[Yak] Thoughts on Pedals & Tires

[Andrejs Ozolins]

Dave,

When I got my Pocket Rocket I made a change to the Crank Bros Candy 
pedals -- it's the egg-beater pedal surrounded by a bit of a platform. I 
admit that I was won over by the fact that they come in a yellow that 
pretty near matches my PR's color.

Apart from color, attractions of the Candy pedal are that it has a 
pretty good surface area, so you can fairly comfortably pedal along in 
the city between stop signs and stop lights; it's a recessable cleat, so 
your shoes can be walkable ones; and the clip-in, clip-out process is 
very easy.

On the down side -- people tell me that if I don't lubricate the 
bearings just so and promptly, the pedals will fall off the spindles. 
I've heard this from enough people to be wary. Another negative, of 
course, is that Crank Bros cleats are nowhere near as common as SPDs, so 
getting or giving help on the road is limited.

I'm pretty satisfied with the positive side of the equation; I've loved 
having these pedals on occasions like riding around Dublin, where I was 
often too confused and nervous about traffic to get properly clipped in 
right away but kept going as though on platform pedals. The negatives, I 
haven't had a chance to really test. This has been a year with 
(virtually) no rain at all in our area, so I haven't really had to worry 
about repacking bearings. In general it's something I'll keep in mind, 
though.

I've heard of many touring cyclists who favor the Speedplay Frog pedals. 
I never investigated these pedals, mainly deterred by the price, but 
just a week or so ago I hosted a couple tourists on the Warm Showers 
List and one of them had a broken Frog cleat. He didn't have huge 
difficulties finding a replacement (though it seems many shops don't 
carry them). However, some cyclists of the speedy set around here were 
of the opinion that Frog cleats are prone just to such failures (a 
little clip breaking off). "That's why I don't use them!" one explained. 
I have no idea whether there is more than prejudice or fashion behind 
this antipathy, but you should probably check it out before going far 
from home on Frogs.

Andrejs

David Sherman wrote:
> I've been using some cheap Performance brand SPDs on my Pocket Rocket  
> for awhile. I'm looking to replace them with something better.


-- 
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Andrejs Ozolins
733 Cliff Street
Ithaca, NY 14850
607 592 0780
AIM: ozolins2