Getting the Bike Ready - Pedals

Drive. That's what pedals are all about and where your feet meet your pedals is the point at which your muscles and your sweat turn into motion. Hopefully :-)

Cleats and Clipping In

For years, I've used shoes with cleats and pedals that they clip into on all my bikes, including my mountain bike. They take getting used to of course, but once you are used to them, there's no going back. Or at least that's what I thought.

When I started to think about bikepacking, I realised that clipping into my pedals meant I had to have shoes with cleats. And whilst I know there are shoes on the market that have the cleats inset deeply so that they don't touch the ground when you're off the bike, I also know from experience that such shoes are still not exactly the kind of shoes you'd want to walk miles in. At least that's the case with the ones I've got. And there was no way I wanted to take more than one pair of shoes. Too much weight. Too bulky. 

A Rethink

So I had to rethink. And where I landed on this subject was that I would revert to flat pedals that I could ride in normal shoes, trainers, trekking shoes or similar. No cleats. 

The last time I used flat pedals, I hated them. They were metal, really polished and very slippy. And you really need your feet to stick if you're to transfer all that leg power to your wheels and feel confident standing up on hills, maybe on a wet day.

Luckily, pedal design has really come on and in the world of competitive mountain biking in particular, flat pedals are still very popular. And if there was ever a situation where keeping feet comfortably sticking to flat pedals was going to be a challenge it's when mountain biking on a wet and muddy day. Not easy.

MTB Pedals

MTB pedals have a series of pins sticking out of the surface. They're more like small bolts than pins, but they're called pins. Their effect is to create a high friction surface which you feet will not slide off but which unlike cleats, you can lift your feet up off any time you like with no twisting or effort. Like.

I researched as usual and ended up buying a pair of Sam Hill Enduro pedals from Nuke Proof. And they are amazing. I can't think of another bike upgrade that I've been more impressed or more pleased with. They're big but light. The large surface area provides a really comfortable platform for your feet and the pins create immense friction.

Footwear

Right now I'm wearing a standard pair of Sketchers. They're working great. Light, comfortable and the rubber sole sticks like glue to the pins in my new pedals. I may invest in some Five Ten MTB shoes at some point but for now these are working out very nicely indeed.