I built up a new trials uni and my existing one has Sun Ringle Zuzu pedals on it. I really really have liked these pedals, even running them with half the pins in the pedals. They feel really good underfoot, grippy and have a wide footprint. I want to keep the old one whole, so I need to get some new pedals for the new one.
Reviews at MTB reviews often mention that the Sun Ringles break because of the thin edges. The pedals have taken lots and lots of hits and have had no problems with the bearings. Yeah, but, I don’t do pedal grabs or grinds, and I think that might be their undoing. I will get to pedal grabs some day, but right now, it’s skinnies and working on SIF.
So, I need to decide whether to stay with the Sun Ringles(30 bucks at pricepoint.com) which I know how they perform or go with the unsealed Jim Cielenki Pedals which have good reports on this site, but I don’t have any experience with them. The pin pattern on the JC pedals is similar to my old Snafus, which I really felt were not very grippy for me, IMHO. That’s one reason I am a little hesitant in getting the JCs.
Honestly, Rod, I consider the Zuzus to be crap. They are marketed as DH pedals, but they are awful for DH. I bought a pair, and cracked them at moab the first time I bottomed out my pedal on a rock. Because of this they ended up on my commuter/street/light trials uni. The first pedagrab I did on them shattered the bottom of the cage. They are still usable, because only the one side of one pedal was mashed, but I think their design is inherently substandard. The are my last choice for trials pedals.
Now the Zuzus are on my commuter/urban assault/MTB because they are the only pinned platfrom pedals I have to spare. However, even then i wish I had some Snafus or eastons to use, because the Zuzus, IMO, have too many pins in the wrong place, so that my shoe doesn’t get the pins embedded in its sole, rather it just float on top of the pins, offering no additional grip.
Get the Jim C’s. The zuzus, because of the thin cage and nature of pins (c’sunk and drilled all the way thru) are weak and NOT suitable for trials.
As for grip, you don’t want your feet immobile on the pedals for trials. In big sidehops your foot will move to a completely new location on the pedal, and with too much grip it won’t be able to find its way back. Also, imperfect grip means that you can adjust pedal position during rail rides, something which is impossible with lots of grip.
I repeat, go for the Jim C’s, no question about it.
That’s a useless post. If you’re gonna bother posting, why not have some content?
Don’t get any unsealed pedals, they will die on pedal grabs an such. Jim C’s are better for street rather that trials i think. The sun ones look pretty good i reckon you should stay with them.
I reeaally like the Jim C pedals. if that website says the Zuzu’s are weak, then when you get to doing bigger drops then you’ll probably break them. but the Jim C’s have held up to 5 foot drops for me…and they’re very very grippy. they’re awesome.
I have a question that goes along with this tread, do the unsealed Jimmy C’s have alot of play? Every set of snafus I have ridden shake so much it feels like the cranks are loose. So now I ride plastics so there is no play but I need more grip. So how are the unsealed Jimmy C’s fine with play or would I have to get the sealed ones?
I have Jim C pedals and they have no play. My brother, who has had his longer than Ive had mine, has no play in his either, unlike my snafus wich I no longer use.
Oh, I should also mention, no sealed bearing pedals for trials. I have seen 3 different pedals have their bearings dissolve due to pedalgrabs. Sealed bearings on most pedals can’t take the hits. Unsealed bearing pedals are far stronger in this regard.
As for play, I have 2 sets of snafus. One is only aobut a year old, and doesn’t have much play at all, while my trials set is around 3 years old, and has been severely abused, first by Kris then by me. That one doesn’t have much play either. The trick is to adjust the bearings every once in a while, since all unsealed barings get loose eventually.
The colors for the Jimmy C pedals can be rather strange. The standard colors available are your normal shades of red or blue. What is special is that Odyssey does special limited edition colors for the Jim Cielencki pedals. They’re special run colors that are only available for a short time then that color is gone forever. They had a fire engine red version available at one time. You can check the Odyssey BMX store to see what special edition colors they have at the moment. Right now the store is under construction, but when it’s up and running that is the place to go to see what is the current limited edition color. And just to keep things interesting Odyssey has also done special colors just for some retailers like Dan’s Comp and Albe’s. If you want a unique color you have to keep your eye on several locations to keep up with what’s available.
The pins on the Jim Cielencki are on the short side. If you have a preference for extra grip you’ll want to swap out some of the shorter pins for longer pins. The pedals come with extra pins so you should be able to find a pin height combo that suits you. They’re standard 3mm allen head bolts that you can get at better hardware stores (or specialty fastener stores) if you want to experiment with pin lengths.
I have found that the standard stock pin lengths work just fine for trials. They’re too short and not grippy enough for muni, but perfectly fine for trials.
After reading other threads about pedals on this forum I decided to go for the Jim C pedals. I decided un-sealed would probably be best beacuse I’ve read that they are stronger for pedalgrabs and such.
After getting them my first reaction was that they were bigger than my old DMR V8s. So I swapped the V8s for the JIm C pedals on my trials uni. Rode for a bit on my driveway, hopped a little, fell when trying to go from riding forward thw backwards beacuse of the poor grip compared to the V8s.
So I thought “well, I just have to switch to the longer pins” but when I opened the plastic bag where the pins were, I only found 8 long pins. Not enough to switch all of the pins. But I mounted the longer pins on there anyway. It helped a little but I would have liked to be able to switch all of the pins to the longer ones.
Now I’m getting used to have a little less grip on my pedals so now I think the Jim C’s are great. The only bad thing is that I lost my dust cap on the left pedal, probably when doing a pedal grab, now I can’t find it.
What do you guys think about getting the magnesium Jimmy C’s instead of the aluminum? Is there that much difference? Is it worth it? I was just thinking they would be better for crankflips.
