Plastic, metal pedals or diff. shoes?

Unicycles and Equipment
1

I was riding the odysessy twisted PC plastic pedals with running shoes. I thought I would go back to my waffle soled skate shoes. My foot slipped off during an adjustment since the skate shoes have little actual grip. But when it rains, my pedals are fairly slippery in general. Its going to rain the next week and I want to feel safe mounting and going off curbs and not riding is not an option. I wont be doing 180 spins or flip tricks anytime soon, mostly cruising and soon hopping on/off things and other simple tricks.

Should I change to the metal pedals in general, on my trials uni or my new 24 cruiser uni? I have a KH 2008 and guess they are the Odyssey Cielencki Trailmix I could switch to. Should I stay the way I am or consider new shoes? I wear a mens 5.5/6 so the one recommended in the shoes thread are too big for me.

Also I have the knee/shin 661 4x4s. So that should help on pedal bites. I’m also wondering the BMXers and DH MTBers swear on the plastic covered shin guards.

2

do your feet slip of all the time when they are wet?

I ride with twisted PCs with skate shoes and they are fine. try and find skate shoes that have a really stiff sole thats what i have globe skate shoes worth getting. apart from that if you are going to be riding your 24" of road and doing MUni then have metal pedals on that, if your going to just be using it for road town or somthing it might be worth putting plastic pedals on that just in case your have an unplanned dismount and your uni goes into some one it won’t hurt them as much as metals will.

Hope this helps a bit

3

I’m not familiar with the pedals you have. Do they have pins? I just replaced my Torker with Wellgo pedals. They have pins and are the same type that came with my MUni. There’s probably better, but I find them grippy enough. I also picked up new boots with a stickier bottom. So I guess I already got my mother’s day presents. Anyway my shoes are Merrell hiking boots. Light, ankle support, sticky bottom and nearly flat. I used them today on my long ride and they did well. My feet never slipped off while climbing. It’s also a women’s boot so they have sizes you would need. They weren’t cheap though ($120). I had a hefty dividend from REI from better days when I had $$ to spend. I now am “poor” like so many others.

Photo 31.jpg

4

I have some similar Timberland shoes with major knobs like that which I love for my MTB/BMX. Just in the forefoot its flared out a bit so its a wider base. Makes it hard to place my foot without knocking the cranks with the knobs.

I am less concerned about hurting others, just myself for now. For now I’m doing cruising and learning a few tricks but not so fast that I’ll be doing all these flat tricks where I’ll be spinning the uni around a lot. I wish I were lol. :o

Its just been so wet here with raining a ridiculous amount. My hip is OK already but I slammed on it the other day due to a slip and felt lame. So when its wet, I dont feel OK even mounting right now. The grip isnt there and maybe I’ve worn the pedals down already or something. They do have plastic pins on them. I dont think I’ve really ever bashed my shins. A guy told me about these moldable hard plastic shin guards that he uses to moto race with and might get those and wear s-one knees I have which are better knee pads then the 4x4s.

I guess for learning sake start with plastic on the new bigger uni and maybe put metal on my smaller one for now until least the rain season ends or I start wanting to do more complicated tricks where I need less traction? Then again too much traction and an inaccurate mount, I wont be able to adjust.

I’ll check out those shoes and the new guy at work his when he wears them as hes into BMX. I think I need bigger holes and/or knobs on my shoes now. I have mid tops. I might try those too or just switch pedals, least for now til April showers ends which I hope is soon lol. Otherwise I might have to build an arc lol.

So yeah, when its raining/wet outside, my feet are slipping. So then I have to restrict riding and when it rains, uni is the only sport I can really do. I dont like taking too many days off as I love to have a blast outside!

5

fair fair but i use flat soled shoes for every thing even muni and they are good don’t really slip of. and maybe putting metal pedals on until the rain stops will be a good idea haha but when do come of and the pedals hit you it will hurt like f**k haha i know got many cuts on my shins so now i wear my 661 shin/knee pads almost all the time unless i’m not doing anything big. also KH pads are cheaper well on unicycle.com NZ they are anyway

6

FIVE TEN.

Pretty much all of their freeride shoes are what you want.

Stiff soled shoes like the impact series for drops, and softer soled shoes with sticky rubber for flat and the like.

Harder rubber for gliding (so you don’t get your shoes eaten).

Climbing approach shoes such as the garmont sticky dragon, lasportiva spotter, and the like are good because they will fit closer to the foot so you will have more control with your foot, and less likely to have the shoe flex accidentally and slip off. Also the sticky rubber in the shoes will stick to the pedals and frame better than a traditional hiking or skate shoe.

