Folding Pedals: experiences, which ones do you use?
 

I currently use an Ori Mi8, I chose this bike (after testing the usual suspects) for its rigidity, compactness, speed and quality of built, however there is one thing that bothers me, the PEDALS! It comes stock with the crappy suntour folders, they flex a lot and if this wasnt enough they are slippery even when they are dry, wet, they are impossible.

So the purpose of this thread is to talk about this important component of a bike, what do you use, what do you recommend, what did you hate? Of course, there arent many options out there, here is a list of the ones I know of apart from the suntour:

• The Brompton Pedal (expensive, and does it fit other bikes?)
• MKS FD-6 folding pedals (these look nice)
• Montague folding pedals (they look like the suntours)
• SystemEX - STMEX pedals
• VP Folding Bike Alloy Folding Pedals

Im sure there are others out there... Please let us know.

I love the MKS series.

My dream is to find a folding pedal that will allow me to fit Power Grips. Granted, I haven't been looking that hard, but it would definitely give me the best of both worlds.

I've got the very excellent Suntour folding peds that came with the bike. I wear either Tivo sandals or a pair of Shimano MTB WM40 shoes on the bike, and find that the foot/bicycle interface is most excellent at all times. Though, I'm not a masher. I tried cleats last week. It was not a pretty outcome.

Don't chaps wear Gucci loafers on bikes? Flat leather soles?

I use the MKS removable pedals, both clipless and regular, and am very happy with them.

I have the MKS FD-6 on my Swift. They're sturdy, fold and unfold easily, and the bearings can be serviced, albeit with a bit of futzing. Their only downsides are they're a little on the heavy side, and they don't have a good grip, the provided serrations just don' have much "bite". I use them with toe clips, had to modify the clips a bit though.

The fully detachable MKS pedals have a loyal following. Wellgo also makes some detachables that look nice (I'd like to see some feedback on them).

Happen to think the Brompton folding pedal is a Robust design, they put one on the left side,
the side you carry the folded bike on ..

uses an oversize sealed bearing with a solid core to screw into the crank arm, and only sticks out 3/4" when folded.

There is a RH treaded core for the other side, to fit 2, but their bikes really only need the left one..
for the lightweight X series bikes the pedal core piece is machined of Ti.

People have fitted power grip straps on Bromptons, just modifying, the reflector mounting holes..

Yes, threads into any crank arm , steel ones use a 24mm socket to tighten/remove them. Ti uses an Allen wrench..
the steel 012 upgrade also adopts the allen wrench hex , to remove them.

IDK if there is a Ti Right hand Plug.

Does anyone know if the MKS FD-6 folding pedals fit a Dahon Speed D7? Would like a pedal that is not so thick but still folds.

Another vote/suggestion for MKS removable pedals; I've got the MKS Exims, and I like them a lot - quick and easy to remove, and no compromises in performance when they're attached. I use them on my Swift with PowerGrips.

Both CalhounCycle and ThorUSA have a good selection of folding and removable pedals.

Mks ez.

I use the MKS Promenade removable pedals with power grips,I am veryhappy with them

I got rid of all my MKS pedals due to slippage. Slickest things I ever saw. I have Suntour pedals on some bikes but anymore I'm gravitating to those SPD on one side, platform on the other side and not folding them at all. The profile is small enough it doesn't seem to matter or affect anything, and accommodates all my storage issues.

John

@TrekJapan: I'm curious, what kind of slippage are you referring to? Foot from pedal? Pedal from crank? The former could be offset with PowerGrips, or using a different model of MKS pedal (hmm, perhaps you meant the MKS folding pedals in particular?).

the stock mks ezy pedals are not well designed. they were probably designed that they could be used for either the left or the right side, but unfortunately doing that they screwed up some fundamentals.

the weight of the pedal is top heavy so it will always point down, which is the slippery side. not that there is no grip, but the spindle has a bulge that raises it slightly above the plane of the two grips and which if you are wearing flat bottom shoes they prevent the shoe from gripping properly, so will definitely slip when you least need it to.

but then you can put on toe clips, however that doesn't really work either since there is no built in flip tab that you can quickly kick the pedal into the right direction. you can put on an aftermarket tab piece, but that is an additional part, cost and weight.

anyways, those pedals are sitting in the spare parts basket now.

I was referring to the removable MKS pedals that came stock on my Speed TR and Jetstream XP. Foot slips off the pedal. A lot.

A while back I copped a deal with another poster here and traded him all my MKS pedals for all his Suntour folding pedals. Everybody was happy. Without a doubt the MKS pedals look cooler, are more expensive, etc. but I almost bit the big one a couple of times due to slippage. I happily got rid of them. Like I said now I'm leaning towards one sided SPD's and one sided platforms.

John

I have the VP Folding Pedals and love how they snug right up against the crank when folded--nice and compact, high quality. I wish I could attach Power Grips to them, however. I had the MKS AR-2 EZY pedals at one point, but I got sick of getting grease on my hands every time I removed them.

these wouldn't be the slippery ones would they?
http://www.calhouncycle.com/productc...idproduct=2074

9/16 x 20 tpi R & L thread is common.

Yes, it does.

You can modify MKS EZY Superior Lambda/Grip King pedals with track-shoe pins and get a spikey, super-grippy removable platform pedal. I'm very happy with the result. You can also install Power Grips on these same pedals. Nice big platforms, a bit heavy. For my purposes they the one pedal to rule them all.

Check out this post about folding accessories: http://www.montaguebikes.com/folding...ing-that-fold/
There's some pretty amusing things in addition to folding pedals.

Here's what we use on three of our Fridays:

http://www.danscomp.com/465010.php

They keep shoe-to-pedal slippage to a minimum. Wife was complaining of such slipping during the wet weather last week, and I put a blue set on her Crusoe - problem solved. I usually have to remove one pedal per bike when we transport two Fridays, but that's very easy.

Note: The plastic "pins" are great because they don't cut-up your shins like metal ones can.

Lou

Last BMX pedal I got the grip pins were little allen set screws, so they can be screwed in further ,
to reduce how much sticks up. but they dont fold or come off like the EZ QR ones.

I have used 3 types of MKS EZY pedals:

1. MKS Ezy AR2. Not too happy with them, they didn't have great grip and i'm not a fan of asymmetrical pedals. These pedals would really only be any good with toe straps, I find.

2. MKS Ezy MTE. Not too happy with these either. I ground off the asymmetrical end and used a round file to cut teeth into the flat and useless serrations, at which point I came to like these pedals, but still not optimal. Replaced them with the Esprit model and never looked back.

3. MKS Ezy superior "Esprit". Awesome. I've owned 2 pairs of these, one for my Bike Friday where I used to mountain bike on it, and one for my Dahon where I winter bike on them. They're like old school mountain bike pedals, and they're great. Will grip covered in snow, wet, ice, boots, sandals, whatever. The superior system is also more user friendly than the old one with the retention clips.

I use MKS quick release clipless pedals.

I use the MKS Ezy AR-2 removeable pedals with Power Grips.
The combination works fine for me as the Power Grips seem to eliminate slipping issues and the need for clips as well as improving pedalling efficiency.
I find them easy to get off and don't have much problem with mess but I don't have to remove them every day
A minor downside is that when I take off across a road, I sometimes have to use the back of the 2nd (RHS) pedal for a few strokes to get clear of cars before slipping my foot into the Power Grip. I've not had a problem with this but the back of the MKS EZY Promenade would be a better temporary home for the right foot than the back of an AR-2.
I chose MKS Ezy because they felt solid and saved more space than any folding pedal I saw. I chose AR-2 because that is what the store had and the price was good.