r/singlespeed • u/jspm111 • Jul 24 '26

Pedals made all the difference

I finally switched from my plastic stock pedals to aluminum mountain bike pedals. I can’t believe how much better it feels. I always thought people were exaggerating about it making any difference.

13 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

5

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/jspm111 Jul 24 '26

Yeah they’ve got studs. How long does it take for them to chew through sneakers?

2

u/tristtaniskanye2 Jul 24 '26

I’ve been riding my bikes with studded pedals for three years now and the same pair of Nike dunks have done just fine

1

u/SlenderLlama Jul 24 '26

I can get more than a year on Xero brand barefoot style shoes with my race face chesters (with studs). I replace them for looks before theyre truly dead. I might be able to get 2 years out of a single pair of shoes, maybe more. It seems like the insoles go out faster.

Im riding about 1,000 miles a year btw.

1

u/Briny_life Jul 27 '26

Get a pair of mountain bike shoes (flats). There are many out there and you can find a decent pair for well under $100. It’s 100% worth it and the shoes & pedals work as a system (and you can save your “regular” sneakers).

2

u/Top_Objective9877 Jul 24 '26

I can’t even ride my single speed bikes to their full potential(mostly in terms of climbing) until I got on clipless pedals. Those techy climbs can get so tricky and being absolutely connected and able to yank the bike around are essential and being clipped in helps so much.

3

u/MaksDampf Jul 24 '26

Wait until you try pedals with cleats. Thats unlocks a whole new level compared to studded flat pedals.

2

u/DuckIntelligent737 Jul 24 '26

At least MTB flat shoes. There's a switch in your brain for push/pull that gets you 75% of the way there

To those saying no performance advantages to clipping in: lol ok. Try it and see how sore your calves are the next day

Idk why r/singlespeed was on my homepage btw

-5

u/Salty-Entrepreneur11 Jul 24 '26

it really doesn't

clipless pedals confer almost zero advantages

1

u/MaksDampf Jul 24 '26

Oh yeah it does. There is lots of terrain, jumps, downhill and ways to ride even in an urban environment that require cleats to master and not ram the pins into your thighs every now and then. The pure performance benefits might be negligible but hell do you open a new range of trail difficulty and enable trick stuff with cleats.
Sure, if you only ride safe, slow and no tricks, there is little to gain.

1

u/Syscrush Jul 24 '26

No performance advantages, but they feel great, IMO.

1

u/High_on_Hemingway Jul 24 '26

You are wrong.

1

u/schokoschlotze Jul 25 '26

More torque on hills.