These shoes are designed to stick to stuff, skate shoes and the like are not, they are more designed to last longer, but in this situation where you don’t have asphalt or grip tape destroying your shoes, you don’t need the longevity, you need the sticky rubber more.

The nice thing about approach shoes is that they flex enough for you to do some mild climbing in them, but they are also stiff enough to hike in, meaning you can feel the pedals but constant impacts from jumps and stuff won’t hurt or damage your feet.

Freeride shoes like what five ten makes have the same kind of sticky rubber used in more climbing approach shoes, but they have a stiff sole, so you will have less flex. These shoes will be better for muni, big street, and trials, where you want your feet to stick to the pedals but you don’t want flex because it will hurt you, and potentially cause slippage. These shoes are best coupled with metal pedals, particularly because that is what the shoes were designed to be used with.

The only other kinds of shoes I would look at would be for freestyle, where you want grip (but not too much for stand up glides and stuff), and definitely enough flex to feel everything.

I haven’t figured out the perfect shoes yet for freestyle, the feeling of an approach shoe similar to the five ten guide, which is pretty flexible would be good, but the rubber won’t last long enough to make it worthwhile for most people training as you will burn through shoes like crazy. Martial arts shoes seem pretty good but from what I have seen they have pretty crappy soles.

7

Did you mean crepe soled shoes? :wink:

I am using Odyssey Twisted PC Pedals on most of my unicycles and like them quite well. I use flat-soled skateboard shoes that have a reasonable grip. It is a good combination, but I have not tried it in the rain. (The Five Ten Freeride shoes sound better, but I have not bought a pair yet.)

I have tried cheap running shows with wide soles and they were terrible. They were mushy and did not grip well at all. Flat soled shoes are better, and very grippy rubber would be better yet.

8

I just switched to the Odyssey Twisted PC’s on my trials and I love them. Then again the thing that I like about them is that I can move my feet around on them and get my feet off them when I am bailing. My 29 has the odyssey JC’s and i can move my feet at all on them. Where ever I put my feet, that’s where they stay. Metal w/ pins seem to be the way to go if you like grippy.

9

Gum rubber sole skate/bmx shoe + brand new plastic Odyssey pedal = best option I have tried in wet conditions. I have never ventured into the 50+ dollar metal pedals tho.

10

The rubber that is on skate shoes is still nothing in comparison to a good pair of approach shoes.

Also I should have used a different word than freeride shoe, because I forgot that fiveten made the freeride shoe. I’m not sure if it is as stiff as the others, and I don’t know what the rubber compound is, so I shouldn’t give out poor info. I know it uses the stealth S1, so it is good rubber, but I don’t know what the stiffener is like, and it isn’t as form fitting as an approach shoe, so it wouldn’t be as nice for flat as the guide or the tennie, although pictures can be decieving and I haven’t seen that model in person yet.

I wish the fiveten reps actually came to Canada once in a while. They just send a petzl guy with some fiveten stickers :(.

11

I would love to get the 5-10, but one reason I posted this is that in a mens/boys I wear a size 5.5 to 6. I cant find them in that size! If there are some, please post a link.

I do wear the 4x4s now so I have guards on. Would those work with the standard metal pedals that come with the KH? Or I can just be a wus for a week until it dries up here… I just want to push myself a bit. I dont want to wear butt pads as its hot and hard to pedal. I dont think I’ll slam on my hip except slipping on the pedals so trying to not slip for now until I’m better.

12

So get women’s shoes. Five Ten makes women’s shoes as well. The women’s Karver is a great shoe, I’m jealous because my store only sells the womens and not the men’s.

Shimano makes a freeride shoe, but I haven’t tried the newer models yet. I had one of the older ones and it was a pretty good freestyle shoe (the rubber needed to have been more sticky), but it had no stiffness to it, so it actually hurt my feet for trials and stuff.

13

Cool! I want a pair now! I just dont have $100 lol. I usually get my shoes for $20 on clearance. I spent the last of my money on a uni but hopefully I’ll get a better paying job this summer. I am also wondering if those would have the same issues as my Timberland hiking shoes. These arent them exactly but somewhat similar as I just did a quick search. The knobs project outwards which make me awkward placing my feet on the pedals. I hit the cranks a lot with these shoes.

Its pouring rain all day today so might not be able to uni. I have to work all day too. Maybe I’ll go ahead and switch to metal pedals for now since thats free at least until I have other options I can afford.

14

Should I just cut the knobs that flair inward at the ball of the foot to give me more clearance so they are just flush with the bottom of the sole up front? They kinda flair out at a 45 degree angle. I think then my trail shoes would work good for now.

