How To Get More Grip From Your Pedals | Mountain Bike Maintenance

Published on June 12th 2017

Share:

This video is all about trying to find the right amount of grip between your foot and the pedal you use, both flat and clip-less pedals. So flat pedals, I guess that's the easiest one to start with. Obviously, you have a flat shoe, so normal trainer, or a mountain bike shoe, and if you're trying to get that right amount of grip between that and your flat pedal. With these crankbrothers Stamps, that actually come with two different sizes. So, that is the really down to your shoe size. Eight and above on UK sizes, you go for the larger size. Below that, you go for the smaller size. That is quite important to get the right amount of overlap, front and rear. After that, it's all about trying to dial these pins in, depending on your shoe. So, some people go for the really soft, grippy soled shoes. Therefore, I think you actually really want to run these pins quite low and quite close to the pedal. If you start to pull 'em out too much and run 'em really high, you actually get so much grip that if you occasionally slide around on the pedal, like you will do on a really rough track, they're really difficult to readjust your pedal. So, in that case, there's really soft shoes that actually wind these pins quite low into the pedal. Okay, so to the clipless pedals, this does get slightly more complicated, depending on the brand of pedal and shoe you have. Some have these pins, much like the flat pedal. Again, you can sort of tweak in or out to get that feel on the bottom of your sole. Also, we have these traction pads on these crankbrothers Mallet DHs. So, you can actually change the width of those. At the moment I've got the stock ones in. You can actually slide those out as I have done already. See that little plastic insert. So, you can get thinner or thicker ones of those. Actually, that's going to give you a bit of friction between the sole of your shoe and the pedal. If you don't have those, it's all about really tweaking the setup from your cleat. Obviously, with the clip on this pedal that spring retention system is designed to keep your foot stuck to that pedal for maximum pedaling power. So, you don't particularly need to mess around with your traction pads or your pins. However, personally, I like to actually feel that pedal through my shoes still, almost like a flat pedal. That really suits the downhill, more aggressive riders. The disadvantage of having these thick traction pads and your pins wound out too much is that you'll get too much friction, and that'll actually make it harder to clip out of that pedal. So, as you look closer at the bottom of my shoe here, you can see some black marks where those pins in the pedal dig in, and I get that nice feel. Like I said, I actually really like that, especially for cornering, just be able to feel my pedal slightly run, feel like I’m floating around above the pedal. Occasionally, you might find with your shoe, depending on the brand, you might actually have to trim the outside of this sort of cleat area, just so you don't get too much interference with the pedal. If it's too tight and I actually touch the pedal when it's trying to clip in and out, you'll find it really difficult. So, on this shoe I don't, but occasionally you will have to do that. So, for different brands of pedal, where you may not have the option of moving the pins in or out, it's all about trying to space that cleat in or out from the shoe to get that optimum amount of feel, cause if you put too many spacers in there, move that cleat away from the shoe. You might feel like you're actually sort of rattling around on top of that pedal, and you just use the mechanism, rather than having any friction onto that pedal and shoe itself. That may suit cross-country riders where you have a sort of hard-soled shoes, rather than some rubber on the bottom. They tend to ride those carbon-soled shoes. If you space it further in, you might just about start to get some feel again. If you go too far in, you take all the spacers out, you're actually going to struggle probably to get in or out. Check out the full and closed captions in the video. Welcome to the Global Mountain Bike Network | Covering Every Angle Thanks to our sponsors: Canyon bikes: http://gmbn.eu/Canyon SCOTT bikes: http://gmbn.eu/SCOTTbikes crankbrothers pedals: http://gmbn.eu/crankbros crankbrothers seatposts: http://gmbn.eu/8b Continental: http://gmbn.eu/Continental Six Six One Protection: http://gmbn.eu/sixsixone POC helmets and eyewear: http://gmbn.eu/POCsports Topeak: http://gmbn.eu/topeak FSA: http://gmbn.eu/fsa Ergon: http://gmbn.eu/ergon Park Tool: http://gmbn.eu/ParkTool Northwave: http://gmbn.eu/Northwave YouTube Channel - http://gmbn.eu/GMBNsubs Facebook - http://gmbn.eu/GMBNFB Google+ - http://gmbn.eu/GMBNGplus Twitter - http://gmbn.eu/GMBNTW Instagram - http://gmbn.eu/GMBNIG GMBN Shop - http://gmbn.eu/gmbnshop Leave us a comment below