Flat Pedal Upgrade?

I am so old school that I run flat pedals on all my bikes including my road bike.  Been pedaling bikes for 45 years and spent a significant number of years riding and racing motorcycles and never have my feet been mechanically attached to my pedals of foot pegs.  I also own a closet full of 5-10 shoes to keep my feet firmly attached to my pedals. 

This blog post is not about “Flats vs. Clip in” pedals and I feel pedal choice is a personal one and my choice is flats.  This blog post is just about my personal search for a better flat pedal and nothing more.

For the past 5 years my go to pedal set up was some light, durable, fairly thin, and inexpensive Welgo B103 and B118 flat pedals.  I would replace the original soft aluminum pins with some steel ones made by Xpedo and the pedals would wind up costing about $60 a pair. 

Wellgo B103 364 grams   

       


Wellgo B118 340 Grams

I liked the platform size and shape and the high pin count which led to great grip and control.  Life expectancy ran about 2 years per pair until I smashed enough rocks to damage the pedal body or wore out the non-serviceable inboard bushings.  

Life has been pretty good with those pedals but I started following the movement towards ultra thin flat pedals and wanted to give them a try.  There are claimed benefits to improvement in eliminating the dead spot at the bottom of the pedal stroke by moving your foot closer to the pedal spindle centerline.  The claims the thinner pedal body will improve ground clearance to minimize pedal strikes on rocks and roots seems very logical but the noticeable impact would seem to be proportional to the thickness of your current pedals.

But there were barriers; some pedals have rider weight limits that prohibit my 220lb carcass from safely riding them.  And, the costs of these ultra thin pedals seem to start around $150 with some approaching $300.  My mind had trouble justifying such a price tag when my go to pedal setup worked great and could be had for a mere $60.

So, for the 2015 racing season I decided to bite the bullet and jump head first into the ultra thin lifestyle.  After doing research and reading all the on-line dribble, reviews, rants, and keyboard jockey wisdom I decided on the Canfield Brothers Crampon Ultimate Pedal.

Still being cautions and somewhat tight with my money I chose try the 342 gram aluminum version over the even lighter 280 gram (but $50 more expensive) Magnesium version.  But honestly, the decision also came down to the fact I could match the accent colors on my bike better with the Anodized colors on the aluminum vs. the painted colors on the magnesium pedals.   And who doesn't enjoy throwing back a cold brew while admiring their bike after a ride and saying to them self, “damn that is one nice looking bike”.  Now, style is in the eye of the beholder but I just had to have orange pedals on my Tallboy LTc and red ones on my Nomad for personal style points.  You go faster when you look good right?  So I contacted Canfield Brothers and ordered some up.

342 gram Canfield Crampon Ultimate aluminum in all their orange anodized brilliance

 

Side view of the Crampon Ultimate

Note:  the pedal body thickness that is less than the pedal spindle diameter.

One of the problems I have had since I began racing 4 years ago is high speed crashes caused by pedal strikes.  Pedal strikes frequently occur while trying to get those precious few additional pedal strokes in to shave a few seconds off my race times.  These pedal strikes unfortunately have led to some serious crashes/injuries and this is the primary reason I want the ultra thin pedals.

The ultra low bottom bracket on my new Santa Cruz Nomad 3.0 also prompted me to recently switch out the 175mm crank arms for some 165mm ones.  This made a noticeable reduction in pedal strikes so I doubt I will notice too much additional improvement directly from the pedals but I will welcome a little additional clearance none the less.  I still run 175mm crank arms on my Santa Cruz Tallboy LTc so I should be able to readily assess the reduction in pedal strikes due to pedals alone on this bike.

Stay Tuned for the next installment of this blog after I have spent some pedal time on these beautiful Crampons and competed in a few races.

Flat Pedals for Medals!

Marc Garoutte

Epic Racing Cycling Team

Wolf Tooth Chainrings and Cassette Conversions

In 2014 I had a 4 bike quiver:

26” wheel Santa Cruz Blur LTc for general riding using a 30t Wolf Tooth GPX Direct Mount Drop Stop Chain Ring, a Shimano XT 11-36t 10sp rear cassette, and 2013 Shimano XT 10sp Shadow Plus Med Cage derailleur.

29” wheel Specialized Crave SL for cross country and cyclocross racing using a 32t or a 34t Wolf Tooth GXP Direct Mount Drop Stop Chain Ring with Shimano XT 11-36t 10sp rear cassette converted with a Wolf Tooth 42t Giant Cog, Wolf Tooth 16t cog, and Sram X9 10sp Med Cage Type 2 derailleur.

