I’m thinking of some new pedals for my Nimbus 26. Currently I’m running the stock pedals and am finding they are not grippy enough with my shoes. So, I’m debating either buying some longer set screws to replace the stock ones with, or getting new pedals.
The one thing pushing me toward new pedals is the fact that my feet seem a bit wider than the platform on the pedals that came with my uni. As a result, the outside of my foot feels like it is wrapping over the edge of the pedal and that’s starting to get painful.
The reviews on the electrons are pretty good, and they’re not that expensive, but will they gain me any width over my current pedals? Could any of you who own a pair get me a quick measurement of the width of the platform? I’ve searched all over the place and can’t find that info.
Wow. Do I feel like an idiot now! I swear I checked in there and totally missed the “specifications” tab on the page. Thanks for the info (and for the dope slap).
I guess I keep looking for pedals, then. I want something considerably wider than the 95 mm my pedals are now.
Nukes are great and wider unless you have huge feet probably should never be necessary…
I have size 9.5 five tens and 4 sets of nukes. Electrons and neutrons, the square ones and shaped model, alloy, ti + magnesium and the poly one. The grip is best as it gets. Strength and weights are great. Not a problem yet. My alloy ones are many years old and seen many muddy trails on a couple mtbs I had. I tried so many pedals wasting so much money. These are where I ended with my journey for decent pedals
Can I suggest forget longer pins, try some nukes and five tens have great support for riding maybe consider the footwear too
Hope you find what your hoping to achieve
All the best
Darren
If your getting pain due to something not feeling right and you can’t put your finger on it, also look at flattening your saddle might help something your hips could be doing something weird to your feet to keep them wide and or consider getting your alignment checked by a chiropractor. Maybe there is another reason for your posture and pain on the uni.
Also some peoples ankles are not properly tuned and they get inserts for their riding shoes so they are getting pressure correct on the pedals. If that makes sense!.. Specialized have a range of shoe inserts.
Keep your options open and I hope you cure your pain and dont stop riding!!! Goodluck
I have the ‘Nukeproof’ electrons. Unfortunatly for me they aren’t as durable as the name suggests… the pedal body on my left pedal moves on the spindle in and out about 4mm I’ve gotten used to it but its a bit annoying sometimes!
I haven’t heard anything like this happening to them before so maybe I was just unlucky? Oh well at least they are cheap.
The next pedals I’m thinking of replacing them with are the DMR Vaults, their big platform size should be pretty comfy (my feet get sore sometimes) and they are light and aparently very grippy!
Are dmr sealed bearing? Loose bearing dont last long usually before they bind up and start crunching inside. with the electrons if they aren’t old take them back to the shop or if they have a few km on them one aspect also of nukes is they can be rebuilt easily. Not that I have needed to yet but chainreaction.com should have what you need for a rebuild.
Sore feet!? You shouldn’t be getting sore feet… And its more likely not because of pedals sorry. Runners if fit, healthy and conditioned correctly with good shoes dont get sore feet for example. See a TCM doctor if you really want to know why your getting sore feet. TCM traditional Chinese medicine.
I have five sets of electrons and their clones, great pedals, I have not had any problems other than the occassional loosening spindle, but that’s easilly resolved by pulling the end plug and tightening the lock nut.
I have replaced, pins over time as they wear, I buy bulk socket head screws and nuts, use blue loctite and it works great. On a couple sets I have added extra screws in the outside middle row.
Pedals don’t get much wider, maybe 105mm by 100mm, so the Electrons are pretty wide as far as that goes. You might consider a different shoe, not sure what your using now, but a stiffer sole will give more support.
If it’s slip resistance you’re looking for, longer pins would be grippier, but would also be gnarlier if you hit your leg
I ride in wet weather year round, the electrons work great. I have size 13-14 feet.
Wow. Thanks for all the input. The reason I’m looking for wider pedals (side to side), is that I have oddly shaped feet. The outside “ball” of my foot sticks out quite a bit on the little toe side. That’s what seems to be rolling off the outside of my pedals now, which in turn causes the pain.
New shoes are probably on the horizon as well to get both a stiffer platform and a thinner profile. I think part of my problem now may be that the tread on the hikers I am using is pretty wide on the inside of the shoe, so I can’t snug my foot inward the last little bit without starting to hit the cranks on every revolution.
So, if can find something wider and get new shoes, then I think all will be well. Still cogitating on the electrons, but also eyeing the VP Vice and maybe the new 45 North heiruspecs.
