foot placement and gripping pedals

Unicycles and Equipment
1

When freemounting, my (second) foot placement is shaky so I often have
to correct in the first few meters. I cannot ride one-footed so it has
to be done by shifting around. That’s easy on my Semcycle.

For MUni, people prefer grippy pedals. I would too. But I’m concerned
about the difficulty of correcting foot position.

Intermediate grip pedals?
Work on better foot placement? (And then, specific tips in addition to
the recent “don’t look at the pedal”?)

Klaas Bil

“To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been picked automagically from a database:”
“SWAT, Richard Reid, CCSC”

2

Re: foot placement and gripping pedals

True, but I bet you can do a half-cycle back then ride forward again (as required by level 3). Just extend the first part of the half-cycle (the
“stop going forward” part) into almost a still stand so that your misplaced foot is forward and just begins to come off the pedal. Then you can place it where you want to. I can’t one-foot yet but I can do this maneuver most of the time, even off-road.

This, according to the videos I’ve seen, is also the beginning movement for wheel walking so is well worth the time.

I have also experimented with 2 types of MUni pedals and 3 types of footwear in rain, snow, mud, and sun and found that there is a big difference between the different combinations as far as the ability to “scrounge” my foot around into position without losing contact. So far my best by far is the 661 Dually shoe with the Wellgo pedals.

3

Re: foot placement and gripping pedals

I initialy had trouble with this, too; however, the ability to evenly distribute and controll foot pressure on the pedals is a key MUni skill, which you should develope in short order- greatly aiding what U-Turn calls “scrounging”, or floating your foot on the pedal while shifting position. Like most uni problems, most of this one was in my mind: once I found where I had most freedom to move a foot (when the opposit foot is in controll) I began to be able to freely adjust the problem foot. For me, this position, for the adjusted foot, is just as it comes over the top- the back foot controlls the cycle by resisting it’s upward progress, giving the decending foot a moment to adjust (carry the majority of your weight on the sadle).

Christopher

4

Re: foot placement and gripping pedals

On Thu, 16 May 2002 05:22:49 -0500, U-Turn
<U-Turn.4qr8a@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:

>I have also experimented with 2 types of MUni pedals and 3 types of
>footwear in rain, snow, mud, and sun and found that there is a big
>difference between the different combinations as far as the ability to
>“scrounge” my foot around into position without losing contact. So far
>my best by far is the 661 Dually shoe with the Wellgo pedals.

But that would also be the least grippy combination then? Isn’t that a
disadvantage for MUni after you scrounged your feet to the OK
position?

Klaas Bil

“To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been picked automagically from a database:”
“SWAT, Richard Reid, CCSC”

5

Not really. What it is is that the Dually’s flexible tread is quite flat, but has a lot of (squarish, flattish) ridges that mesh very well with the pedal pins. This has a couple of effects:

  1. When the foot is on the pedal, it grips very well, even at extreme pull angles. This helps increase the angle spread of the power position. I can’t remember all the weather conditions I’ve been in with this shoe, but a fair range I’m sure. I rode outside all winter, but it was unusually mild here in the Northeast.

  2. It doesn’t take a lot of distance off the pedal to be able to adjust foot position. In comparison, I used hiking boots with a deep coarse tread and slightly rounded bottom and it took a lot of distance off the pedal to disengage the tread. The more distance, the more time and the harder it is to do in the middle of things, the way rhysling was discussing.

  3. The flexibility of the sole and the flatness of the tread let one grip with a corner of the pedal and rotate the rest of the foot rather easily. By “scrounging” around with different parts of the foot doing the gripping it’s pretty easy to get into position.

For a quite a while I was continuously aware that I had a pedal grip problem. With this combination, I no longer have that awareness. It did take me a while to get used to the changes in position-shifting caused by the change in footwear, but now that I have adjusted, I’m very happy. I still do UPDs off-road strictly because of poor foot position, though, mostly when mounting uphill on rocky, or rooty trails where there is no time to adjust.

Other MUniers, most of which have more experience and skill, swear by heeled boots, which help position the foot at the arch rather than the ball (for drops) and allow a “poor-man’s toe-clip” (not my expression but a good one). I tried them too but had a fit problem. For most of my riding, too, I like the ball of my foot on the pedal. Hate to name-drop, but I read that KH used these, and that was the initial reason I tried them. Other big names use Reebok hi-tops, but not for MUni as far as I know.

6

RE: foot placement and gripping pedals

> For MUni, people prefer grippy pedals. I would too. But I’m concerned
> about the difficulty of correcting foot position.

It’s easy. I twist my foot from side to side until it’s where I want it on
the pedal. At least that’s how I used to do it. I think today it’s more a
case of just a quick lift and re-placing the foot the way I want it.

> Work on better foot placement? (And then, specific tips in addition to
> the recent “don’t look at the pedal”?)

I always look at the pedals before mounting. But I don’t look at them after.
Everything I need to know about foot placement comes through my foot. You
can feel where the pedal axle is, and you should be able to feel if you’re
coming off the end, or scraping against the crank. Even with thick-soled
shoes or boots.

As for better foot placement, it’s something you can work on, but I still
don’t get it right a lot of the time. When mounting uphill on trails, for
example, you want to get your feet on the right way on your first try,
because you have to start pedaling hard immediately. But I don’t always, and
sometimes I’m not able to correct because I have to pedal too much. So I
wouldn’t worry too much about initial foot placement. Do other people get
their feet exactly where they want them every time they mount?

I prefer very grippy pedals and very grippy shoes. My preferred pedal for
muni:


These have a large support area, only 4 of those nasty pins per side, but
still plenty of grip. The site above is just the first Google hit I got, and
probably not the best source of the Wam-B1 pedal. I think I paid $30 from
DansComp, but they didn’t have them last time I looked.

I will go out of my way to find a good pair of turf shoes for unicycling.
Turf shoes (made for golf, or soccer/football on artificial turf) were very
popular in the US in the early 80’s, but then faded from the mainstream.
This is a shoe that basically has a bunch of knobbies on the bottom, made of
hard rubber. The very best ones (for unicycling) even had knobbies going up
the heel and toe. These were great for wheel walking.

Turf shoes and pedals with teeth give a very secure grip, but you can still
adjust them by twisting your foot around. The grip enables confident
pedaling at the highest possible speeds, with practice of course, such as my
old Guinness record for the 100 meter sprint.

My most common shoe over the years was from MacGregor, a company
specializing in golf stuff. I used to get these shoes at Kmart, very cheap!
Now they can only be found in some Kmarts, and I hardly ever see them. These
shoes are not for everyone though, as they offer minimal support. They’re
very lightweight, and relatively thin in the sole. This gives you good feel
of the pedal, but will give some people sore feet from lots of riding.

More recently I found a pair of Nike turf shoes that are excellent. But I
accidentally left them at Nathan Hoover’s house last week, and now I won’t
have them back until our next group ride. I’m back to my beat-up old
MacGregors…

Stay on top,
John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
jfoss@unicycling.com

“Vehicularly-Injured Sperm-Count seat: better known by it’s abbreviated
name, Viscount.” David Stone, on saddle preference

7

Klaas,
I would suggest practicing idling. It took me quite a while to learn to idle, but early on the effect of trying helped solve some of my freemounting and foot replacement issues.
-Mark