I saw this guy at the NAUCC 2003, and he crashed hard. Not sure if it was the pedals though, he was jumping to a spool, and held up. So even without he may have had problems. I think his name was Chad something.
The video is in the unicyclist.com gallery
http://gallery.unicyclist.com/albur38/clipless_pedal_guy_way_cool
Re: Clipless pedals
Brian MacKenzie wrote:
> they just offer no real advantage.
>
> they do on bikes because you have your arms way out in front of you, and
> they are the only real way to lift the back of the bike (if you can’t
> bunny hop)
That can’t possibly be how clipless pedals give me an advantage on my
bike. My arms aren’t way out in front of me, they’re at my sides. And
the pedals, being at the front of the bike, would be of very limited use
in lifting the back of the bike.
They do offer a huge advantage in eliminating the need for me to waste
energy keeping my legs in the air and my feet correctly positioned on
the pedals. I would expect that the benefit of keeping the feet
correctly positioned on the pedals would also apply to unicycling. I
haven’t yet got round to trying clipless pedals on a yike, though.
–
Danny Colyer (my reply address is valid but checked infrequently)
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/>
“He who dares not offend cannot be honest.” - Thomas Paine
I’m a committed convert to SPDs for road cycling. I use them on my mountain bike as well (although I’ve hardly ridden it since I got the muni), but I set them up VERY loose off road so they release easily in a panic situation. On a bike it allows you to power round the whole pedal stroke (more so than with toe clips and straps) and also has the advantage of the few degrees of sideways float that is very good for the knees.
I do keep lifting my feet off the back pedal when climbing steep hills on a uni (because I’m so used to being able to pull up on the bike pedals) and I’m sure the clips (clipless?) would help keep feet from bouncing off the pedals on rocky downhills. The float would also no doubt save my knees on hills. But I wouldn’t dare use them on a unicycle without a full suit of armour. Perhaps a superhuman rider, on the road, could get away with it, but for lesser mortals or for muni I reckon it would be suicide.
So I’m going to confirm John’s prediction and say “Don’t do it Mike”. I think you’ll end up modifying your chin again.
Rob
I will once again have to disagree. Spinning perfectly may be able to bring you to the same speed as using clipless pedals, but you are using more energy trying to spin perfectly than you would be if you were just clipped in.
Riding with your feet in different positions on the pedal is probably indication that you are being inefficient and could benefit from using clipless pedals.
Tholub has a point. Having ridden the Mt. Diablo road, it would probably be a perfect place for mere mortals to use clip-on pedals. The road is pretty much uphill the whole way, with only a little bit of flat and maybe a few small downhills. This means most of the ride you won’t be spinning per-se, but just cranking along.
Still, for any use of clip-ons (hope that name covers all forms of foot-attaching pedals adequately), practicing first on a bike until you develop the unclipping reflexes is very good advice.
I remember the guy posting. He’s the only person I’ve ever heard of to use clip-on pedals long-term. Everybody else tried them for a while and stopped. For jumping rope they would be very useful. Also safer, as you have more time when falling off a giraffe and I imagine it would give you about the same amount of time you’d average on a bike.
But as for the trail riding, he’s the only one I’ve heard of that continues to do it. Obviously it works for him! As for me, I don’t even like snowboarding because my feet are locked onto it…
When exiting clipless pedals on a normal bike, you get to stop your pedal motion using the free hub. Having control over your pedal motion makes unclipping quite easy.
On a uni, unclipping would be different than on a bike. With direct drive, your pedals continue to move during UPD. I believe this would make it harder to exit clipless pedals from a uni than it is on a bike.
For me on a uni, the significant benefits of clipless pedals would not pay enough to cover the substantial chance for a much harder splat.
if u put clip pedals on ur uni Ill punch u in the face wut do u do when u udp on a downhill triail ? u feets are stucked to ur pedals have fun at the hospital…