Bike Tinker

Category: Skate Deck Pedals

  • skate deck color check

    skate deck color check

    I had a skate deck color request for “not quite chartreuse, not quite olive-y acid green.” I thought all my decks were black (with a sexy black band around them), but I had a rasta deck hidden away as well.

    This seems more “not quite Juaritos limon soda,” but I really like the stickers.

    rasta-deck

    I think I can make matched pedals by using pieces that match diagonally. Usually a pair is directly attached, where the left side of the deck becomes the right pedal deck, and vice versa.  Just have to be a little more careful in the measuring…

    Update: Success – the diagonal matching works! This whole deck is getting that treatment. I’m prepping more decks even now. They’ll go on Etsy, with cleats, at a dramatically inflated price.

    recycled wooden platforms for clipless pedals skatedecks for clipless pedals

  • How to make skateboard pedal decks for clipless pedals

    How to make skateboard pedal decks for clipless pedals

    Hey! I did a guest post on Problem Solvers’ blog, all about how to make skate board pedal decks for your clipless pedals. I’ve been meaning to do this for years, now, and I’m pleased it’s up now, over on the PS site.
    Read the post!

    20120613-141320.jpg

    They also made me a brilliant “Certified Problem Solver” graphic, which makes me very proud.

  • New pedal decks going out

    New pedal decks going out

    clip-in pedal decks - from broken skateboards

    I got a couple orders for pedal decks, and made some new ones. “99 – o”

    These have a black laminate layer, which I think looks cool.

  • Mailed a set of pedal decks to CA

    That was nice – a Bay Area randonneur just bought my last pair of pedal decks off Etsy. Time to put up some more. An internet hero sent me a skateboard deck recently, too – time to put it to use!

  • skate deck pedals – SOLD

    To a fellow Quickbeam owner. I have more on Etsy, but they’re all cleaned and polished. I like the punk-rock versions with the left-over graphics, myself.

  • skate deck pedals on Etsy

    skate deck pedals, originally uploaded by BikeTinker.

    Jim Greco skate deck pedal platforms on Etsy – no cleats.

    I added a pair of skate deck pedals to my Etsy store. This pair still has the graphics on the bottom for extra punk. The other ones are maple-bottomed, but I haven’t added them yet.

     

  • Busted eggbeater spring

    Busted eggbeater spring

    I’ve had these for a long time, and they cracked a couple years ago. The other day they dropped a piece on the road. The down side is the fact that they also welded themselves to the cranks about a year ago! I can still use two sides of this one, and four of the other, but I don’t see these lasting more than three or four more years…

    That’s also the ugliest pedal deck I’ve ever made. It’s a prototype for a mud-shedding deck that might be a hair lighter. It’s stupid.

  • More pedal decks

    More pedal decks

    For Jai. These (all the decks) are drilled to mount SPD or Eggbeater cleats. Unfortunately I don’t have cleats to sell (or pass along), but I’m looking for sources. Used cleats, or the ones you retired when you bought those upgraded pedals would work fine for these decks.

  • Pedal decks for Colin

    Pedal decks for Colin

    Made these on Saturday, mailed them on Monday. One normal deck size, one “extremo,” super-large (as mocked on Bikesnob) size.

    I did set up a “BikeTinker” Etsy shop, but I’d rather sell these through my Philip Williamson Etsy shop. Maybe someone will want to buy some art, too, who knows? I need to get some bike tee shirts up there, too.

  • quill pedal skateboard inserts

     

    quill pedal skateboard inserts, originally uploaded by BikeTinker.

    These pedal platforms feel like cubes after riding the Crank Bros. skateboard platforms for so long. I can flip (roll, actually) into them pretty easily now, but sliding my foot forward wants to roll them right back over.

    They are 1000x times more comfortable than the Campy Victory pedals I took off. I think the key is to get some pedals with removeable cages and just put any sized deck on there I want.

