[megaman]

A novice question for you. I currently have shimano pedals on my trike but I don't clip in. However there is very little float if I do clipin. My feet and ankles demand a large amount of float. What would be the best pedal for this.
Thanks for your help.

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[Wheelchairman]

I'd run some cheap LOOK pedals with red LOOK cleats on your shoes. They allow (i think) 9 degrees of sideways movement before they unclip. Of course, my suggestion's relying on the hope that;
1- your shoes support the use of LOOK cleats
2- the sole of your shoes hav enough area to attach the cleats (eg. no blocks of rubber interfearing)

Also, Im doubting that it'd be user-friendly enough to run LOOK cleats seeing as you say u ride "unclipped" most of the time- you'd be slipn and sliding all over the neighbourhood :D

Thats all I've got, Ive only ever ran Shimano SPD-R's and LOOK cleats so my knowledge is limited.

[SoonerBent]

If you need float there is only one word in pedals - Speedplay. I have X3s on my Corsa and will never have anything else.

SS

[keith-pam]

A novice question for you. I currently have shimano pedals on my trike but I don't clip in. However there is very little float if I do clipin. My feet and ankles demand a large amount of float. What would be the best pedal for this.
Thanks for your help.

Buy Bear claw pedals .Forget the cleats if you really pull up with them you damage your knees. They are just something else to sell you. Maybe for racers they add something but is this you.

[Trsnrtr]

If you need float there is only one word in pedals - Speedplay.

SS

Likewise, I'm using SP Frogs, 23 degrees (!) of float if I remember right.

[bkaapcke]

Speedplay Drillium pedals are killer. bk

[Soddy]

What are the pro's and cons of too much or too little float. How does this affect performance???

[BlazingPedals]

My preference is for little or no float. Float just makes it slower to unclip (have to move my heel further before the pedal disengages.) The knee joint is a simple hinge. It doesn't pivot like a hip joint does; so you don't need float if your knees are aligned between your hips and feet. Float lets you vary the angle of your foot at different points in your pedal circle in case your knees or feet don't stay aligned. IOW, it compensates for less than perfect biomechanics. That's not a good vs. bad, it's simply a 'need it' or 'don't need it.' choice; and if you need it, how much do you need.

[MaxBender]

eggbeaters, man, eggbeaters...

[Wavshrdr]

My preference is for little or no float. Float just makes it slower to unclip (have to move my heel further before the pedal disengages.) The knee joint is a simple hinge. It doesn't pivot like a hip joint does; so you don't need float if your knees are aligned between your hips and feet. Float lets you vary the angle of your foot at different points in your pedal circle in case your knees or feet don't stay aligned. IOW, it compensates for less than perfect biomechanics. That's not a good vs. bad, it's simply a 'need it' or 'don't need it.' choice; and if you need it, how much do you need.

For me if I want less float I need pedal extenders. I found that by doing this I could get by with less float on my bikes because it improved my bio-mechanics since I have big fit and wide hips. It also helps to have pedal extenders if you walk "duck-footed" (toed out). I found the helped me a lot but they don't work if you have pedals that need an allen wrench to attach them.

[megaman]

For me if I want less float I need pedal extenders. I found that by doing this I could get by with less float on my bikes because it improved my bio-mechanics since I have big fit and wide hips. It also helps to have pedal extenders if you walk "duck-footed" (toed out). I found the helped me a lot but they don't work if you have pedals that need an allen wrench to attach them.

Thanks for all the responses, it'll be a bit before I figure out which pedals will work for me. I already use knee savers. The 30mm ones. That's the only way my big pointed out feet won't hit the cranks. They're the best things ever. I(or maybe my wife) threw out my last cycling shoes. I wasn't wearing them cause they were too tight. But they were road shoes. I'm going to try to find some wide ones, which ever kind that may fit me. I've been using regular pedals with my EZ Sport and I found no trouble at all doing that. But with my trike, I discovered that at higher downhill speeds my feet have a tendency to "wander" off the pedals. I don't need to break my leg.:eek:
The problem with looking in catalogs for pedals is that they don't tell you how much float they offer. The other thing that is hard to tell is the pedal surface size. I've seen some pedals in person that look so small that I wonder if they cause a hot spot or foot problems.
So my next question is, does pedal surface size make a difference for comfort?

[BlazingPedals]

So my next question is, does pedal surface size make a difference for comfort?

Yes... and no. In a perfect world, it wouldn't make a difference IF your shoes were sufficiently stiff to prevent the sole from distorting. (Less deformation = less sore feet.) Point loading should only matter to the shoe. In the real world, soles do deform a little, so having a larger pedal distributes the stress to the sole, making the deformation less noticeable. SPDs work fine for me, and they're fairly small (but not as small as eggbeaters;) so I guess that means I don't put as much stress on my pedals/shoes as some.

[Grampy™]

I've got some speedplays on my road shoes but if they get the least bit dirty they won't Un-clip easy. For that reason and the fact that they are a pain to walk in, I've switched to Eggbeaters. Once I figured the correct angle I needed to mount the cleats my knee problems went away without the Speedplay float.

[Beezodog]

So my next question is, does pedal surface size make a difference for comfort?
If your feet are wide and as someone else said your hips are wide too, then you may find KneeSavers a blessing. Folks who have this kind of build are often "overpronaters". When they pedal the same things that cause their shoes to deform when walking also occur. A partial remedy is to use wider pedals. I use some of the Shimano downhill racing pedals with SPD clips.

They keep my feet from rotating inside the shoes more than necessary.