Well, for the last 18 months, I’ve had a pair of DK Iron Cross pedals on my commuting uni. They’re fantastic pedals, they look really cool, and I love them to bits. They are fairly heavy though. Well, very heavy in fact.
But that shouldn’t make much of a difference, right? I’m sure the reciprical weight on the end of some short cranks isn’t noticable, is it?
Well, I aquired a pair of Wellgo magnesium pedals recently, and because I wanted to put the Iron Crosses on to another uni, I put the magnesium ones on my commuter today.
I could hardly beleive the difference! It just seemed to fly! It was so nimble, and quick to change speed and/or direction.
Should a pair of pedals really make this much difference? Can a pair of pedals really make this much difference? Or was it ‘kings new clothes in a psycological kind of way’ difference?
And, having just googled for the links to use in this post, I’ve just found out that the Iron Crosses are also available in magnesium too. Has anyone here used them? Are they just a light as the Wellgos but still as cool as the solid lead variety?
Pedal weight is probably one of the most intrusive areas for weight on a unicycle. You have your rolling mass, which includes the wheel and crankset. Whatever rolls has to be accelerated/decelerated for each correction in balance or change of speed/direction. Then you have the off-putting weight of the cranks and pedals; the things that make your wheel want to wobble (not including your legs). The heavier they are the more your wheel will tend to weave side to side, or the more you have to resist against it. In this area the pedals are the main culprits, and your Iron Cross pedals are notoriously heavy, are they not?
So of course you’d feel a major difference by switching from very heavy to very light pedals. Especially on something like a commuter unicycle.
So I guess I’d say changing pedal weight is one of the most obvious ways to make your unicycle feel and ride lighter. Pedals, tire, cranks, rim. Those are the main ones.
Iron pedals were actually meant for crusading knights wearing chain mail, not unicyclists !
Anyway, that is an interesting observation. Here’s an idea for you, why not put one heavy pedal back on, just to see how weird it is ? How different each side feels, if at all.
Dan’s cycle shows the Iron pedals at 31 oz. http://www.danscomp.com/465120.php?cat=PARTS
31 x 28.35 = 878 grams
The mags are 375 grams
You took almost a pound off your uni weight, compared to running the welgo mags !
Of course you can feel the light LOL You’ll be safer to if it ever falls on you:D
So then would good quality plastic pedals be best for commuting on a coker? Since you’re not doing anything extreme (unless coker muni) and riding mostly on flat, smooth bike path, I’m wondering now if plastic or at least Magnesium pedals would be best. thoughts?
They were OK with 6 " cranks, kinda slippery on 5’s. I just switched them to my muni the other day to try the snafus on the 36.
I’m going to go try the 24 with them now for the first time. Riding time !
As long as they grip and won’t break, there’s no reason to avoid plastic. Unlike metal pedals with screwed-in pins, plastic pedals generally go dull after a while, so this is a factor. But plastic pedals are usually required on the track for racing, so you have to find some plastic pedals with grip you can live with. This is where the turf shoes come in handy. Together with a decent plastic pedal, you still have a nice good grip.
I use Drilliums on my main Muni, cheapo mag. Azonics on my 29er and some other mag pedals (that I bought on sale) on my Coker. I think for road Cokering, the cheapest and lightest pinned pedals you can get are the ticket. Google mag. DH bike pedals and you’ll get plenty of results. You can often find the Azonic mags for around 30 bucks, which is a great deal (if they don’t shaft you for shipping). But I haven’t bought pedals in over a year so maybe they’ve gone up.
I just found a local place (Pricepoint.com) in Gardena. They have those azonics mags for about $30 out the door! Picking them up tomorrow, sans shipping charge! Hey, I found these on UDC, http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=726
they say they weigh only 12.7 oz! But is that per pedal, or for the whole pair. The azonice mags are just over 1 pound for the pair.
edit From what I could gather on google, that is PER PEDAL! UDC’s ad is a bit misleading and should state that it is per pedal, because it implies 12.7 oz is for the whole pair!
I always avoid metal pedals on commuter unis, just because I hate riding metal pedals without shinguards. They’re also not so great in crowds. The $11 Odysseys are fine in plastic.
The Wellgo magnesiums are nice until they disintegrate on you in the middle of a ride. I was lucky–they disintegrated on me at the beginning of a ride.
It’s not because they’re magnesium, it’s because they’re Wellgo sealed-bearing pedals. They have a really cheesy retaining clip as the only thing that’s holding the pedal on the axle, and eventually it fails and the pedal falls apart. Walk home, or ride on the spindle.
I noticed that acceleration and general feel was faster feeling. I had swapped out the 694+70 gr. bumpers Snafus for these plastics http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=216
that weigh maybe I’ll guess 400 gr. It wasn’t night and day, but it was a real improvement. I was kind of scared of the plastics on the 36 because I ride real far and I don’t want to be stuck in the rain on those slippery plastics.
I’ll replace the plastics on the muni soon, but for 10 $ I think they make great spares.
Those pedals are just about the lightest metal platform pedals you can get. I’ve thought of getting them myself.
I switched my 170 cranks back to the stock 150’s and kept the Primo pedals I had on my DX. It was horrible, not at all like I remembered. There was no control, just simple riding felt like I was going to UPD at any moment. The Primos are very heavy (600 g./pair), thick, not very concave and the pins don’t provide much grip (up to now they have been fine on dry roads w/ the 170’s and on my 20). So I switched to my Kona’s (about 500 g. and better at all the above). I was similarly shocked. I couldn’t believe changing pedals could make such a huge difference. I now had heaps of control. They are a bit too grippy for dry roads so I took out a few of the pins.
I’ve tried to ride w/ plastic pedals and I can’t keep my feet on them
I would think pedal protectors would delay that significantly. I have them on all of my pedals. Stock DX, Primo pro aluminum, JC’s, KONA sealed. My favorites are the Kona’s.
It may not just be the weight of the DK Iron Cross pedals that is causing the difference in feel. I find thick pedals (like the DK Iron Cross) to be less ideal for a road unicycle (where you’re spinning the pedals) than thinner pedals. So the difference could also be in the thickness of the pedals. The magnesium pedals are thinner than the DK Iron Cross pedals. The Wellgo pedals are going to feel better regardless of weight.
Someone mentioned the Gusset Slim Jim pedal, and they’re ridiculously light as well (425g)
However, with all the horror stories about Wellgo’s disintegrating…I’m wondering is this a common problem for sealed pedals in general, or is it specifically the Wellgos that are crappy in this aspect? I’d be surprised, cause Wellgo is a big pedal company…
LOL You’ll be safer to if it ever falls on you:D
