dual-purpose pedals
 

Hey all,

I'm wondering your thoughts on some pedal choices. I have just acquired my first fixed bike - it's a project at this stage & am upgrading certain parts that will increase the ridability of the bike without spending major bucks until I've determined if I really want a fixed bike along with my road bike.

Right now I just have the platform pedals that the bike originally came with. I of course was going to get toe clips, but was wondering about something more versatile, like the Shimano M324 or other similar that's a platform on one side where I could put toeclips & ride in regular shoes & clipless on the other. I found those & the Forte Campus (which look like a lower quality) as my options...are there others out there?

The bike has a flip-flop hub & I'm not sure if I'll ever go to the freewheel side, as the bike was purchased to evaluate fixed riding, specifically.

Thanks for you time.

You can get SPD/platform pedals as you've listed (check out Crank Bros Candy or Mallet pedals as other examples of SPD/platform), and you can use the underside of pedals fitted with clips/straps (ie, toe cages). The clips/clipless decision is probably something you'll have to decide for yourself. I personally prefer clipless to clips/straps, but many enjoy the freedom of footwear choice which you get when riding platforms/toe cages.

I run Crank Brothers Eggbeater SL pedals on both of my running bikes right now. I've nothing but good things to say, my riding is typically only 20-30 miles a day with occasional long distance trips on weekends and haven't experienced any trouble with them.

I ran the Forte Campus pedals for a long time on my old road bike, and they were great too. I ran them on my fixed gear only until I got Eggbeaters delivered, so I can't really remember enough to give an opinion there.

Don't run platforms on a fixed gear if you can at all help it, it can be incredibly dangerous and may hurt you.

Take a read through here, too: http://sheldonbrown.com/fixed/index.html

Bad idea to have clips/straps on one side and clipless on the other. Assuming you are not taking the clips/straps off every time you ride clipless (would be easier to buy cheap platforms + clips and straps and a set of clipless and just swap pedals).

If you don't take the clips/straps off, you are going to be scraping the ground on pretty much every turn.

I run M324's on my Raleigh Detour Deluxe commuter bike and I love them but I wouldn't recommend them for fixed gear because (A) they are pretty wide and increase the chance of pedal strike and (B) It's not a good idea to ride platform pedals on a fixed gear.

In summary- M324's are great pedals, but not for FG riding.

You can get a pair of dual sided SPD pedals for $25. Do that and enjoy.

i have the forte campus pedals on a commuter and they work fine. good for the price

hows about this:
http://bike.shimano.com/publish/cont...bm.512.384.gif

When riding fixed your feet are part of the drive-train AND the braking system. Pedals are very important. Any disconnection means that your drive or brakes are disconnected. What's more is that if you are riding at speed and come off, it's not easy to get back on.

Another this is, if you ride clips on one side and clipless on the other will you remember to PULL BACK or TWIST to disengage from the pedal if you take a spill or just need to hop off? Twist when you should Pull or vice-versa doesn't work.

...and clipless pedals are so great that once you ride them you'll never want to ride clips/straps or platforms ever again!

Anecdotal evidence FTW.

Well, the problem is the hybrid pedals don't do either function well. By nature they're sort of mutually exclusive. Until you want to try clipless, just get a really cheap pair of pedals with clips/straps.

those look kind of nice but the problem is if you're riding with clips then they're going to be on the bottom when you ride clipless. as in everytime you turn or lean at all they'll probably scrape the ground. after a while i cant see those doing anything but breaking the clips or effing them up.

Why do you think that these pedals "don't do either function well"?

I own a pair and I can say that this statement is absolutly unfounded.

Like I said in my previous post, platform/clipless combo pedals are not ideal for FG riding but they are great pedals for general bike use. I have them on my 'all-purpose bike' and it's nice to be able to ride in my clipless pedal shoes or standard street shoes. I prefer to ride clipless but I've often let friends use the bike and they were able to ride comfortably on the platform sides without me having to swap out pedals. The bearings and SPD construction of the pedals are on par with Shimano's other pedals (of which I own several sets on various other bikes including a 12 year old pair of M-545's that have outlasted 2 mountain bikes they were installed on).

Thanks for all the advice guys. I guess I didn't explain that I'm not new to cycling or clipless, just fixed riding. And I used to race BMX so am familiar with the exciting prospects of scraping a pedal around a corner. One of the appeals was not having to bring extra shoes when I commute or run errands on my bike - just get on & go. But I've been running clipless for some dozen years on my road bike & couldn't imagine going back to toe clips. Now, the current bike I have (Schwinn Varsity with original 1-piece cranks), I'd be very hard pressed to scrape the pedals with the high BB & short crankarms (I've tried). But I don't expect I'll run this set-up forever.

I'd not thought of the toeclips grinding when on the clipless side. And as much as I'd like to say, "Oh, I'll take them off when riding clipless." I know that wouldn't happen - at least not every time.

I guess I'll get toeclips for now & when it warms up a bit & I can ride the fixed more often I'll swap my clipless off my roadbike & see what I think about it on the fixed & go from there.

I really appreciate all the advice & suggestions. And I've spent considerable time on Sheldon's website.

I'm sure I'll ask some other seemingly dumb questions in the future too.

Thanks

Wrong size spindle on clipless (9/16") for 1-piece crank (1/2"), they won't fit.

You will be hard-pressed to find a clipless (or even a decent platform/road pedal) for old 1-piece (ashtabula) cranks.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/opc.html#opc They have a one-piece crank with 9/16" Threading, so you can go clipless.

I warn against those pedal adapters on that site, though. I've heard nothing but bad about them.

They are 9/16" threads & I'd definitely agree about staying away from pedal adapters.

Yeah, no pedal adapters for serious riding IMO. Especially for fixed riding, where the power/torque that go through the drivetrain is a lot more than on a freewheeling bike (under back pedalling/decelerating there's a metric ass load of torque going through there)

I've scraped the ends of my cranks on curbs more than I've touched a pedal to the ground cornering, my eggbeaters are small enough that it'd be my shoes that'd take the hit before anything else. I run stock IRO cranks (170mm IIRC) on my Rob Roy right now and never had a problem cornering/with pedal strike.

My first time having my own fixed gear was on an old conversion with platforms, I ran it for all of winter until I sheered the splined crank, so then I converted another old frame I had and ran that until I had my IRO. I just wouldn't recommend platforms, at all. I ran these bikes at 42x17 which was nice and light enough, but still whipped along - I'd be paranoid about losing my footing and that kind of stress can make Jack a dull boy.

edit: I should note from my post above SPD != Crank Bros - the cleats are different. CB will work in SPD systems but not the other way around apparently.

Good luck!

At this point, you might as well save the $20 for a bargain bike that is 10 lbs. lighter.

swapping pedals is REALLY easy...

just get a pair for everything you do and switch it up when you need to.

For one, there is no place to attach cages to. So you have platform pedals on one side, SPDs on another. If that's the case, just ride normal shoes on your SPDs, if the distance is short.

+1

Between my two bikes I have one set of clips and straps, one set of clipless, and one new set of BMX pedals. Right now the BMX are on the Exile and the clipless are on the Angus.