SPD to Flat Pedals

I am a big fan of clipless pedals.  Clipless pedals freak many people out, but now that I have ridden with them for over 20 years I freak out when I ride a bike that does not have them.  I love the feeling of being locked in and with just a twist of the foot I am out.  This is not to say that I don't have a brain freeze and fall down every once in a while, but fortunately it is every great once in a while. 

If you have ever spent any time in a bike store or on a bike web site, you know there are all sorts of pedals and some give you multiple options.  For example, Shimano sells the following pedal, which gives you clipless option on one side and a platform option on the other.  And what a name, the PDM324!  You have to give it to these companies in terms of coming up with arcane names that mean nothing to consumers. 

But what if you have clipless pedals that do not have a platform option and you want one?  Well, reader Adam contacted us and clued us in to a cool hack that he came up with and is posted on instructables. On one side you have your standard clipless option . . .

. . . and with some aluminum and some spare time you also have a platform side.

I would just hate to miss my pedal and have the crank spin around and have that aluminum slam into my shin though.  Thinking about this reminded me of what my shin looked like after I tangled with my skateboard a few years back.

Yeah, that wasn't so fun.  Anyway, Adam does a great job of documenting his hack over on the instructables site so check it out . . . but if you pursue this option be careful about spinning those pedals =)

 

 

Comments

[Rick]

I've never been a fan of that style, either in the form of an attachment like that (which, BTW, you can buy commercially made for a scant few bucks) or the M324. I hate pedals that aren't the same on both sides - not only do you have to look down and feel around to get it right, but the side you want is always face-down.

The M424 and M545 have a cage around the SPD pedal. They work as SPDs and as flat pedals on both sides. You can ride clicked or unclicked at any time when wearing clipless shoes (like when you need to start pedaling IMMEDIATELY from a stop and miss your click), and you can ride with any shoes any time. There's never a struggle to find the right side of the pedal. The weight penalty is surprisingly small. If you decide later that you want the cage gone you can remove it.

Nashbar used to have a cheapo set of generics like the M424/M545 and those were good but they don't seem to have them anymore.

[Dave]

The Shoes Ruse:
http://www.rivbike.com/kb_results.asp?ID=45

[A New Bike]

I've put off trying clipless pedals a bit, but I think a combo flat and clip would be perfect. It does amaze me that manufactures are so lazy in coming up with product names.