Why did pedals you can ride in any shoe go out of fashion?

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Big John

Legendary Member
We've got a drawerful of used pedals at the bike charity. We can't give them away. We scrap loads too. If you've got a local bike project give them a try. We even have various clipless ones in the drawer too and no one ever asks for those. We don't get that sort of clientele lol.
 

Fastpedaller

Über Member
Location
Norfolk
RockBros copy a lot of other manufacturers kit - e.g. Crank Bros. It is reasonable quality though.

So they aren't FAKE as such, just a copy. The way Gwylan phrased it would suggest a Primark jumper is a fake of a M&S jumper if it looked similar :laugh:
 

sevenfourate

Devotee of OCD
7 bikes in my current stable. 5 of them have these pedals (DMR V12 Magnesium).
I care none if they’re fashionable or not….

IMG_3787.jpeg



https://www.cyclingweekly.com/revie...ealing-design-delivers-ample-grip-and-support
 

Ming the Merciless

There is no mercy
Location
Inside my skull
If you want pedals that will take toe clips you are going to have to look on-line. Things moved on at least 40 years ago - not used clips for that long. Most 'flat' pedals do tend to be MTB type - that's what sells, but they will wreck your shoes. Boggo flats can be bought, the type that come with cheaper bikes but, not set up for clips.

What pedals were you using in 1985? I was still using toe clips
 

Punkawallah

Veteran
Fashion is driven by people wanting to be noticed, and those who emulate them. In the case of cycling, it’s people who want to emulate their competition heroes. The money follows the trend.
If the TDF winner wore pink knickerbockers, you would soon only find such on the shelves.
 
After the downpours of last week I've put my steel road bike in the cellar for the winter and swapped to a recent eBay purchased aluminium hybrid with disc brakes for the winter commute.

My commute is only short (5km ish) so I don't get all kitted up to ride it; I have a cape for rainy days which does a good enough job keeping my dry, and otherwise I just ride in my work stuff and maybe a cycling jacket. It's all downhill on the way in, so I don't have to worry about getting too hot.

Anyway - the steel bike, being older, has steel pedals and small toe clips with no straps, which keep my feet on the pedals even when it rains, but the pedals are smooth.

The hybrid has come with huge flat pedals with pins on them - which admittedly does mean your foot doesn't slip off, but when you need to lift a pedal to reposition it for getting going at lights and so on, the pins wreck your shoes. Ask me how I know.

I'm not at work today so thought I'd pick up some new pedals for it - I don't want anything fancy. Just what I consider normal pedals. However, all the places I might be able to get some today (Decathlon, Halfords, Evans, large local indie) only seem to sell plastic pedals you can’t fit toe clips too, or clipless pedals, or the same sort of A5 sized pedal with pins in.

I can find what I want online but not to collect today - which makes me think ‘normal’ pedals don’t sell well.

My question (if there is one - tbh this post is more of a vent) is how come the marketing won so effectively that it’s harder to find normal pedals to wear with normal shoes than it is to find pedals that require special shoes?
rent mercedes dubai
All, any recommendations.
You’re definitely not imagining it — “normal” pedals have quietly been squeezed out by marketing and trends. Flat pedals with pins sell well because they’re associated with MTB and gravel, clipless sell because they’re seen as “serious cyclist” kit, and everything else just gets ignored by retailers.

Toe-clip friendly pedals still make a lot of sense for commuting: predictable foot placement, decent grip in the wet, and no shoe destruction. But they don’t photograph well for catalogues and don’t fit neatly into the performance narrative, so shops don’t stock them.
 

Shut Up Legs

Down Under Member
I use SPD pedals and shoes. The shoes are easy to walk around on, plus I get the benefit of less strain on my achilles tendons. In 2010, I cycled about 16,000km using flat pedals and non-cycling shoes, but partway through the year, I got strained achilles tendons, so I switched to clip-in pedals for the first time ever, and they definitely helped. As for the tendons, they took years to heal, and it was so slow, I'm not even sure exactly when they completely healed.
 
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