My brain hurts too much today to think this through properly, but why aren’t flat pedals made with a soft sticky rubber surface?

Surely sticky rubber shoes against sticky rubber pedals = awesome grip with no nasty metal pins?

Nice idea when dry, but not so good when you have mud and water knocking about.

So the next logical step must be sticky rubber pedals, but nasty spikes on your shoes?

Next we’ll be saying there is a way of securing your foot to the pedal 😯

Shoes with spikes would avoid bleeding shins…….

Sticky rubber + rock strikes = very worn sticky rubber

In the age of “consumables” maybe this isn’t such a bad idea 😆

I reckon there is some mileage in the idea.

You could easily keep a trim of metal/plastic round the outside to prevent excessive wear. If it was a replaceable cuff of rubber it would not mean new pedals everytime the sticky stuff wore out.

Nice idea when dry, but not so good when you have mud and water knocking about.

I’ve got some pedals with rubber panels for grip on top. They are great when it is dry, but like riding on an ice rink when it is wet. When it gets cold, and the water that sits on the rubber panels freezes, you literally can’t keep your feet on the pedals at all.

Some BMX people use Odyssey Twisted PC, which are plastic flat pedals with pins. The pins wear out, especially if you bash them on things, although assuming you don’t do pedal grinds with them I understand they will last for some time. I don’t think they’re as good as a metal flat pedal, but way better than my rubber coated ones.

I guess shoes with big spikes would increase injuries on crashing, whereas surely the whole point of having flat shoes is that they’re easy to crash in.

Ain’t no pubs or shops or cafes will let riders with grubscrew spikes walk around their premises!