Pushin' Pedals

In the project of building the Surly to my exact specs, the one piece that had never come together were the pedals.  As many of you know, a Surly doesn't come with pedals and when I built the bike, I'd just spent a whole bunch of money on clipless pedals for the Cannondale, a rack for the Surly, Brooks Saddle, and so on - there wasn't a lot of spare cash laying around for pedals.

So, I threw the original platform pedals that came with the Cannondale on the Surly and never looked back.  That is to say, a set of black plastic Wellgos I'd dented on a curb at some point or another.  And until a little while ago, that's what I'd had on the bike.

However (despite my recent lack of things to say), I never stop biking and questioning my setup, and have been getting a decent amount of numbness in my feet recently.  I was also tired of constantly scratching my legs and feet up while wearing sandals and shorts, the uniform for Austin in the summer. I snooped.  I browsed.  I eventually sat, trapped between the MKS Touring, the MKS Grip King, and the MKS RMX, also known as the "Sneaker Pedal."  All beautiful, all well-made.

The Sneaker Pedal caught my eye for a few reasons - the biggest being price.  At $28.00, they were similarly priced to many "cheapo" pedals that work fine, but didn't bring quite what I wanted.  They had a nice big platform in a BMX shape, and no sharp edges to destroy my shoes and scratch me up.  They had MKS quality, meaning they spin smoothly and work without issue.  And....cheap!  After much pondering, I ordered them and installed them while sitting on the floor of my living room as my boyfriend watched my enthusiasm with amusement.

I've had the pedals on about a month and feel I can finally comment on them.  The issues I was experiencing with numbness in my feet seems to have cleared up, which is great!  They seem to grip my shoes just fine, and I never have the sensation of being on "the wrong side", which can happen with some platform style pedals with no foot retention.

One thing I like about these pedals is they're very easy to find with my feet without looking.  This goes with the no-scratches thing - the majority of scratches I've gotten from pedals happened while I was trying to "find" the pedal with my foot and watch traffic at the same time.  My old pedals also had a side that was comfy, and a side that poked weirdly, even with shoes on.  These ones I can ride in barefoot!

The Wellgos from my Cannondale served me well for years, but I've already given them away to a coworker, because I'm never going back to the land of numb feet and weird nubby feelings in the soles of my shoes.