Equipment Report: Weyless MG-1 pedals

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

On Fri, 12 Sep 2003 04:59:39 -0000, "Monique Y. Herman"
wrote:

So, for anyone who's interested ...


(Snip well written E.R)

Well I wasn't, but I'm glad I read it anyway. Excellent report!


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.

Sounds like you made the right choice for you. And that's the bottom
line.

Dave (again, Excellent report!)

Monique Y. Herman wrote:

So, for anyone who's interested ...
....
Nothing. Can't get the stupid thing to budge.

I hope that you greased the threads of the new ones really well so that
doesn't happen when you go to replace these!

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.
....
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.

I was looking at a similar pedal and those "traction enhancers" really
worried me -- at first, I thought that it might be a joke! I saw myself
ripping my shin or leg good at some point when I fell. They worried me
far more than not being able to unclip.

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.

The only time that I unclipped late was when I was going over a slippery
log at a strange angle in a tight space and couldn't twist because of my
angle with the bike. It was uncomfortable, but not a problem.

David

"Monique Y. Herman" wrote in message
...
So, for anyone who's interested ...
monique


Glad you have found the flatties to be fun and useful. I'm surprised that
you had good results with SPD-type shoes though, I would definitely go for
some alternatives if you're going to learn hops and stuff. You'll soon get
used to that familiar feeling of smacking a pedal into your calf / shin,
after a while you begin to develop work-hardended shins.

Steve.

"Monique Y. Herman" wrote in message
...
So, for anyone who's interested ...
snip

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.

snip excellent EqR

You may want to invest in a pair of shin guards. A friend of mine was
showing off in the parking lot after a DH race and severely 'bear trapped'
himself. He basically unzipped his shin from just below his knee to the top
of his ankle to the bone in a couple of places. It took something like 20
stitches to close it up. I drew first blood on my friends brand new trials
bike( true bear traps with two rows of sharp teeth, not pins.) and have a
small boney lump just below my right knee as a reminder, every time I kneel
down.

Mike

"Michael Dart" wrote in message
...
You may want to invest in a pair of shin guards.

I second this. I've been teaching a girl how to mtb and she's on platforms
like Monique is describing. I got her to pick up some soccer shinguards
($14) at a local sports mega store and she's no longer scared of the pins in
the pedals.

Gary in VA

On Fri, 12 Sep 2003 10:47:00 +0100, spademan o---[) * wrote:

Glad you have found the flatties to be fun and useful. I'm surprised that
you had good results with SPD-type shoes though, I would definitely go for
some alternatives if you're going to learn hops and stuff. You'll soon get
used to that familiar feeling of smacking a pedal into your calf / shin,
after a while you begin to develop work-hardended shins.

True. http://www.j-harris.net/bike/misc/shin2.jpg

Enjoy your new pedals, Monique

--
a.m-b FAQ: http://www.t-online.de/~jharris/ambfaq.htm

a.bmx FAQ: http://www.t-online.de/~jharris/bmx_faq.htm

On Fri, 12 Sep 2003 09:04:03 GMT, David Kunz penned:

I hope that you greased the threads of the new ones really well so that
doesn't happen when you go to replace these!


Umm ... right ...

I asked about lubing the pedals before we got started, and Eric claimed
that they were pre-lubed or something and didn't need help.

Perhaps I'll suggest it to him again after this fiasco and see what he
says.

I was looking at a similar pedal and those "traction enhancers" really
worried me -- at first, I thought that it might be a joke! I saw myself
ripping my shin or leg good at some point when I fell. They worried me
far more than not being able to unclip.

But how often will you really fall, as opposed to dabbing, when your
feet aren't attached to the pedals?

My scrapes came from trying to start up a steep V-shaped singletrack.
It's something I know, from previous experience, that I would have found
even more frustrating in clipless, because the steep + technical would
combine to make me afraid of clipping in -- and trying to get started
while trying *not* to clip in on clipless is just a disaster.

Different strokes ...

The only time that I unclipped late was when I was going over a slippery
log at a strange angle in a tight space and couldn't twist because of my
angle with the bike. It was uncomfortable, but not a problem.

I hope to get to that point, too -- but for now, this is better for me.

--
monique

My pointless ramblings:
http://www.bounceswoosh.org/phorum/index.php?f=6

On Fri, 12 Sep 2003 10:47:00 +0100, spademan o---[) * penned:

"Monique Y. Herman" wrote in message
...
So, for anyone who's interested ...
monique


Glad you have found the flatties to be fun and useful. I'm surprised that
you had good results with SPD-type shoes though, I would definitely go for
some alternatives if you're going to learn hops and stuff. You'll soon get
used to that familiar feeling of smacking a pedal into your calf / shin,
after a while you begin to develop work-hardended shins.

Steve.

Why use different shoes? (serious question)

--
monique

My pointless ramblings:
http://www.bounceswoosh.org/phorum/index.php?f=6

On Fri, 12 Sep 2003 04:59:39 -0000, Monique Y. Herman wrote:

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 still have tatoos on the back of my calf from my days before clipless
pedals. Seems like the pedal is usually behind my leg when I stop. I'm
sure the clipless pedals hit me there too, but they don't leave a mark.

--
-BB-
To reply to me, drop the attitude (from my e-mail address, at least)