Pedals, taking a Democrat to some islands (8)
I believe the answer is:
cyclades
'some islands' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'pedals taking a democrat' is the wordplay.
'pedals' becomes 'cycles' ('cycle' can be a synonym of 'pedal').
'taking' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'democrat' becomes 'd'.
'a'+'d'='ad'
'cycles' enclosing 'ad' is 'CYCLADES'.
'to' is the link.
(Other definitions for cyclades that I've seen before include "Aegean island group" , "Greek islands in the southern Aegean" , "Island group inc. Naxos" , "many islands" .)