I have now bent the axle on my Primo pedals twice… the latest bend resulting from a 3-ft. drop to a flat surface.
Not having a lot of experience doing drops, I know my technique probably isn’t perfect… but I don’t want to go through a whole bunch of pedals during the learning curve.
I assume stronger pedals would hold up better… or would improper technique bend even the strongest pedals?
I know you trials guys are doing drops many times higher than the drops I’m doing on my Coker… what kind of pedals are you guys using? …and how much $$$ are they and where can I purchase them?
Sooner or later with bad technique, anything will bend or break. But if you are looking for a good strength to price ratio, try the Odyssey OJCs. I have a pair on my trials uni and I have done 5 ft drops with not very good technique and I weigh 230 pounds. They haven’t bent yet. They cost like $33 I think.
Or you could go the other way and buy a bunch of really crappy cheap pedals and just put on a new pair as you bend them.
I really like the look of my Airfoil Coker with the current colors… alternating black and chrome/silver:
All black airseat, chrome seat post, chrome seat post handle with black plastic grip, chrome frame (with black tape around an inch and a quarter wide wrapped around the upper part of the fork on both sides where the brake mount goes… which isn’t currently installed), black rim & tire, chrome spokes, black hub, black cranks, silver pedals.
Th black hub and black cranks are the only two that aren’t alternating… but I like it better that way.
If I can’t get silver pedals… I’ll probably have to go with the black ones… but then I’ll have to switch to chrome cranks - which will mess up my prefered color scheme (black hub and cranks - everything else alternating!) Maybe I can just get my pedals repainted somehow… but it will probably come out crappy if I do it myself!
THE STRONGEST PEDALS are the Syncrose (Mental S S) The best pedals ever… Life time warranty, Customer serviceability <www.syncros.com> I have 2 pairs and love them to death. When your not using them as pedals they double as a meat tenderizer.
Wow! They look awesome! Now the only trick is finding a place to purchase them… it looks like you have to buy them from a bike shop - you can’t order them online through the manufacturer - and they don’t have a list of bike shops that carry them or a link to their distributors (which you can’t buy them from, either) ! I guess it’s time to try Google and see what I come up with.
Do you know a good online retailer that carries them? How much should I expect to pay?
I currently use VP components VP-53 pedals. They are made for BMX, but suit my kind of unicycling very well (I mostly do urban tirals and street-riding but I do some off-roading too)). Your feet are like glued to the pedals so you wont slip off anymore, like I used to do and hurt myself.
There is only one problem, though, they are like USD 80 (at least in Norway).
[EDIT] See www.vpcomponents.com for more info on the pedals, I don’t know where you can buy them in the US or anywhere else than in Europe.
Wow! Those are some expensive pedals. $200 (USD) MSRP and discounted prices at web retailers ranging from $160 to $180. Wow! I thought my AtomLab pedals were expensive at about $100.
Those Syncros pedals do look really wild. I’m not so sure how well the needle bearings will hold up. I tried some Kore pedals that used a combination of a needle bearing and a cartridge bearing. The needle bearing in the Kore pedals disintegrated after only a few months. It sounds like the Syncros pedals have a much more robust design, but I’m sill cautious now of any platform pedal using needle bearings.
Specialized has a neat platform pedal that retails for $82.99 MSRP and is available for a little less than that at a local bike shop. It’s not as cool looking as the Syncros pedals but less expensive and it’s gotten good reviews by the hard core bike riders.
My opinion, for what it’s worth, is to get a pair of DMR V12s, they’ve stood up to my Muni abuse for about a year now with no problems, they’re completely user serviceable with all spares available and if you’re still bending axles they do titanium replacement axles. I picked up a set for £36 and they grip like nothing else i’ve ridden. No idea about availability in the US but in Britain they’re pretty huge in BMX and jumping, they also do magnesium versions if you want to save weight.
i still like the none sealed snafus i’ve got. $35-ish and quite solid. i’d abused them for 2 years and george barnes had them for a while before that. there’s almost on their last legs now though. a repack didn’t fix them all the way so i’m in need of some new ones.
In my experience, cokers are quite hard on pedals if you’re riding them offroad. Falling off the coker and it landing on the pedal is what seems to damage them most, especially when you land on top of the whole lot.
As probably the most tried and tested pedals, DMR V12s have gotta be worth a try. I seem to think that DMR is a British thing though, so you might not be able to get hold of them in the US.
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