29” wheel Santa Cruz Tallboy LTc for enduro racing using a 28t or a 30t Wolf Tooth GXP Direct Mount Drop Stop Chain Ring in combination with a Sram X01 11sp derailleur, and 10-42t 11sp cassette.

27.5” wheel Santa Cruz Nomad for riding bike parks, enduro racing, and downhill racing using a 34t Wolf Tooth GXP Direct Mount Drop Stop Chain Ring in combination with a Sram XX1 derailleur, and 10-42t 11sp cassette.

You will replace front chain rings more frequently on a 1x drive train vs. a 2x or 3x front chainring set up and there is no way around that.  Also front chain rings with smaller teeth count will wear faster than ones with larger teeth count due to concentrating the wear on a smaller number of teeth while pedaling.  I have found that Wolf tooth Drop Stop Chain Ring wear has been excellent even though wear is concentrated on one chaining all the time and I tend to run smaller front chainrings to make climbing easier on my arthritic 49 year old knees.  I am getting the same amount of life out of the Wolf Tooth Drop Stop chain rings as the much more expensive Sram 11sp chain rings I replaced on the Tallboy LTc and Nomad. 

The GXP direct mount chain rings offer a cleaner look and they are significantly lighter than the “Spider” style Sram chainring setup that came stock.  Sram has recently announced a direct mount chainring option but they are not American made and still more expensive than those offered by Wolf Tooth.

There are several other companies making similar wide/narrow tooth chainrings and wide range rear cassette conversions but only Wolf Tooth products are made 100% in America and to me that is very important.  I buy direct and my order ships from Minnesota by the next business day and arrives at my door no later than 3 business days from order placement and free shipping on orders over $50.

Check them out at http://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/ 

   

34t GXP Direct Mount in Red on the "Black Widow" Nomad

I personally think the Wolf Tooth Drop Stop Chain Rings look awesome, they save me money and weight, and I never suffered a dropped chain or drive train failure in 2014 during any rides or the 42 races I competed in (including several really good crashes). Note: I am using the correct 10/11 speed chains and clutch type derailleurs as recommended by Wolf Tooth.

My 1st Drop Stop Chainring was installed on 1 1x9 drivetrain with pretty good results

When I got my first Drop Stop Chain Ring and added it to an older 9 speed bike with no clutch type derailleur against the recommendation from Wolf Tooth I would occasionally drop a chain on DH terrain when using smallest 3 cogs on rear cassette.  However, an MRP Top Guide was all it took to solve that problem.

Who needs 1x11 when you have this awesome 11-42 1x10 drivetrain!

From my experience the 42t Giant Cog and 16t cog rear cassette conversion works flawless with a Sram X9 10sp Med Cage Type 2 derailleur and a Drop Stop GXP Direct Mount front chainring. I used this set up on my Crave SL 29r for Cyclocross and XC racing and suffered zero dropped chains in 18 months of hard racing without the use of a chain retention device. I enjoy a completely quiet drive train free of chain slap, and a full range of race gearing using 34t front chaining for Cyclocross and a 32t for XC Racing.   It is hard to tell I am not riding one of my XX1 or X01 1x11 equipped bikes.  I was able to buy the X9 shifter and derailleur, a 10sp XT cassette, the Wolf Tooth 42t Giant Cog, and Wolf Tooth 16t cog for less than the cost of a Sram XX1 or X01 cassette.  Yes, it weighs a few grams more than the Sram 11sp drive train, but it performs nearly as well.  On a price to performance ratio I think the full Sram 11 speed drivetrain is the loser in this comparison. The only real world performance advantage of the Sram 11sp drive train is the 10t rear cog.  That 1 tooth smaller cog transmits into several MPH greater top speed but that only really matters in highly competitive racing.

I however had a different experience trying to do the conversion on my Blur LTc a bike equipped with a 2013 Shimano XT 10sp Shadow Plus Med Cage derailleur.  The derailleur was not compatible with the 42t Giant Cog even using the extra long B Screw purchased from Wolf Tooth.  The arm that secures the cable would rub against the 42t cog in almost every gear and that conversion attempt never made it past the repair stand.

Wolf Tooth does have a solution for Shimano derailleur issues like I experienced in the form of the Goat Link.

http://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/collections/accessories/products/goatlink

Marc Garoutte
Epic Racing Cycling Team