RE: Shoes and Pedals Choice
Use different pedals for different situations. Generally, I like as much grip as
humanly possible without clips. Anyone else who wants to experiment with clips
or clipless is welcome to join the injured hand and wrist club.
Since different types of riding require different solutions, here is what I use:
Freestyle - Semcycle pedals. These are white plastic with no metal ends, great
for indoors. They have a bumpy surface that might be called very mild teeth, but
will not rip through blue jeans or otherwise scar you.
Racing - Since today’s official races are seldom happening on tracks that allow
metal pedals 
I’ve gone to the grippiest plastic pedal I could find. I’m
still not happy about it, because a solid foot to pedal grip is essential when
riding fast. The pedals I have were inexpensive, and probably intended for entry
level mountain biking.
Sports/General - If you’re going to play basketball or hockey, you should be
kind to your fellow players and use plastic pedals. If indoors it might be a
requirement. I have a pair of round plastic BMX pedals that have a pretty good
grip and I’m happy with them.
MUni - Get the biggest, sharpest, nastiest pair of BMX or otherwise toothy
pedals you can find. Back away from this solution however if you’re still
whacking yourself in the shins every once in a while. What I’m actually using on
my good MUni at the moment is a pedal that looks just like Simon Greenway’s
(http://members.tripod.com/~derek_b/dmatu.HTM), only yellow. I admit it, I
bought them for the color! Those are great pedals, until they get wet. Then they
still grip, but not nearly as good as the nasty toothy pedals I used before.
Shoes - A grippy bottom is essential. My choice of shoes is definitely not for
everybody, but they work great for me. For all riding, I wear MacGregor turf
shoes, found at K-mart for about twenty bucks! These shoes don’t offer great
support, nor great protection if you’re running around in a rocky environment.
But they have the Astroturf/golf sole that I like, and they have performed well
for me over the years. In the past you could find all sorts of turf shoes in
stores, but now what’s called “turf” usually has a small number of very large
cleats on the bottom, not useful for us. So before MacGregor, I also had Nike
and Adidas turf shoes, but they were always a lot more expensive for about the
same shoe.
NOTE: Your mileage may vary. As with anything else that interfaces directly with
your body, you must try different things and seek your own solutions.
Thanks everyone for sharing your secrets, it should provide enough
information for everyone to get ideas on what to try.
Stay on top,
John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone http://www.unicycling.com