Yes, it’s a pain in the ass and some bikes are worse than others (like the Honda CRF450R). Well, Acerbis has been making these rubber footpeg protectors for sometime, but a lot of you may not know about them. 

Constructed of EPDM 40 rubber, the Acerbis footpeg covers are designed to keep dirt out of your footpeg/return spring area so that the pegs can return properly once you bury it into a rut/corner. The installation takes some patience, but once you manage to spread the rubber around the peg and onto the footpeg mount/spring area, you can position it so that it is tucked up in there neatly. 

The Honda CRF250R/450R collects the most mud/debris in the footpeg area and I frankly got sick of trying to stomp down my pegs after I have ripped a deep rut. The Acerbis rubber protectors kept the dirt out of the footpeg springs throughout each moto and I never once had to worry about getting my footpegs hung up. The rubber is fairly durable and can withstand some abuse of rocks, sand, and the occasional strong power washes. I have only ripped one rubber protector (at Glen Helen) on a rock and although it sliced the bottom of the rubber, it still held onto the peg and did its job for the rest of the day. 

For around $20.00 I would keep a couple sets of these Acerbis footpeg protectors handy in the tool box for early morning motos or just leave them on 24/7. The Acerbis footpeg protectors fit all modern Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, KTM, Husqvarna, and Kawasaki dirt bikes. You can get these at rockymountainatvmc.com or acerbis.com. 

Raptor Titanium Footpegs

There are many aftermarket parts that are easy to improve upon with stock motorcycles, but there are also some that are pretty damn good in production form. Some people don’t realize how much goes into making a stock footpeg work so well, but listening to Keefer talk about how much he has tested production footpegs got me thinking. Footpegs basically don’t get the recognition they deserve because frankly, if you aren't talking/complaining about them, that means they are doing their job. You never hear a rider say “hey bro, my footpegs are working great out there”. No instead, no news is good news, when it comes to footpegs. However, there are many aspects to look at such as pitch, sharpness, folding ability, etc. About a year ago I bought myself a personal bike, a 2006 YZ125, which has been a blast, but after many off-road rides, the pegs were looking a little tired, dull, and tattered. Kris saw my beat up pegs and said I should try a set of the Raptor pegs he had in the shop and since most all current Yamaha pegs are the same, they bolted right up to my 2006 personal steed.

The look of the Raptor pegs are quite aggressive with large, pointy, titanium edges that appear hungry to eat any boot sole they come in contact with. The fit and finish of the Raptor pegs are top notch and being a metal fabricator myself, I can truly appreciate the craftsmanship of quality material/good looking welds. On my initial ride with the new pegs I noticed the slightly larger than stock platform which I like because it adds some comfort when standing. I also noticed that the pegs sit flat and not upward like smoother aftermarket pegs we have tried in the past. Although they do look aggressive they don’t seem to chew up boot soles any quicker than stock foot pegs.  My foot placement/grip is slightly better than stock when it comes to forward and back movement, but when it comes to side to side movement, I think the raptor pegs are somewhat lacking in grip. The reason I say this is because if you look at most stock foot pegs, the three or four outside teeth are taller than all the others, which helps keep your foot from sliding off the side of the pegs. The Raptor pegs are flat all the way across, there aren’t any built up teeth near the end of the peg, which led to my feet slipping off the sides of the pegs a couple times when the riding got wet/slippery. One other negative thing I noticed with the Raptor pegs was that the brake side peg, when folded up, started putting a small crease in my brake pedal where the pivot bolt is. This didn’t cause a problem, but I could possibly see over time, with a big enough hit, this possibly being an issue. 

After many HARD off-road miles on the Raptor pegs they show no sign of wear and because of the strong titanium material, they take abuse without ever bending, denting, or getting dull. Like I said in the beginning of the story, there are some parts that are hard to improve upon and I think Raptor did a good job of improving the stock foot peg in some areas, but also came up slightly short in others. Footpegs are very much a rider preference part and for me I’ll take the couple shortcomings in order to have an overall stronger foot peg that will stay sharper for a longer period of time. 

If you have any questions about the Raptor pegs feel free to reach out to me at Michael@keeferinctesting.com. -Michael Allen