Do I need to upgrade the pedals on my bike?
While the basic pedals supplied with your bike are adequate for general cycling a pedal upgrade will significantly improve your performance.
What are the different types of pedals?
There are two main types of pedals; flat and clipless;
Flat pedals
Cage pedals – Traditional cycling pedals that are still very popular on hybrid and touring bikes. Cage pedals sometimes include toe clips and straps to hold your foot in place.
Platform Pedals - These are designed for mountain bike and BMX riding. Platform pedals offer good foot support. Pins grip the sole of your shoe to keep your foot in place while still giving you the freedom to take your foot off whenever you like.
Clipless pedals
Clipless pedals feature a cleat that is attached to the bottom of your shoe. This cleat then attaches to the pedal by pressing it down into the mechanism. You unclip by twisting your foot sideways. This takes a little bit of practice to master but soon becomes second nature.
Clipless MTB pedals – designed for mountain bikes these pedals will keep your foot in place over rough ground. They are easy to clip in and out of so are also popular with urban road cyclists. The small cleat SPD style cleat is attached to your shoe with two bolts.
Clipless Road pedals – offering better support, for improved efficiency, clipless road pedals feature a larger SPD-SL style cleat that is attached to your shoe with three bolts.
Do I need cycling specific shoes?
Clipless pedals require specific cycling shoes. These will be either SPD (MTB) and/or SPD-SL (Road) compatible.
While flat pedals don’t require cycling specific shoes the performance of these pedals will be greatly improved with flat pedal specific shoes. Flat pedal MTB shoes feature a stiff ‘sticky rubber’ sole that offers better grip and support.
Do I need to buy cleats with clipless pedals?
All clipless pedals are supplied with the appropriate cleats so you will only need to buy separate cleats if you use more than one pair of shoes or the supplied cleats become worn out over time.
Do I need specific pedals to fit my cranks?
All pedals use the same diameter axle so will fit on all cranks. You can fit any pedal to any bike but some will be more suitable than others for your style of riding.
