danoulz

Hi !
I took the plunge and decided to invest in good quality detachable pedals. I was fed-up with the creaky noises coming from the heavy alloy+plastic Brompton folding pedal, and to be honest the bearings were not as free-rolling as I would have wanted anyway.

I had been pondering for some time about buying a pair of MKS Ezy Promenade for about 40 GBP (including UK postage), because I like to have the option to remove the pedal cage. Although my Powergrips would fit directly onto the existing pedal cage, it is nice to have the option to tweak things. As you can see from the photo below (found on the internet), one of the screws that holds the pedal cage in place is replaced with a longer one to now hold the end of the Powergrip.



As you can see from this next photo, the sharp ends of the pedal cage (more like individual blades, really) are not ideal for a small folding bike.







So in the end, I settled for the MKS Ezy Esprit Superior model, which has a stronger U-shaped removable pedal cage and an improved twist+lock mechanism. At 60 GBP they are 50% more expensive but I for one decided it was worth the expense.

Read on for photos of the installation process.

danoulz

Here is the kit I received:



I used the washers although it was not strictly necessary.

The pedal is small, light, and the bearings roll well. Basically, this is a product that oozes quality.

mulleady

I love these pedals. They suit the Brompton and I use them too! They are much stiffer and great pieces of engineering.

danoulz

Taking the fixed plastic Brompton pedal off was easy, using a 15mm spanner.

danoulz

Removing the Brompton folding pedal was more problematic, due to having to source a 24mm box spanner (or a socket thin enough to fit). Anyway, after a couple of trials it finally came off.





After several years of ownership (2006 Brompton M6R+), it is nice to see these awful pedals go !

danoulz

Here's a close-up of the Powergrip mounted on the pedal cage:

brakemeister

nice
the washers are indeed important ..otherwise the pedal axle can chew into the alloy crank arm and more easily getting loose or in the worst case scenario can make the crankarm unstable and crack .... plus its easier to remove the pedal later in life ...

:-) thor

fietsbob

I got a 24mm 3/8 drive socket , and ground the edge down till it was square across the end. to take my pedal off. (crankset swap)

FWIW the Light weight Kit includes a Ti plug for the core of the folding pedal,
It comes off with an Allen wrench fitting in a socket in the left pedal core..

IMHO.. TA pedal washers are a good thing I want them on all my cranksets ..

paulgato

Great thread. I had come to the same conclusion myself for my Kansi folding bike. Same pedals, same straps. (The power of Google.)

So it's really nice to see a photo of the very pedals and straps I'm considering.

Have they stood up well over time?

I like the idea of detachable pedals mainly of course for packability, but also partly for security. No one is going to make a quick getaway on a bike with no pedals. Presumably when the bike is locked up they can be removed and put in one's bag easily enough.

I realise the thread is very old but if you still have them, could you possibly post the dimensions of the pedals? The distance from crank arm to outer extremity of cage is the important measurement, as I have wide feet. (There seems to be no such info online for the MKS pedals. MKS publish weights but not dimensions.)

fietsbob

9/16" x 20 thread/", dont worry about anything else..

https://www.mkspedal.com/English/MKS_padal_news.htm

paulgato

Just fitted MKS Esprit EZY Superior pedals on Kansi folder bike. They seem good. Wider than the pedals fitted as stock. The stock pedals were not bad really, but were narrower than my feet, which felt a bit odd, as I could only push with the inside balls of my feet. The Esprit's feel much better. I find already that I can fit and remove a pedal with one hand, and the locking mechanism seems solid and secure. Also they were plastic pedals of course and it would not have been possible to fit straps. (I'm torn between Powergrips and ReStraps.)

The only difficulty was that I (almost) had to make my own pedal spanner. MKS apparently make a narrow spanner, 3.2mm thick, but as far as I can tell it is not available in the UK. (It's not listed on the UK distributor's website.) So I bought a cheapish Super-B pedal spanner, 4mm thick, and used a Dremel mini-tool thing to grind down the area immediately around the jaw so it would fit on the very narrow MKS axle flats. It worked fine.

(I did find a Park Tools PW-5 spanner, which would have been narrow enough, but it was weird-looking, with jaws only half as long as the axle flats, and cut rather wide, at 15.1mm or more. I really didn't like it, and some folks online report that it's a bit bendy, so I prefered to grind down a decent spanner instead.)