Myth Busting

[DingusMcGee]

Jack Florey,

Agreement: you say, “

I've tested this by recording my own handlebars with a Gopro. For most turns I make there is no initial counterturn.”

 

[DingusMcGee]

Bananu7,

So you have found in some instances fixed foot pegs locations may be better than rotatable pedals? I have thought about such a change. But coming from Mt Bike riding more so than using motorcycle foot pegs, i wanted the additional freedom pedals allow.

 

[bananu7]

Again, personal preference - having ridden both, if I'm not intending to pedal, I very much prefer fixed pegs - or at least the ones that don't spin on a crank

A fun way to try them out is to get pedals that can mount directly on the crank support axis. Some downhillers actually use that setup.

 

[DingusMcGee]

bananu7,

Good to hear what you have found out. The foot pegs(from pedals) would screw into the crank arm tightening bolt hole. I will get on to such an adaption with the lathe soon. I will need some class12.9 bolts for this small hole.

Or weld a big nut 14mm to the ends of the spindle.

Thanks

 

[DingusMcGee]

https://endless-sphere.com/sphere/members/bananu7.106180/

Hi Bananu7,

The foot pegs are now on one my edirtbikes — simple ones — not the 45 degree break away, yet.

It seems much easier to get far over the handlebars with these foot pegs than the offset standard bike pedals.

I employed a couple methods to stop rotation. Sleeves on end of the spindle are tightened to a part on the bike that does not rotate.



Above is second method used to stop rotation.

Also these sleeves, which are on both ends of the bike spindle, stop spindle translation.

 

[bananu7]

Wow, nice work. I wanted to mention that rotation of the peg surface itself around the center axis isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, there's a product specifically for this called Pivot Pegz:



They can't make a full rotation, but they help maintain the solid foot contact when the ankle movement isn't enough anymore:



Another thing to try out is moving the pegs forward and backwards. The more to the rear they are, the easier it will be to lift the front wheel on obstacles, and I imagine the weight transfer will also appeact steering.

 

[DanGT86]

I have always wanted to try pegs like that instead of pedals. I can see benefits and drawbacks from it.

One nice thing about standard pedals is that you can move your body way forward or backward on the bike with standard cranks while still keeping yourself well supported. You weight is still transferred through the bottom bracket but the tilting pedals spread over that large distance allows quick forward and backward weight transfer through the opposing legs.

With pegs it seems like shifting your weight out from directly over your feet would have a different feel.

The distance between your feet using standard pedals also effectively makes you shorter on the bike while standing since your legs are forming the hypotenuse of the triangle.

 

[bananu7]

I have always wanted to try pegs like that instead of pedals. I can see benefits and drawbacks from it.

One nice thing about standard pedals is that you can move your body way forward or backward on the bike with standard cranks while still keeping yourself well supported. You weight is still transferred through the bottom bracket but the tilting pedals spread over that large distance allows quick forward and backward weight transfer through the opposing legs.

With pegs it seems like shifting your weight out from directly over your feet would have a different feel.

The distance between your feet using standard pedals also effectively makes you shorter on the bike while standing since your legs are forming the hypotenuse of the triangle.

While I'm obviously biased, shifting your weight forward/backward on pegs is still perfectly doable, and I'm not sure if pedals actually help more (by spreading the support) or hinder more (by not being stable when pushing against them). It sounds nice to be able to push against support that's further back or further forward until you realize that entire support depends on equal force being applied on the opposite end, otherwise... the crank just spins.

I'd need to do the math, but the height difference would be lower than the thickness of a shoe sole, I think.

 

[DanGT86]

Yeah, the more I think about it I think to transfer weight on either you would be mostly supporting that position with the bars.

The way I was picturing it with the cranks would be like saying you could stand on a balance with one foot on each side and keep it level by pushing harder with one foot. I think physics would disagree.

Damn. Now I have to go machine bottom bracket pegs to try this. Its always something with these dumb bikes.

 

[lnanek]

Pegs are a quick way to get pulled over and your bike confiscated where I live in California. I've seen riders of those bikes sitting at the side of the road with cops waiting for the flat bed before.

 

[DingusMcGee]

lnanek

endless-sphere.com

Inanek,

Yes, CHP has an easy target but not much to show for when they catch an ebiker with no pedals. Like shooting fish in a barrel. Likely there are a lot of big time criminals/law breakers going down the road grinning when they see CHP and the flatbed loading an ebike.

CHP seems to have little chance of catching any of the powerful motorized dirtbike gang members that roam the freeways in heavy traffic unimpeded. CHP are true ground feeders — they catch the slow and dead — us ebikers.

So, yes a slow bike with no pedals is a definitive clue of a serious lawbreaker. I have my townie bikes — all of which have pedals and some of them run an air chain— no definitive clues here?

Officer, “My chain broke, I am heading home.”