M
Monique Y. Herm
Guest
So, for anyone who's interested ...
Thanks to UPS's wonderful tracking system, I knew that my pedals were due to arrive today and
already had a ride set up -- a very, very easy dirt road loop called Eagle, just past the
Boulder Res.
My dearly beloved, Eric, had assured me that pedal transplants are easy as pie, so the plan was to
meet at home, swap pedals, and meet up with friends at Eagle.
We both get home and get down to business (the bike, silly! what did you think I meant??). First
discovery is that Eric can't find his pedal wrench. He is visibly distressed at this, but bravely
soldiers on, establishing through trial and error that the sizing in question is metric, etc., etc.
He finally finds the proper wrench ... and ...
Nothing. Can't get the stupid thing to budge.
He proceeds to find various heavy objects with which to attempt to exert leverage, to no avail. I
try to refrain from saying anything critical, but somehow a ventriliquist makes something to the
effect of, "Why don't you ever schedule enough time to leave room when things go wrong?" come out
of my mouth.
Yeah. It's a good start to a ride.
We contact our friends, who assure us that they can find and bring their pedal wrench. All right.
Off we go. There's a conspicuous lack of conversation in the car, but eventually, we both loosen up
a bit, and we're back on speaking terms before we get to the parking lot.
Our friends arrive and get out the toolkit. Funny thing -- the size we need isn't in there. After a
few moments in which it looks like I might try to find a bike shop while everyone else actually gets
to ride, the wrench is found somewhere in their pickup. The pedals continue to put up a fight, but
eventually we convince them to let go. After that, of course, putting on the new pedals is a breeze.
Oh, right, this was supposed to be about those new pedals, not the old ones. Here we go.
First of all, "replaceable traction pins" is SuperGo-ese for "really sharp screw tips." That being
said, they certainly do provide traction -- much more than I was expecting. I had to lift my feet
off the pedals to touch ground -- there's far too much grip there to simply slide off.
While I'm talking about the interface between shoe and pedal -- I went ahead and used my shimano
shoes with SPD cleats still in place. I might have heard a clank once or twice while putting my foot
on the pedal, but never had any cleat-related traction issues. So I no longer have my planned excuse
to buy light-weight hiking shoes. Bummer.
Effort level -- as some of you may recall, I am a newbie switching from clipless to platform because
I simply wasn't clipping in most of the time, totally destroying the clipless advantage. So it came
as a great surprise to me how much I *had* apparently been using the clipless pedals, after all.
Half way through the ride, my thighs were much more tired than they had ever been on this trail. Of
course, this "trail" is a wide dirt road with no really scary parts, so I've been clipping in a
decent bit on it. Perhaps a different story will emerge when I try Rabbit and Betasso this weekend.
Success -- one of the reasons I got these pedals was to stop wasting my energy worrying about
whether or not I should be clipped in while climbing up any given section of the trail. There is one
"optional" steep, a side trail that you take up the hill, then turn around and ride right back down.
I was able to get farther up this hill than I ever have been before, and I attribute this 100% to
the fact that I was able to keep pushing without fearing a fall.
Blood -- toward the end of the ride, I noticed some stickiness at the back of my knee and guessed
that I was bleeding. I was right, of course =P In fact, I had several abrasions along my calf, all,
according to Eric, received while trying to start again half-way up the one steep section.
Strangely enough, my shins escaped pretty much unscathed. I've definitely noticed an apparent habit
I have of pushing the pedals back and forth with my shin and calf -- fine for clipless; bad for
these spiky pedals.
Color -- the pedals are green, as I was warned they would be -- and certainly not silver, as SuperGo
claims, unless you put them in some really bad garage light. But they're not hideously green --
pretty low-key, actually, and hey, your shoes should be on top of your pedals, hiding them most of
the time, anyway! I can't believe that someone actually returned them for the color.
Overall -- having ridden a grand total of maybe 3 miles on them, I have absolutely no real basis on
which to rate these pedals, but I'll do it anyway. They were grippy and they gave me the confidence
to go farther on a steep than I ever had before. Sure, they made me work harder, but hey, I need the
exercise. And sure, they tore up my calf a bit, but I'm pretty used to my bike beating me up -- I
have what amount to permanent chainring-tattoo scabs on my right ankle. As I bought them expressly
so that I could get up scary things without fretting too much, and they seem to be following through
on their end of the bargain, I give them two thumbs up.
Oh, and I'm working on my wheelie now, in preparation for learning to bunny hop on these things.
Little by little ... And when it comes to my wheelie, I do mean "little."
On the clipless vs. flat pedal thing -- I have a feeling I will eventually go back to clipless,
especially with the availability of that nifty multi-release cleat Zilla pointed out to me. In the
meantime, though, I think that having flat pedals will allow me to practice things like slow-motion
balance, riding up curbs, etc. with far greater success, because I won't be afraid of being stuck
to my bike.
