The raised areas are not as high as they appear in the picture. I was thinking instead of pins, to drill between the raised bumps and screw in a hex head screw flush, but with enough of a head to sit proud of the bumbs.

I found some black touch-up paint and am gonna try the gritty paint thing first. I really think that the fine play sand might do the trick.

If not, I've found that on dry roads that my "walking, sport" shoes do fine on the couple of miles to the corner store. Other than that when it's wet out I'll just wear the SPD shoes.

Thanks, FB