I found with Nukeproof electron pedals that the axle dust seals gets torn by foot rubbing on them.
The seals could be brought separately a while ago but now you can only buy them as part of a full rebuild kit which makes them an expensive waste.
What was it that failed, exactly? I’ve pedals slide off the shaft a few times, but it was always due to
- a broken circlip (easily replaced)
- or a retaining nut coming loose on the end of the shaft (easily fixed).
The circlip problem seemed like a bad design, but the nuts coming loose just seemed like an assembly issue, not a real design flaw.
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I had an off-brand Chinese pedal do that while on a ride. I just tiggtened it back up as best I could, finished up my ride while being careful with it and then retightened it later with blue Loctite. It’s still in service on one of my daughter’s unicycles and doing fine.
Mine haven’t been damaged yet, but the seal design is probably the worst thing about them.
I have some identical profile pedals from another manufacturer that has the rubber dust seals fitting into the end of the pedal rather than against it - it works great and there’s no risk of seal damage from riding.
Nukeproof’s seal definitely feels like an afterthought in the design.
I need to find an alternative for the axle seal as I have them on my MTB as well so it would be wise to find a way of keeping debris out.
All my other unicycles have shimano saint pedals on which I think are fantastic.
I tried clipless (crank brothers mallets) and really liked it. But it can be tough to get unclipped and I was accidently getting clipped in when I didn’t want to be. I want to try the magnetic clipless someday.
Injuries from this definitely have the capacity to be worse than injuries from pedal pins.
It really depends on the type of pedals. I think most of the unicyclists that run clipless pedals use SPD’s with SH-56 cleats (multi-directionnal releasing). BTW, Shimano SPD pedals can be set so that they are easy to unclip. To give you some credit about why I say, I now use SPD pedals on all my unicycles:
- 27"5 for DH;
- G29 for city;
- G36 for road racing;
- and 27"5 freewheel for DH
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Clipless on freewheel?!?! You must have hit your head while using them on your dh muni! Jokes aside, you must be extremely good at freewheel to go clipless and then also dh on it, do you have any footage of this?(might inspire me to put some cranks back on my freewheeler)
Off topic, but if you don’t, please do consider selling/loaning it as there’s a great deal of interest in freewheel but very little availability of hubs.
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I’ll try and find some footage. It’s not been a long time since I switched to clipless on my freewheel but my friends had a camera for my first training. So I may be able to retrieve the footages 
I’d say it’s way easier to have clipless on a freewheel for DH as both of your feet need to stay on the pedals to not fall, but it’s also way more dangerous if you don’t have a serious training.
It’s interesting that clipless is always held in such high esteem by those that have tried it. One day I’ll probably have to give it a go, but I have a feeling it’s not gonna make its way to a freewheel for me anytime soon, I don’t even have pins on my freewheel pedals.
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Oh I fully plan on putting that uni back together, but it’s winter where I’m at now and I have enough trouble with that thing when there isn’t ice and snow to slide around on so I borrowed it’s parts for other experiments. There have been a few warm days popping up here and there which made me think of maybe pulling it out again, but it always goes right back to freezing and then the ice appears from the melted snow.
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That would be a really bad idea anyway. You need to be very familiar with clipless pedals on fixed unis before going clipless on freewheel. They are harder to unclip as they could theoretically turn with your feet when you try to remove them. So don’t go there anytime soon!
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I think you really need to do the freewheel/clipless combo with a giraffe.
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So here are the footages I promised you! They are raw, without lots of colors and they have been filmed in a bad way (you’ll see 
) but you can see how clipless pedals on my FW aren’t a big issue for me:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ylkdz-_wFD0SGelAO9BOqVUElKDt8Bf4?usp=sharing
Sadly enough, my successful attempts on featured spots haven’t been filmed so you’ll see a lot of UPDs. Which is pretty great as that’s the most dangerous point with clipless/FW and I managed not to hurt me
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As an almost always clipless pedals user on my bikes I immediately see that you have really internalized the movement of the feet which is required to release the shoes from the pedals. This is probably essential for a safe usage on the uni.
I have tried SPDs on my standard uni almost two decades ago. I think at that time it was even more freaky than today, considering the reactions I got back then here in the forum 
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You definitely seem able to hop out when you want, and are very skilled at freewheeling! It looks like a good brake is quite important, I’ll try to find some decent brake pads at the LBS for mine and get it tuned in really well. Sadly there isn’t really much way to give mine a disc brake since cotterless rules out the spirit crank method and the hub doesn’t have any mounts for a disc, plus a disc brake would probably cost more than the entire thing did. How “practical” is it to freewheel trails compared to fixed? Is it about the same pace?
Sure. That is the result of almost 5 years of daily commuting with clipless. It’s really something I don’t think about. Simply put: if there’s any danger I haven’t thought about, my feet get out of the pedals in a fraction of second.
I also agree with you it’s essential for a safe usage on a uni. Going clipless for Muni without the right training is quite suicidal.
I’m no specialist of the history of clipless but i seem to remember they were much harder to clip and to unclip back then. There has been a massive leap in technology since then, making clipless suitable for uni.
IMHO, it’s one of the key part on a freewheel. It must be powerful and it should not overheat. The last is a big issue as we always apply pressure on the brake, which is not a typical bike behavior. In my experience, organic pads fails to provide enough resistance to heat in DH, so brakes with organic pads tend to lose power with time… And pads are consumed really fast, too.
Next experiment will be to give a try to metallic pads. I have a brand new set, I just didn’t take time to install them yet. But my current organic pads are now fully consumed so I’ll try them soon!
I wouldn’t say it is more practical than a fixed. @muni_ben wrote a great post about that:
Freewheel Unicycling Megathread - #227 by muni_ben
Although I would temper his results given the overall stability clipless pedals offer to a freewheel and resulting speed. As far as I am concerned, I had lots of problems with my feet not sticking to flat pedals on my freewheel. It felt like it was really hard to find the right pression to put on the pedals to keep feet on them. Once I switched to clipless, I hadn’t this issue anymore… And I got a freewheel level I wouldn’t think I would ever acquire! Is it because of me riding clipless for years and simply having problems with flat pedals or does that completely change the behavior and the maneuverability of the freewheel? Hard to say. But that would be great to give it a try
BTW, and lastly, freewheel needs rider to keep a round pedaling. And clipless helps a lot to achieve that! So they seem to combine perfectly
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