--
monique
My pointless ramblings: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/phorum/index.php?f=6
Thanks to UPS's wonderful tracking system, I knew that my pedals were due to arrive today and
already had a ride set up -- a very, very easy dirt road loop called Eagle, just past the
Boulder Res.
My dearly beloved, Eric, had assured me that pedal transplants are easy as pie, so the plan was to
meet at home, swap pedals, and meet up with friends at Eagle.
We both get home and get down to business (the bike, silly! what did you think I meant??). First
discovery is that Eric can't find his pedal wrench. He is visibly distressed at this, but bravely
soldiers on, establishing through trial and error that the sizing in question is metric, etc., etc.
He finally finds the proper wrench ... and ...
Nothing. Can't get the stupid thing to budge.
He proceeds to find various heavy objects with which to attempt to exert leverage, to no avail. I
try to refrain from saying anything critical, but somehow a ventriliquist makes something to the
effect of, "Why don't you ever schedule enough time to leave room when things go wrong?" come out
of my mouth.
Yeah. It's a good start to a ride.
We contact our friends, who assure us that they can find and bring their pedal wrench. All right.
Off we go. There's a conspicuous lack of conversation in the car, but eventually, we both loosen up
a bit, and we're back on speaking terms before we get to the parking lot.
Our friends arrive and get out the toolkit. Funny thing -- the size we need isn't in there. After a
few moments in which it looks like I might try to find a bike shop while everyone else actually gets
to ride, the wrench is found somewhere in their pickup. The pedals continue to put up a fight, but
eventually we convince them to let go. After that, of course, putting on the new pedals is a breeze.
Oh, right, this was supposed to be about those new pedals, not the old ones. Here we go.
First of all, "replaceable traction pins" is SuperGo-ese for "really sharp screw tips." That being
said, they certainly do provide traction -- much more than I was expecting. I had to lift my feet
off the pedals to touch ground -- there's far too much grip there to simply slide off.
While I'm talking about the interface between shoe and pedal -- I went ahead and used my shimano
shoes with SPD cleats still in place. I might have heard a clank once or twice while putting my foot
on the pedal, but never had any cleat-related traction issues. So I no longer have my planned excuse
to buy light-weight hiking shoes. Bummer.
Effort level -- as some of you may recall, I am a newbie switching from clipless to platform because
I simply wasn't clipping in most of the time, totally destroying the clipless advantage. So it came
as a great surprise to me how much I *had* apparently been using the clipless pedals, after all.
Half way through the ride, my thighs were much more tired than they had ever been on this trail. Of
course, this "trail" is a wide dirt road with no really scary parts, so I've been clipping in a
decent bit on it. Perhaps a different story will emerge when I try Rabbit and Betasso this weekend.
Success -- one of the reasons I got these pedals was to stop wasting my energy worrying about
whether or not I should be clipped in while climbing up any given section of the trail. There is one
"optional" steep, a side trail that you take up the hill, then turn around and ride right back down.
I was able to get farther up this hill than I ever have been before, and I attribute this 100% to
the fact that I was able to keep pushing without fearing a fall.
Blood -- toward the end of the ride, I noticed some stickiness at the back of my knee and guessed
that I was bleeding. I was right, of course =P In fact, I had several abrasions along my calf, all,
according to Eric, received while trying to start again half-way up the one steep section.
Strangely enough, my shins escaped pretty much unscathed. I've definitely noticed an apparent habit
I have of pushing the pedals back and forth with my shin and calf -- fine for clipless; bad for
these spiky pedals.
Color -- the pedals are green, as I was warned they would be -- and certainly not silver, as SuperGo
claims, unless you put them in some really bad garage light. But they're not hideously green --
pretty low-key, actually, and hey, your shoes should be on top of your pedals, hiding them most of
the time, anyway! I can't believe that someone actually returned them for the color.
Overall -- having ridden a grand total of maybe 3 miles on them, I have absolutely no real basis on
which to rate these pedals, but I'll do it anyway. They were grippy and they gave me the confidence
to go farther on a steep than I ever had before. Sure, they made me work harder, but hey, I need the
exercise. And sure, they tore up my calf a bit, but I'm pretty used to my bike beating me up -- I
have what amount to permanent chainring-tattoo scabs on my right ankle. As I bought them expressly
so that I could get up scary things without fretting too much, and they seem to be following through
on their end of the bargain, I give them two thumbs up.
Oh, and I'm working on my wheelie now, in preparation for learning to bunny hop on these things.
Little by little ... And when it comes to my wheelie, I do mean "little."
On the clipless vs. flat pedal thing -- I have a feeling I will eventually go back to clipless,
especially with the availability of that nifty multi-release cleat Zilla pointed out to me. In the
meantime, though, I think that having flat pedals will allow me to practice things like slow-motion
balance, riding up curbs, etc. with far greater success, because I won't be afraid of being stuck
to my bike.
--
monique
My pointless ramblings: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/phorum/index.php?f=6