I started mountain unicycling last year and I love it! I have tried both Fyxation and Blackspire bike pedals, but both left something to be desired. I spent about $30 on the Fyxation and $90 on the Blackspire. I am looking for the grippiest pedals so my feet don’t fall off the pedal, which then causes me to fall off.
Any suggestions would be welcomed! Thanks!
I find those pedals with metal pins grippy enough for me. Maybe try a pair of shoes specifically designed for mountain cycling, like the Five Ten?
If that’s still not grippy enough for you, I guess you’ll have to go clipless, which I definitely won’t try for myself!
You could try these for $26. If your feet don’t stick to these, then your shoes must be made from a combination of ice and oil.
I have to warn you, the pins are long. They definitely stick to your shoes. They will also do the same to your shins.
I don’t know how bomb-proof the bearings are, but I haven’t worn mine out yet, and the entire set of pedals is $26.
MZYRH Road/Mountain Bike Pedals MTB Pedals Bicycle Flat Pedals 3 Bearings 9/16” Aluminum Alloy Bicycle Platform Pedals for BMX MTB Amazon.com : MZYRH Road/Mountain Bike Pedals MTB Pedals Bicycle Flat Pedals 3 Bearings 9/16” Aluminum Alloy Bicycle Platform Pedals for BMX MTB (Black) : Sports & Outdoors
I wouldn’t advise @pink4141 to do so. After one year of muni, that could be dangerous.
Magnetic pedals would be better to start.
On the flat pedals side, you could also have a look at Crankbrothers. Stamp 2 are affordable while providing a really good grip. I bought a pair of them 2 weeks ago but didn’t have time to give them a try (well, I have ridden only my clipless these last weeks). However, they are now on my G29 and I’ll test them next week. If your interested, I can let you know how great they are 
Thanks for all the suggestions. I do have a pair of five ten shoes that I wear when I ride.
Maxence - can you let me know how those Crankbrothers pedals work?
Sure! I’m not home until Monday, but I’ll definitely try them on Tuesday. Maybe I’ll go for some light muni as well. Please note I’m not used to flat pedals and I usually find that my feet slip when I use them. So the test will be as simple as: if my feet hold on the pedals, they are great
In general, pedals with pins that have visible threads are the ones with the most grip (from my experience). Aluminium pins can get polished by your shoes and loose their edge and grip. So ideally, you want threaded steel pins, they don’t need to be long, they just need to be good.
I’m a big fan of DMR Vault pedals, I’ve been riding the same for over 5 years (they do need a complete rebuild now), but the grip is very good, the size is good and they are at a good weight.
That being said, you could have the grippiest pedals out there, but if you ride with bad shoes, you’ll have bad grip.
Cycling specific shoes are a good choice usually. I ride with 5.10 Freerider Pro shoes. There’s a couple brands making shoes for flat pedals, I’ve been happy with 5.10 so I haven’t tried the other choices.
That combo gives me plenty of grip for all my techy riding
+1 on the DMR Vaults and 5.10 Freerider Pros. Excellent combo. A lot of top muni riders use this combo.
Coming back to the Crankbrothers Stamp2 pedals. I’ve ridden about 50 km this week for commuting. I’ll probably put another 50 km on them this next week-end. So far, they are great: large and grippy. My feet don’t seem to slip with my Five Ten Freeride shoes. I’m pretty pleased with them
(Even though they don’t provide enough traction when accelerating or riding uphill. #CliplessLover)
Overall, I guess they will be great for my next - short - unipacking trip.
Coming back to this thread. I’m back from my uni-packing trip: 5 days, 340 km, 4000m of elevation gain. The pedals are very grippy. My Five Ten shoes were fixed to them. For the first days, it was hard for me to replace my feet (and I was always looking for the best position for my feet, so I spent a lot of hours trying to replace them 
). Even after having walked in mud, the pedals were still grippy.
So: the pedals are large and have a very good grip. But the paint goes away pretty fast. If you’re looking to have a “clean” uni, they aren’t for you. If you love scars on your uni, then you’ll love them 
Have them on all my unis. Very good pedals!
Quick review from me for these OneUp Aluminium pedals.
I’m using these on my G24 and they have really surprised me. The grip feels like a lock 
and yet I’m still able to angle my heel to shift gear or change my foot placement a smidge.
The confidence they give is great and compared to the Hope F20s I use on the G29er they are really night and day. The Hopes aren’t bad, but they have a more slippery feel to them overall. They have a wider platform than the Hopes too but not overly large. I’m sold on these now and would get another pair over the Hope line up any day!
I guess downsides are the pins on these pedals look lethal whereas the Hopes seems a bit safer for your shins.
I did worry the large axle bearing would somehow get in the way but it doesn’t and I really love the fact this is designed to be super serviceable.
The guy I got a number of my unis from used to file down his pedal pins to make them less vicious but still effective. Since yours are ‘rear loading’ that should be possible while still being able to replace them later if needed.
Interesting idea. I’d always worry that the filing made the pins sharper.
Happily I don’t mind having the long pins as the risk of them hitting my legs - front or back feels very slim.
I would probably opt to use small washers behind the pins to have them sit lower if I really wanted to get them shortened. They are pretty long!
Only if you decide to file a knife point into them… Keep the file square and break the edges after and the pins will be exactly the same as before, just shorter.
I have heard reports from people that claim threaded (all the way to the top) pins are grippier than non-threaded. I’m not sure if that is true, but I might try it out one day. My spank spoon pedals left some quite deep gashes in my left calf once, they have very long non threaded pins. While I believe that this was just a once every few years unlucky hit, if I could get similar or better grip from shorter, less bitey pins I’d take it…
The threaded all the way pins are just standard metric screws, you can buy a bag of shorter ones cheap online. Usually M3 I think.
I like M4 set screws instead of pins - the hollow top with its narrow rim grabs really well without being a stabby needle type thing. It’s also easy to adjust the height. Some pedals are already M4 threaded (Nimbus; my beloved Addict pedals that I still use) and you can do a direct replacement. And I’ve just screwed them into smaller non-threaded holes on composite pedals. Again you can just get bags of them in various lengths, online.
I find there is a level of grip that is excessive for MUni. A free mount or brief loss of contact can leave your foot out of position and too much grip can make it difficult to get back. Five tens and an old set of shimano saints are the grip level I’m used to, I could stand a little more grip, but if I put my pedaling innovations pedals on, I might find it less than ideal. If you struggle to one-foot this is a stronger concern since I find that skill transfers heavily to repositioning your foot on trails