15

I can’t find the 5.10 high impact with ankle support in a womens shoe. The sizing is Mens 6, 7, 7.5 and up. The only ones that would work for me are 6.5 and they don’t make them in that size. They don’t make that shoe in womens. At least not that I’ve found. Most everything bike or skate is mens. They don’t usually make them smaller than a 6 and usually start at size 7. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong place.

16

Where did you see the mid top high impact ones? I would like those honestly! I only saw a size 7 or above. I can wear a size 6 mens if you can show me a link.

Well good news/bad news. Bad news is the odyssesy trailmix metal pedals are no better then the plastic ones. Rained all day today and my feet were slipping all around so barely 15 mins practice today. What I think the problem is is the rubber sole on the running shoes. It does get very slippery when wet. I dont understand why/how or what is the best rubber but it even slips if I push it on the wood floors.

But the guy there that is into BMX swears by the Lotek shoes with volcanized sole. The GOOD news is that if it IS a BMX or MTB shoe, I can afford a decent pair of shoes from one of their distributors as I just won a $100 credit for goods for selling more then anyone else in the other 5 stores. :smiley: They also have specialized rockhopper shoes with major knobs and not much of a plastic piece for clip ins, but that guy said I needed lots of close groves for the pins to go in for most grip. So I guess that seems best. Open to comments/suggestions/contraindications, etc. Anyway, this is a pic I found of the sole of the Lotek shoe he suggested. And I will have money for this soon and I can order it through work discounted. I will check later on 5-10 shoes but doubt I can get those through work.

17

I sell those timberlands at my work, and although the stiffness isn’t too bad, they don’t really have any other qualities that would be nice for uni in my opinion. Plus they have goretex which gets bloody hot, my fivetens are hot enough, I don’t need goretex to add to that.

For the five ten shoes, look at the women’s Karver, it is almost the same as the impact low, but with a higher inside heel to protect the inside of your foot. These come in Women’s sizes only, and don’t have the big lace cover that the men’s do.

18

Sorry I missed the edit time.

Also the idea of close grooves for pins is a myth. Pins stick better when they actually go inside something, like penetrating into the rubber. If you use grooved shoes, the pins go inbetween the grooves and what ends up happening is the flaps of rubber will just bend when the pedal tries to slide. So a more flat shoe is best. I really liked the daescent shoe from fiveten (lasportiva has some similar shoes but way more expensive and climbing oriented) because it actually has a completely flat piece of climbing rubber for the front of the foot. But I think the stealth mystique rubber isn’t resillient enough for metal pedals.

Also there are a ton of different kind of pins, some are like o’s and these work best in a flat sole, some are just pins, and these work alright in either a flat rubber or a grooved rubber depending on the size. For plastic pedals there are a couple different styles as well, some are sharper points which work great in a soft flat sole, and others are more blocky which actually work great in the grooved rubber as they are big enough to actually fill up the grooves, but not sharp enough to tear up the grooves.

One of the problems I have with grooved rubbers is that with sharper pins, they tend to just rip through the flaps of the grooves and end up getting torn to shreds.

19

I am now confused lol. These are the pedals I have(different color) and prefer to keep!

I am wearing Nike running shoes for the most part. I started wearing them for the cushioning from jumping off the uni a lot learning. I also have some Nike midtops with that zig zap waffle pattern of close groves. Its not totally flat as it goes in right before the heel as most shoes do.

I like the beefy knobs for trails/dirt as its good traction but my main concern is grip to the pedals. I know it wont rain forever, but unicycling is my only cost and time effective sport I do when its wet weather out so I want to make this feasible and safe. We are having 10 days straight of rain and I’m sure this wont be the last time this happens.

So is the 5-10 my only good option? How are those knobs more effective then others or is it also the rubber compound? I want to understand this. Seems like better pedals would have to be the harsh metal pin ones and those are killers on the shins. So prefer my light/easy on shin plastic ones if possible.

The rockhopper shoes at work are similar to this, but this is almost like my timberlands. I was told the knobs are too far apart.

20

Orchids are amazing shoes. They are bmx shoes, so they have stiff rubber than skate, I’ve also heard that 5-10’s can get ripped to shit very easy, though I have never had a pair myself.

Orchids have the same tread as the shoes you posted. I’m still riding my 2 year old orchids, been used for trial and street. I’ve got myself another new pair I like them so much. Barely used yet.

Try pedals with pins like mg1’s, screw in, they work better than jc trailmix pins/twisted with my orchids. With a pedal like that and shows with orchid tread the grip is really good.

They work well with twisted plastics.

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