Pedals and their "caps"... And my first snow ride!

[Sipid Malapropism]

Well, I bought new pinned pedals today from the bike store, and loved them, since I've had a few nasty tumbles on my freestyle pedals in the rain before. My feet gripped the pedals pretty well, and I was able to adjust to find the right position for them.

I was wearing jeans today though, carrying a medium heavy backpack, one grocery store bag containing a box of cereal, and my freestyle tire that I had gotten switched at the bike store.

So anyway, that did not make for a very enjoyable ride. Still, I got a few good stretches of riding in. UPD'd a few times, fell on my knees once due to underestimating the hardness of a slush bank, but I had a good time!

But my question... Upon returning home, I discovered that the black caps that go on the ends of the pedals came off. How important are they? Worth replacing at all?

Thanks!

[gerblefranklin]

Originally posted by Sipid Malapropism
Well, I bought new pinned pedals today from the bike store, and loved them, since I've had a few nasty tumbles on my freestyle pedals in the rain before. My feet gripped the pedals pretty well, and I was able to adjust to find the right position for them.

I was wearing jeans today though, carrying a medium heavy backpack, one grocery store bag containing a box of cereal, and my freestyle tire that I had gotten switched at the bike store.

So anyway, that did not make for a very enjoyable ride. Still, I got a few good stretches of riding in. UPD'd a few times, fell on my knees once due to underestimating the hardness of a slush bank, but I had a good time!

But my question... Upon returning home, I discovered that the black caps that go on the ends of the pedals came off. How important are they? Worth replacing at all?

Thanks!

Which end? If it's the outside, then go back right now and return the pedals for a full refund, those shouldn't come off. If they're the rings on the inside, it doesn't really matter. I've had those "black caps" aka bearing caps, on my pedals for the last 18 months, over 600 miles (+ many, many crank /pedalgrabs and UPDs), and they've never even come close to coming off, so if they did, get different pedals.

[fluffinator007]

What brand and that sort were these pedals?

[johnfoss]

Sounds like cheap pedals. How important the caps are depends on the specific pedal, but if they came off in one ride there's a quality problem there.

Many pedals have dust caps on the end, to protect the bearings inside. How unprotected the bearings are without the cap depends on the pedal. I've had other pedals where the caps always came off, but no big problems. However these were on unicycles used mostly indoors.

Identifying your pedals might be difficult. If so, what do you see under those caps?

johnfoss <johnfoss@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com> writes:

> Identifying your pedals might be difficult. If so, what do you see under
> those caps?

I've ben having problems with pedal caps, too. The cheapo pedals on
my Sun lost their caps the first day, then spit out their ball
bearings. I didn't consider them worth replacing under warranty.

One of the Wellgos from my KH24 (now on my 26'er) just spit out its
dust cap onto the pavement.

I don't expect the dust caps on my replacement MUni pedals to fail
during my lifetime.

Ken