Just cruising the websites as you do and stumbled upon these

crampons

I'd heard of the canfield bikes before, but not their pedals

they look crazy. Anybody had any dealings with these pedals, how do they compare to Crank Bros 50/50 (my last flat pedals) for grip etc?

Apparently there's also a limited offer of 10% off for STW'ers quoting STW.

I don't know about the Canfields, but i've had freebie plastic pedals that are grippier than standard-pin 50:50s.

A set went s/h on the classifides not long ago.

Not sure about the convex shape though, when everyone else has seteled on the concave shape.

true I ended up putting the longer pins plus the short ones in for some grip

It's true, Canfield now available courtesy of your friendly bike distributor Progressive bikes!

Anyone who fancies the crampons let me know and you will get a nice 10% discount 🙂

I have a pair and like them a lot. So much so that I find myself preferring them to the clipless pedals I've been using for years

Not found the convex shape a problem

how can you push through at the bottom of the pedal stroke on a platform pedal? on any pedal for that matter! clipped in, you would be pulling at the bottom.
so how can this design make it a more efficient pedal? its late and i am too tired to look further than my nose right now so feel free to make me look stupid here..

sweet ass looking pedals right there. gotta get me some of those. My head seems to be able to get the convex shape, I cant explain why though. Maybe looks are everything…

convex shape makes sense to me

The fact that your foot is so close to the axle means when at the bottom of the stroke you can wrap your foot around the pedal
more enabling you to keep contact with the pedal stroke longer, or something like that 🙂

Also, the latest pedals don't have as much bulge near the inner side of the pedal axle, which used to annoy some.

Bought the pair off here a few months back. Didn't get on with them as just didn't seem to have the same control as with my Straitlines. Sold them to a mate and got a pair of Podiums. He's now sold them too, and bought Podiums as well. For my money, Podiums are much better for grip and control, up there with the Straitlines but slimmer and lighter.

i can see it for more reasons than that si

That's the reason I said 'something like that' cos in sure there is more to it, I just don't understand it 🙂

🙂
i reckon stiff soled shoes may rock about on them though.

convex shape makes no sense to me

convex fits into the arch of your foot and gives easier foot rotation .
in my mind it works. will have to try a set maybe to check. but certainly it fits with me.

Hmm, I ride with my foot in about the same position as I would with SPD's, anything else gives me cramp and just feels wrong (this may be more to do with being used to doing this though) so the convex shape of flat pedals is cupping the concave shape of my foot at that point.

your feet should NOT be in the same place as spds

Why, Mr Jedi?

Even for long distance riding?

Oof! Flying in the face of conventional wisdom/experience there Jedi!

SPDs place the ball of your foot over the pedal axles, for the same riding on flats, why would you want it any different?

SPDs place the ball of your foot over the pedal axles, for the same riding on flats, why would you want it any different?

because your feet will fall off.

on flatties, for grip in technical terrain, I'd have thought pedal axle should be in line with arch of foot.

Last time I used flatties though, I fell off and broke my collarbone 🙂

because when your brain thinks you are in the air (drop/jump and even sometimes just front wheel unweights) yourfeet always point down, thus kicking the pedals away from your feet. that's why your feet slip pedals.

hows convention now? 🙂

I see. Pretty rubbish for pedalling though?

er no!

Why would it be bad for pedalling?

but are they any better than these

which i got a few weeks ago on offer at 33 quid?

Convention is doing me fine thanks Jedi, I could understand using the arch of the foot if you're anticipating big hits, but otherwise it seems like a good way to reduce sensitivity and feel.

The OP's Canfields aside, why else would pedal manufacturers make the pedal concave, to fit the natural er… arch of the arch of your foot?

(actually, I'm just going to pre-emptively accept I'm wrong, I haven't ridden flats in years, obviously the technique has changed since then…)

Less efficient?

I've got these pedals and with a thin pair of trainers I was flying along at the weekend! But with the ball of your foot on the axle, the convex shape means your foot does roll a little bit.

I might try the arch of my foot on the axle, if dhing with my fivetens. I can see it would help you push through the axle. But last advice I got for dh was to put your feet normally, and keep your heels down.

Biomac shoes are interesting to :p
http://www2.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2007/02/biomac-shoes.html
http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=/tech/2009/reviews/biomac_bio-mxc2shoes09

I always setup my road and MTB shoes to have the cleat as far back as possible now (rather than over the ball of your foot), feels better IMO once you get used to it.

with racing bmx as a kid and using flat pedals for about the first 22 years of biking i remember riding on the arches of my feet.

having moved onto spds from that point onwards and then using both flat pedals and spds up until this day.. i have found that i now race on flats using the ball of the foot at a bmx track.I start off placing the foot over the axle on the gate definately with the ball over the axle.if a foot comes off then it would probably get throw back on closer to the arch but with what im aware of.. nowhere near bang on over the arch like when i was a kid.

i like the feel of first straight sprints on the ball of the foot over the axle on flat pedals. it feels like you can wrap the foot at the lowest point of the stroke to aid the upstroke.this feels crap when you try it on the arches.. probably because the amount of movement between the ankles pivot point(?!) to the axle under the arch.. in comparison to the ankle pivot point to the ball of the foot is quite a diffrence in such a short distance.

try this: place yer index finger across the arch of the foot and move the ankle up and down thru its limits..

now try it with the finger over the ball of the foot and work the ankle. see how much more scope you have?

you were given ankles.. use them!

I thought conventional wisdom was arch of the foot over the axle for flats? Common knowledge no?
Anyway i have the crampons but if im honest I cant really tell the difference between any of the major brands of pedals there all as grippy as each other even with pins missing. The crampons do however have about a million pins per pedal and there very narrow and sharp so watch out for your shins if you get some. Do like the thinness of them though, looks good, which is what's really important

I have never used SPDs… always flats in 30 odd years of riding.. I ride with the ball of my foot over the axle like I was taught to by my old man.. It works for me although sometimes in the air or over rough stuff I do have to make adjustments.. but that's intuitive and I don't notice it happen..

I was out riding the other day on some new flats that I haven't used before… (Wellgo Mags) and I noticed that under certain pedalling conditions where a lot of weight is on the pedals my foot was defintitely curling round the edges of the pedal… obviously creating a convex shape at the soul of my foot..

So I think even in the SPD position your foot is concave.. thus making a convex shaped pedal more anatomically correct..

^ agrees with that first part.i wont get into the other part of it.never tried both convex/concave back to back so i wont bother! :O)

New Canfield pedals now in stock, in two new colours too!

18 bikes shouldn have some stock soon or buy from here 🙂 http://www.progressive-bikes.co.uk/canfield.html

oooh you cheeky canfield bros….that gold would look crazy on my remedy

What's different, thicker? Still got to fit all the fuggin pins yourself?!

very nice Si, I'm using Outlands at the moment and they are fantastic, always fancied a set of canfields though 🙂

Pins have a stop now to they don't go all the way through. Slight change to inner pedal shape buy still as thin as before.

ta, cheers. 2 lots of threadlock still haven't stopped a few pins coming loose on mine.

Looks like those little pyramids would stop the infernal squeak I get when I use my new fivetens…