Advice for a flat pedal newb

I can't complain about the Wellgo's I've got, they look tatty and old now but only regreased them twice in the last 7 years and still running fine.
 
Decent wellgo punch well above their weight. I am of the understanding that they manufacture pedals for many big companies that just re-brand them. Pins tend to be a bit short. I buy longer 3x10 and 12mm grub screws in bulk off ebay for most of my pedals anyway. Composites tend to run different pins, but cheap replacements can still be bought.
 
The Raceface and Fookers look like copies of the Wellgo B311 pedals which have been around for yonks.

Whilst I'm here, I'll add some thoughts on flat pedals after riding them twice a day for almost a month. Holy shit, bike riding is a totally different beast now and I never knew how bad/lacking my bike handling skills had become over the last 20yrs. Every time I've read or been told "Flat pedals will improve your skills and teach you better technique" I have always rolled my eyes and nodded along sarcastically. I'm sure someone is reading this and thinking the exact same thing too, but it turns out to be totally accurate; it just took a big stack to push me into trying it.

Granted, I have been practicing manuals and wheelies every second I have been riding lately so my technique has probably improved regardless of pedal type, but with clips I never had the desire to improve that kind of stuff. Flats have totally reprogrammed my 40yr old brain so I am part of the bike and I'm moving it around so much more than I used to. I can now see that I was totally reliant on the clips securing me to the bike when descending technical trails and a lot of the time I was actually riding toes down! With clips, I was merely a passenger holding on and letting the bike get me over obstacles, but with the flats I am finding these obstacles are now things to bunny hop off or shoot a manual over. I'm also noticing how much I used to just plough through stuff where I'm now lifting and repositioning both the front and rear wheels over roots etc. Flat corners used to just be a thing you went around, but now they're for laying the bike right over and getting sideways. There's lots of little things I am picking up too, for example I've been running DHFs for years, but never really understood what people talked about with the vague transition into the side knobs, sure it made sense looking at the tire, but I never experienced it. Now I am moving the bike around so much more and hitting flat corners faster, I know what they are talking about.

I picked up some Ion Scrub Amp shoes this week and they have made an enormous difference over floppy skate shoes. I can almost get that clipped in spin motion happening and the stiffer soles makes then feel much like my Hellcats did.

tl;dr The hype is real, flats are awesome. I should have listened years ago.
 
RealizE said:
I picked up some Ion Scrub Amp shoes this week and they have made an enormous difference over floppy skate shoes. I can almost get that clipped in spin motion happening and the stiffer soles makes then feel much like my Hellcats did.

tl;dr The hype is real, flats are awesome. I should have listened years ago.
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How's the toe box fit on the Ions? Any good for duck feet?
 
Scotty T said:
How's the toe box fit on the Ions? Any good for duck feet?
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I have the Shallow Hal toe thing going on, so it's hard for me to say what's normal...

Maybe this will help:

Fizik US11, Afton US11, Ion US11, 510 Hellcat US11, 510 Falcon US10.5.
 

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Cheers mate, that's a good comparison. The 510's look pretty wide.

I got my pedal pins, they're a good mm longer and also thinner than the old Saint pins. I put two old ones on the outside and a new long one on the front middle and rear middle. Considering I had no pins on the outer edge before this should be heaps better.

363162
 
That's an interesting pin arrangement. I have 2 questions for you.

1) if the new pins are thinner, how are the threads engaging the pedal body/nut?

2) have you considered longer pins on the outside of the pedal body? For me the outer edge of my foot seems to be where I place the most pressure. The pin marks on my shoes almost seem as if I am pushing my feet out and away from the bike. I had very high arches and wide feet at the toe end. Like a flipper shape or something triangular I guess.
 
pink poodle said:
That's an interesting pin arrangement. I have 2 questions for you.

1) if the new pins are thinner, how are the threads engaging the pedal body/nut?

2) have you considered longer pins on the outside of the pedal body? For me the outer edge of my foot seems to be where I place the most pressure. The pin marks on my shoes almost seem as if I am pushing my feet out and away from the bike. I had very high arches and wide feet at the toe end. Like a flipper shape or something triangular I guess.
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They are smaller diameter pin bits than the engagement thread, so they stick through holes smaller than the thread. Take a better look at the pic:

shimano-pd-gr500-replacement-pin-and-spacer-set-YL8798010.jpg


I positioned the big pins there because it's where I'm used to 'grip' on spds, and I've also been riding with no outer pins on them so didn't want to overdo it. They worked well for a 20km ride this morning but only a couple of sections put them to the test.
 
I see they are stepped in the image. Nice. You should be getting some awesome grip from that. I had some old truvativ holzfeller pedals way back. They were savage! Such awesome grip with these pins that were about 2 or 3mm.
 
pink poodle said:
I see they are stepped in the image. Nice. You should be getting some awesome grip from that. I had some old truvativ holzfeller pedals way back. They were savage! Such awesome grip with these pins that were about 2 or 3mm.
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It was very solid. We're doing Stromlo tomorrow. The boys have promised they'll come do some jumpy jumpy after a loop which I will make as short and flat as possible. When I say jumpy I mean about 3-4 feet :)
 
Scotty T said:
It was very solid. We're doing Stromlo tomorrow. The boys have promised they'll come do some jumpy jumpy after a loop which I will make as short and flat as possible. When I say jumpy I mean about 3-4 feet :)
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