The Aircorp pedals are made by Atomic Laboratories. Their web page is at AtomLab.com
The Aircorps are the best muni pedal I have found. They can handle some trials and would do fine on a unicycle that does double duty as a muni and a trials uni. But they aren’t ideal for a pure trials uni just because the pedal body uses a softer aluminum that will get chewed up by lots of pedal grabs. If you can handle the pedal body getting all chewed up they would be fine for trials.
Pros:
The best muni pedal I have found.
The thin large flat design is comfortable to stand on and is stable under your foot. The large thin design makes it less likely for the pedal to roll (flip over) under your foot.
Very grippy when used with Vans or the AXO/661 Dually. Your foot can slide or move halfway off the pedal and still manage to stay on the pedal. On most other pedals your foot would have slid completely off.
Very grippy in the mud and wet. A great Winter and wet season pedal.
Large diameter grip pins won't sheer off or bend when you hit rocks or do pedal grabs.
The pedal bearings hold up really well. I've been using my Aircorp pedals on my muni for over 10 months and the bearings are still going strong with no signs of looseness or wear.
With the replacement O-rings the pedals stay well sealed against dirt and water getting inside the pedal. I used the pedals through a Winter and Spring riding season in the mud and wet and the grease inside the pedal stayed clean.
Very solid and very reliable. They have never gotten loose or caused any problems for me on the trail.
Cons:
The pedal will eat the stock O-rings after only a few rides. It will be necessary to replace the stock O-rings with O-rings from your local hardware store. Get some 9/16" x 7/16" x 1/16" standard O-rings. The outer diameter will be a little too big so you'll need to buff the OD down slightly with an Emory board (fingernail file). Buff the OD down just enough so you still get a little bit of friction to keep the pedal body from free spinning when your foot is off the pedal. Replacement O-rings are 37 cents each at my local hardware store. The O-rings serve several purposes; seal the pedals to keep out dirt and water, add drag to keep the pedals from free spinning when your foot is off the pedal, and keep the pedal snug. Without the O-ring the pedal will feel loose on the spindle.
When it is eventually time to replace the bearing you'll need to use snap ring pliers to remove the sealed bearing cartridge from the pedal body. Snap ring pliers are about $10 at my local hardware store. Fortunately, it is not necessary to use snap ring pliers if you just need to pull the pedal body off to grease the spindle or check the O-rings.
The pedal body is made out of 6061-T6 aluminum alloy instead of something a little harder and more durable like 7075-T6 aluminum alloy. A harder alloy for the pedal body would hold up better for pedal grabs and grinds. I don't know why AtomLab chose to use 6061-T6 alloy instead of something like 7075-T6. This is only a minor issue because my pedals have been holding up fine.
They cost about $100. But they're well worth it.
The only real significant problem with the pedals is the need to change the O-rings and that is an easy fix. After changing the O-rings they’re one of the best platform pedals around. I give them a 10 out of 10.
Ah yes, the Aircorps can be used to open a bottled beverage. Definitely a mark of a superior pedal design.
Here’s a link to the thread that included a picture of my Aircorp opening a root beer. The root beer bottle in question has a twist off cap, but the cap was stuck and would not twist off so I had to resort to more creative methods to open it up.
Just a little update. The pedals are still holding up great. Still the best muni pedal I know of.
I just did an overhaul on my pedals and experimented with different o-rings. I put in two 1/2 x 3/8 x 1/16 o-rings on each pedal and that setup is working great for me. I don’t like freespin so the pedals are a little snug with the two o-rings, but I don’t notice the additional drag while pedaling.
Anyways, you can get creative in trying different o-rings sizes and combinations to find something that suits you. You can even experiment with using two o-rings per pedal. It all depends on how much anti-freespin friction you want.
hey John! this is Sara from practice!! hey I think it’d be a good invention to come out with a pedal with shocks, working like a seat post or frame as shocks. let me know if this exists anybody!
are you thinking springs in the platform part of the pedal? It might make for an interesting ride…
or were you thinking to put a shock in the splindle of the pedal my only thought with that would be it may be uncofertable to ride with pedals that get slanted down with bumps and pedal strokes.
Suspension in the pedals, cranks, or hub would be interesting but I don’t see how it would be done. And suspension in the pedals, cranks, or hub would be more likely to inhibit riding performance rather than enhance it except for big drops.
But if you were wanting to make a unicycle designed for big drops a suspension in the hub that allowed the cranks to bend down so that they are no longer 180 degrees from each other when the suspension activates might be workable. The suspension would have to be limited to something like 40 degrees max rotation. A hub like that should be possible to build, but it would be complex and expensive.
I have not used the Trailking pedals. But they don’t have the same bearing design as the Aircorps. The Trailking’s use a design for the bearing that is similar to the Wellgo B-27’s and Easton Flatboy pedals. Those designs eat bearings. I wouldn’t hold high hopes for the Trailkings being very bearing friendly.
I would consider the Aircorp’s to be the superior pedal. The spindle has been strong enough for me and should be strong enough for most people. If someone manages to bend the spindle on the Aircorps then they can consider pedals with a larger spindle.
I think Max Dingemans has used the Trailkings. You can ask him if they’ve held up for him. I’m going to take a guess that they didn’t work well for him because of the bearing retention design.
AtomLab are certainly the most stronger rims! I ride with it on two bicycles with the model TrailPimp Atom Laboratories. And I ride downhill, street and trial, so not good for rims! The TrailPimp exist in all size with 32, 36 or 48 holes.
Atomlab has changed their Aircorp and Trailking pedals for 2004. The big change is that they now use two bushings and no bearing. It’s a bearingless design.
This could be good or it could be bad. I haven’t seen or ridden on the new 2004 version so I don’t know how they’ll be for muni use. If the bearingless design works it means no more problems with bearing failures. If the bearingless design doesn’t work it means that the Aircorp gets removed from the recommended component list.
I remain optimistic. The Trailking pedals suffered from premature bearing destruction when used for trials. Max Dingemans tried the Trailkings and destroyed the bearings in no time. I had an ill timed bearing failure with my Aircorps last year. I drove all the way out to my favorite trail. Got the unicycle out of the car, got suited up and started riding across the parking lot. As soon as I got out of the parking lot I heard a crunch from my pedal. The bearing was in pieces. The ride was over before I even started. Having a pedal that will never have a bearing failure will be a good thing – If, and only if, the bearingless design works well.
One other design change on the 2004 Aircorp is that four of the set screws on each pedal have been replaced by cap head screws. The set screws screwed in from the top of the pedal. The cap head screws screw in from the bottom of the pedal.
Atomlab’s web page is at atomlab.com. The information about the 2004 products is on their web page. I’ll attach a picture of the 2004 Aircorp. Looks the same as the 2003 version except for the four new cap head screws.
The old Aircorps used one bushing and one cartridge bearing per pedal. The new 2004 Aircorps are going to use two bushings and no bearings. The bushings are just like sleeve bearings. They’re made out of some slippery substance. The bushings are not metal.
The Ballistic pedals were also a bearingless design. I didn’t hear anything bad about the bearingless design. The problems with the Ballistic pedals were with the pedal body breaking.
I thought I had posted something about the pedal bearing failure. I just did a forum search and couldn’t find anything so it looks like I may not have mentioned it.
I did an overhaul of my pedals a couple months before the bearing failure. During the overhaul I replaced the pedal bearings with some bearings that I got from Boca Bearings. The bearings from Boca Bearings were not as good as the stock bearings. The bearing from Boca had a wimpy cage inside. I now have some bearings that I got from Atomlab and those bearings are doing great. Not all bearings are created equal.