Here is your Vps you think of they look ok and bigger than the norm. scroll left arrow to see the pilots… hope you find your pedals of choice and five tens have great grip and a very supportive sole. Made for riding flats essentially. best of luck
They do look massive. Unfortunately, they’re no longer made.
I think I’ve decided to go the cheap route for now to see if I like/need the wider platform. The nimbus pedals have a couple nice slots along the outer face that I can set a bolt through. So, I’m going to make a couple extensions out of oak to make my pedals about 110 mm wide. I’ll also replace a few of the stock pins with longer set screws for more grip and see if that helps. That way I can try out the bigger platform for basically free, and save my pennies for some new five tens.
I think you’ll like the pins you put in yourself. A while back I put a pair of folding pedals on my 36r so it would fit into the trunk of my car (it’s a small trunk). The pedals were a plastic composition, with no pins. So I got a box of 4-40 hex drive set screws and added them myself. Without really thinking about it, I set them a little higher than the pins on my other uni pedals. They ride ok, except the pedals themselves are not that great. (I wouldn’t use these pedals if it weren’t for the folding feature.) But I really notice the difference now when I ride on of my other unis. Even though those pedals are pinned, my feet have a lot easier movement on the pedals. This can be either good or bad, depending on your view. It’s easier to make foot adjustments, but I feel like my feet will slip off doing maneuvers the use a lot of foot twisting. Bottom line is, I like having the adjustable height feature of the pins I installed myself.
Also, regarding your foot being wider than the pedal, wearing shoes with a firmer sole makes a big difference there. I recently bought a new pair of riding shoes, and the soles are much firmer than my old ones. When I wear the old ones now, they almost feel like moccasins. I kind of like the extra tactile “feel” they provide, but the stiffer ones definitely provide a more solid riding platform. I think it’s a personal preference thing. Just a suggestion.
I made myself a couple of 15 mm extensions out of oak, so my pedal platform is now 110 mm wide. That seemed to help, as the outer ball of my foot had more support. In watching more carfully what was happening, I think I tend to mount with a wide stance (Larry Craig shoutout there…) because the light hikers I’ve been wearing have pretty big heels and hit on the cranks if I’m in too tight.
However, after hearing all the advice about stiffer shoes, I threw down and got a pair of the five ten impact highs. WOW!!! What a difference. Suddenly, my feet are glued to the pedals, I can pedal circles without feeling like I’ll skate off on the top and bottom of the pedal arc, and the support for the outside of my foot pretty much removed the pain I was having. (I do still get a little bit b/c the shoe is a bit narrow across the forefoot for me, but they’ll wear in just fine.)
In my first ride with the new shoes, I can ride hills easily that I barely got up before. My hops are suddenly confident and twice as high. (OK, 2" to 4" is not that much, but it feels a lot higher.) I even had the confidence to try a rolling hop and hit it on my first try!
So, thanks again for all the advice. Those shoes are MAGIC.
Not sure if the bearing are sealed or not I’d guess they are? They’re about 6 months old so I doubt they’d take them back/doubt they’d be covered under the warrenty. Besides to send them back to the UK could be a little expensive anyway.
Mmm, the sole of my 5 ten freerider shoes has lost a lot of its original stiffness which is pretty annoying that might have something to do with it I reckon. Thanks for the advice I was thinking about making up some plastic or maybe fibre glass insoles to stiffen them up a bit.
Wider inside to outside, if the pedals were wider in this dimension then they’d reach the stiff side of the shoe.
And some pedals are significantly wider - the vaults are 115x115 so thats 15mm wider one side and 17mm the other side!
Yup, that was why I stopped riding Five Ten shoes, they lose most of their midsole stiffness, feet get sore, arches get tired. The only good thing about Five Ten is the sticky rubber. The design of the Five Ten midsole is poor, they use a compressed waterproofed paper product which inexpensive, but also gets soft with use.
The Teva Links do not lose stiffness, are lighter than the lightest Five Ten riding shoe, are hydrophobic, breathe well, the only downside is they are not that sticky; though they are sticky enough. Teva uses a nylon stiffener in their midsole.
I have tried adding various stiffeners to the midsoles, flexible cutting board, “iron soles”, and even a piece of thin polycarbonate, but it doesn’t really work, so I ride the Tevas.
You can get stiff soled shoes, I ride some Five Ten spd shoes as flats (no cleat), but they are waaay stiffer than any Five Ten or Teva, but they may not appeal to most riders.