    Check out the relative sizes of the pedals I usually use, and the famous ‘bikesnob’ XLs. Expressed as a percentage, these are quill pedals are “dimpy.”

  • skateboard grip tape on MKS GR9 platform pedals

    skateboard grip tape on MKS GR9 platform pedals

    I’ve had these pedals for a while, but found them to be too narrow for my size 12 feet. I put them on my wife’s 3 speed Steyr when she broke a pedal axle.

    They get a little slippery in the rain, at least for me. Hopefully the grip tape will add some gription when it’s wet. She wants rubber block pedals again, so I’ll probably try them with clips and straps on another bike pretty soon. I don’t know if the tape will make it too hard to use clips, or not.

    I cut out a square of “Mob” grip tape for each pedal, and used a woodworking blade to cut around the pedal shape.
    I also used the flat of the blade to press down around the bumps on the surface of the pedal. In some cases, I scored the edge of the bump in order to make it look ‘raised’ enough.

  • Prototype skate-deck platforms for quill pedals

    skate-deck_mks-pedal, by BikeTinker.

    At any rate, I’m experimenting with attaching the skate platforms to other kinds of pedals, starting with the uncomfortable and slippery ones I already have.

    Quill pedals always hurt my size 12 feet. There’s a big spike at the end, and the cage digs through my shoes. I don’t find them to have much gription, either, especially in the rain.  In order to use these pedals without clips or straps, I decided to see if applying Skate Deck Technology to them would make them more comfortable and more usable.

    I’ve been riding my skate-deck clip-in pedals on Crank Bros pedals for years. I love the feel and grip of the skate deck platform, but I never ever ride clipped in, so the ‘convertibility’ factor isn’t useful for me anymore. I think there’s still a lot of value in the idea for people who do clip in for long rides, but would like to jump on their good bike to ride with the family, or run some errands.

    I may go to a BMX pedal with tape, but first I’m going to see what I can do with my Campy Victory aero pedals with the foot-guillotine rear cage.

  • The BikeSnob Effect

    The BikeSnob Effect

    Last Friday, Bike Snob linked to one of my pictures as an answer the a Friday quiz question. The results were pretty spectacular. 2700 views in 12 hours.

    It looks like the Monday Wave of people reading Bikesnob at work overlapped with the rush of bike nerds looking at my pictures from the Oregon Handmade bike show… on Monday, at work.

  • Bikesnobbed!

    Friday on BikeSnobNYC, my pedal platforms were a featured answer to the Friday Fun Quiz. Thousands of hits. If you came from there, welcome!

    That was surprising. And fun. Of course I knew the answer.

  • Extremo pedal – the Very Large Deck platform pedal

    Extremo pedal – the Very Large Deck platform pedal

    You can buy these from me for $25/per pair, shipped, withOUT cleats. They’re drilled for Eggbeaters, which works for SPDs as well. Email me your request at philip@biketinker.com

    These are the biggest. For riding 10 minutes to work, I thought they were silly, but for hauling four hours over 35 miles of gravel, they worked great. The shoes are extremely flexible Borns, very soft and comfortable. I huffed and I puffed, but my feet held up great.

    They are marked R and L, but the R is on the left, and the L is on the right. What looks best isn’t always what feels best. These don’t seem that big in comparison to my size 12 feet, either. Maybe I should make an even larger pair , and call them the “molto extremo.” Maybe use an entire skateboard for each pedal.

    The whole point of these pedal platforms is so you can ride to the store on the same pedals you race cross in, but it’s gotten so I just like riding on such a big grippy surface that I’ve gone a little nuts.

  • skeleto skate deck pedal in the rain

    Excellent grip in the wet; we didn’t encounter the right kind of friction-free mud to see if the holes helped with that. They certainly don’t hurt, and they look cool.

    These are prototypes made from (what appeared to be) unusable pieces of skateboard. Please forgive the unfinished hole-edges.