DMR's Vault flat pedal is one of the best on the market, so something that works just as well but is half the price should be off to a flying start - enter the DMR V11, which gets the same shape but a composite plastic rather than aluminium body. They're just as grippy, have the same internals and even weigh the same, but at £50 they're a bargain - there's very little not to like.
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The DMR V11 gets the same pedal platform shape as it's metallic brethren, which is an excellent thing. It's decently thin, has nicely chamfered edges to reduce the likelihood of pedal strikes and the large pedal body - a square 105mm - is slightly concave in both fore and aft and side to side to allow your foot to sit into it.
The internals are the same as the Vault, with a DU bushing on the inside of the axle and a single bearing at the end spinning on a steel axle. A rubber seal on the inside and screw-on cap on the outside keep the weather out. We've had very respectable if not class-leading lifespan out of Vaults we've tested so there's no reason to believe these would be any different despite the short test period, though we will update this review if anything happens to the contrary. A bearing rebuild kit is only £25 and is a simple job for a home mechanic anyway.
The pedal pins are spaced and placed just the same as on the Vault, with 11 studs per side. Because you can't put a thread in plastic and expect it to hold, the way they work does vary slightly, however, with each being held in by a separate nut on the inside edge of the pedal rather than screwing in from the back.
The outer edge 'Moto-X' pins do need a female Torx bit to tighten them - not something you're likely to have on a multitool or in most toolkits - but it's easy enough to get spares which do come with the tool you need for a reasonable £12. Damaged pins will likely require pliers to remove, which is a big disadvantage of pins screwing in from the outside, however.
While the stock pins - measuring 4mm for those closest to the axle and 5mm for the leading and trailing edges - do provide excellent grip, the different fixing does mean you can't upgrade to the extra-long, shin-mangling and super grippy King Pins that DMR offers for the Vault.
The pedal body has taken a few good rock strikes without any issues; in my experience plastic pedals tend to shrug off abuse more happily than metal ones. They also tend to slide over anything they hit as the plastic self-lubricates, which is always a good thing.
Save for the tiny issues of needing a specific tool to tighten some of the pins and not being able to upgrade to extra-long pins, the V11 pedals are superb. I'd even suggest that DMR has scored a bit of an own goal here as I don't even think those small issues would justify laying out the extra cash for the Vaults - they even weigh the same at 440g.
All in all, these are superb pedals that have all the performance of their premium brothers at less than half the price. They have loads of grip and support, with the same proven bearings and platform design plus a very damage resistant body. They're as near to perfect as can be when it comes to real-world use. Highly recommended.
