Platform pedal with pins (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am a HUGE fan of using downhill (DH), or platform pedals on my mountain bike. I have found that by combining my WellGo pedals with Five Ten DH shoes, it is possible to climb with the same efficiency you have in clipless pedals. While doing a little research on this article, I came across some cheesy marketing material for the Five Ten FreeRider shoes that said “Free Your Feet and Your Mind Will Follow.” This oddly resonates with me since I love telemark skiing.

Side note: Perfect day, get Shel and the kids up early, make some tele turns, cruise back down and mountain bike a bit, have some lunch, golf 9 holes and then cruise over the Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery for a Gooney Bird and an FYIPA or two. Hmm, no work, stress, tv or conference calls in there. Weird!

I tried DH pedals for the first time about 1.5 years ago after I broke my left wrist 1/2 way through the Slick Rock trail in Moab, UT. I was riding by myself, of course, and jammed my pedal earlier in the day. I found this out after my fall. I had banged the pedal on a rock earlier in the ride, but had not fallen off. I was hauling butt up a VERY steep hill, hit a rock and started falling backwards. This would not normally cause alarm, you simply twist your left foot out of the clipless pedal and step/jump off the bike. It may sound complicated for non-biker folks, but it is very easy after you have done it a couple thousand times. The problem is that my pedal was broke and I didn’t know it. The result, I put my left arm out to catch myself. As my son told me later that day, not very smart Dad.

I broke my wrist and have a really cool triangle star on my elbow. I duck taped my wrist, took some ibuprofen and walked and rode out. I had to ride or I would have been walking out in the dark because the desert gets dark at 5 PM sharp in late November. I have some photos of the scar and tape, sorry about the blood.

Cool triangle scar

Duck Tape Wrist, the knot above the break is my broken wrist

Being a stubborn and resilient man, a little wrist break wasn’t enough to get me to switch pedals. I have ridden for years and had no major injuries, so I didn’t really think about it. The real impetus to switch was because after spraining my ankle for one last time, I couldn’t rotate my left ankle out of my pedal. That really sucked BTW, not being able to rotate your ankle out of an SPD pedal is a pretty strong testament to the stupidity that I have surrounding taking care of myself medically In any event, I made the switch and haven’t looked back. I don’t make money endorsing DH pedals, my Maverick ML8 bike or any of the other items in this blog, except this one: my company. I just really enjoy riding hard. You have to get a wide enough platform with big ol’ calf tearing spikes and good shoes or you will hate it. It also takes some getting used to, if you hit big jumps going downhill both feet come off the pedals. This can be more than a little freaky.

I love my bike (my Capre Verde), have to include it and a shout out to my favorite bike shop in Boulder, Full Cycle on Pearl. This is an old one missing pedals and my Maverick Speedball with remote, now the Crank Brother Joplin.