I recently bought some Wellgo Mg-1s to try out, and I love the grip and the weight savings, but I noticed that the pedals to not spin too much. If I try to spin the pedal it only rotates a small amount before stopping, compared to most pedals I have used where the pedal spins a lot with not that much resistance.
I did some quick searching, but did not find a thread on this subject. Actually I did find a thread in the bike forums: http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-449759.html and it seems like there was a similar problem with a diff wellgo pedal for someone else. At the end of that thread someone said that “A well greased pedal doesn’t spin much.”, but I would think it would be the opposite.
Is there anyway to adjust this so that the pedal can spin more freely? Should I be concerned with this, or is this how the pedal should be?
I have never noticed a difference. Some of the pedals I’ve had the best of riding with, didn’t spin for a long time. My longest-spinning pedal is this big block of rubber that came on my old artistic bike, a Bauer that’s probably from the 1960s. Spins forever.
My MG-1s don’t spin freely either. Just assume it’s because the pedal is so light, air friction stops it more quickly.
There’s something to be said for pedals that don’t spin too, that maybe they stay put when you’re trying to mount. Long as they don’t have a lot of friction, that’s okay with me.
Grease is very viscous and pedals are very light so a lot of grease will damp the spinning of a pedal fairly quickly.
Loose bearing pedals can be adjusted. Fixed bearings cannot. There is a jam nut that locks the race nut which contains the bearing race on the pedal axle of a loose bearing pedal. Loosen the jam (outer) nut and then loosen the race (inner) nut. When the race nut is just barely too loose, tighten the jam nut down onto the race nut. This slightly tightens the race nut. It may end up too loose (rattles) or too tight (grinds or sticks.) It takes some iteration to get it right.
the sticking may be the bearings being too tight, or just too much grease. They will probably loosen up a bit. It isn’t an issue unless you feel the pedal sticking as you’re riding.
Many pedals are adjustable. Remove the dust cap at the outside end and you may find a lock nut and another nut beneath that. Loosening these by a tiny amount may make all the difference.
Sealed pedals have o rings that by necessity press against the pedal shaft, causing resistance, making them spin less well than unsealed cheapo pedals.
My MG-1 pedals aren’t very spinny at all. With a decent amount of ooomph, the most I can get them to spin on their own is less than 1 1/2 revolutions.
My DK Iron Cross pedals, however, will spin for up to around 10 seconds with the same amount of ooomph applied.
The MG-1s are almost the lightest pedals on the market, and the Iron Cross are heavier than everything else on the market put together. Just an observation
