There is a way to do that. It involves disassembling the pedal to get to the spring tension washers on the axle. From there, those washers just need to be re-bent to add more tension to the treadle. I’m actually working on a VPM-1 troubleshooting guide that will have instructions on how to do this…with pictures. But being that we are in pandemic mode currently, i don’t know when i’ll be able to get it done.
Just letting you know something is in the works.
-Brach