Pedal Preference?

[telegirl]

Well, I am guessing my ineptness will scream NEWBIE louder than my pedals, but thanks for the info Velo- I do have some trouble with my spds not wanting to give up their precious load of mud even now and was wondering how that would work in CX - Ah, the excitement of equipment! Nothing like that new bike/pedal/saddle/tire/air smell to make me smile!

[velogirl]

But it's all fun, right?

What I did like about my SPDs is I could adjust my left cleat to almost zero tension so I never, never had a problem clipping out on my dismounts.

[spokewench]

For cyclocross, I run the above. They both have the same cleat. I run Specialized pedal on my mountain bike so I wanted to keep the same shoes and cleats for my cyclocross bike. We don't have much mud here in AZ unless it has snowed and gotten muddy for cyclocross - these pedals release quite easily and work okay in mud. I've never really found a pedal that works GREAT in mud. The problem that you have in colder climate cyclocross (i.e. freezing) is that you get a big ice clump under your foot and NO Pedals work with this. So you either run around not clipped in on one side or another or you don't wear a cleated show and run flat pedals if it is really bad.


It's gotten so bad around here with snow and cyclocross that I chose to run hiking boots and flat pedals for the state champs. came in second to a pro woman - and she only beat me by one lap - i'm sure she wasn't trying that hard, but I held my own! The snow was about 1 1/2 feet deep and icy underneath - you never went straight! you just rode s-type curves the whole time, if you could actually ride at all!

[telegirl]

The fact that you came in second to a pro is majorly impressive, spokewench! I'm out in the NE - Vermont specifically, and we have been getting tons of wet weather. My bro-in-law was at the Nationals in Providence RI last year and talk about wet, ice, cold, frozen snow- He said he spent more time off his bike than on it, so it sounded like what you went through!

I guess I just need to figure out what I feel comfortable with - And, like Velo said, HAVE FUN!

Pedals, I think I have narrowed down to staying with SPDs or trying Candys...leaning toward the Candys......Oh, crud....now SHOES!?

Ummmm, do you think that you Cycloxperts could just set up a hotline for me?? I'll probably need to know what brand of kleenex to use next......

[spokewench]

Actually, I think you already picked it! Kleenex is a brand of paper hankie, synonomous in America with paper hankie!

[Kitsune06]

see, I don't do ccx, but I'm wondering if eggbeater Mallets wouldn't be a good idea, because they've a big enough platform for all that onagain-offagain, mount/dismount stuff, you wouldn't *always* have to clip in. just a thought. Then again, they are sorta heavy.

[velogirl]

Mallets are downhill pedals. Not only are they very heavy (more a concern when you have to carry your bike as you run up hill or over barriers), but they're also really big and have sharp edges (which would hurt when you shoulder or if you hit yourself with a pedal). If you dismount correctly, your left pedal falls right where your spine is when you shoulder the bike -- ouch!

You don't really need a big platform for cyclocross. I would've stayed with the eggbeaters but the candies are pink (and I wanted to add some pink touches to my bike). Silly, I know.