Pedals for Hoy Bonaly 24

JoannC

My 9 year old son has a Hoy Bonaly 24 which he loves, but his feet slip off the pedals a fair bit in wet or dry conditions, any recommendations for some off road pedals for kids? Budget of upto £25. Tried different shoes and it is no better, we mostly ride Dalby Forest and Sutton Bank blue routes.

Steve-XcT

It's probably not so simple ... or I'd not feel confident saying "get these" without knowing more...

Define offroad ??? From Fire trails to 20' jumps ...?

You have 2 basic choices clips or flats....and the shoes to work with them
Obviously clips have special shoes with clips the downside being if you come of its easier to not be able to free your legs

but if you have flats then you are relying on a combination of the shoe grip and the pedal grip. The best grip is big (3-4) spikes that will go inside the tread of the shoes .(a waffle/wavy sole is usually good). the downside being if you do come of they will take a fair bit of your shin as well. At the other end you can use say nylon pedals and grippy flat shoes... not so much grip but less injuries....(So often dirt jumpers use these as they expect to come off quite a lot)

Make sure they have the right size for their shoe size.... too small and obviously not good.

You might also consider if they have the right tyre pressure ... if you have it too hard then it can also throw you off the pedals... (more with bigger wheels) especially as you have no suspension on the Bonaly.

I personally went in-between for my 6yr old... and filed down the pedal spikes to about half the original length

JoannC

We tend to do blue routes as a family, mostly trail centres, this year so far we have done Forest of Dean, Dalby (many times) and Sutton Bank (again many times) and have booked to caravan in the South Downs, Scottish Borders, Brecon Beacons and Kielder Forest.

I have DMR V12s on my Whyte T130 SX and I thought about getting some DMR V6's for the little man, he wears a size 1 shoe, but they look too big, I find it hard to tell how big the pedals are in online stores and the dimension are not always given. So I would like something that doesn't slip as much, is the right size and won't gouge lumps out of him.

I don't think he would manage with SPDs I have never tried them myself, but my husband used to use egg beaters years ago, then switched to flat pedals and 5.10 Sam Hill shoes. It seems easy to get information and reviews of adult bike components but when it comes to kids bike parts I am struggling a bit.

I never thought about filing the pins down, that might be the way to go if I can find something about the right size for his feet but the pins are a bit aggressive.

Steve-XcT

JoannC wrote:

We tend to do blue routes as a family, mostly trail centres, this year so far we have done Forest of Dean, Dalby (many times) and Sutton Bank (again many times) and have booked to caravan in the South Downs, Scottish Borders, Brecon Beacons and Kielder Forest.

I have DMR V12s on my Whyte T130 SX and I thought about getting some DMR V6's for the little man, he wears a size 1 shoe, but they look too big, I find it hard to tell how big the pedals are in online stores and the dimension are not always given. So I would like something that doesn't slip as much, is the right size and won't gouge lumps out of him.

I don't think he would manage with SPDs I have never tried them myself, but my husband used to use egg beaters years ago, then switched to flat pedals and 5.10 Sam Hill shoes. It seems easy to get information and reviews of adult bike components but when it comes to kids bike parts I am struggling a bit.

I never thought about filing the pins down, that might be the way to go if I can find something about the right size for his feet but the pins are a bit aggressive.

I used to ride clips .. then started riding with the kid! Result was saddle lower and flats (My bikes a "stupid" internal seatpost bolt as its an out and out XC) Thinking about it I put the saddle back up... (It was low because its easier to push on steeper hills if you aren't pushing down as well) and I don't need to get on and off the whole time....

The half and half pedals aren't bad .... heavy but ....I have some Shimano SPD's (ancient) that have one half flat and the other SPD... and the shoes the SPD bit is inset so can also be used on flat... they are much smaller than the Saint flats I currently run.

I know exactly what you mean about judging size on line (even when they do give measurements)
My kid is just a kids size 12 and I got these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201153973659? ... EBIDX%3AIT

They are FREAKISHLY light ..... but they are also smaller than I'd thought (I'd expected them bigger but for us it turned out OK). The pins are filed.... but I don't think they will last much past a size 3 or so.....

Also my kid is running tubeless with ridiculously low pressure (given he weights under 20kg or so) and has RST Air front shock... and I really think he'd lose the pedals way more without this on rocky and rooty trails.

JoannC

Thanks for the link, they look really nice as well.

Steve-XcT

JoannC wrote:

Thanks for the link, they look really nice as well.

They are REALLY light ... when they arrived I just kept picking them up in semi-disbelief.
But they are also really small... my guess is size 3 max (my Mum is tiny and size 3)

The bigger pedals are pretty much the same price...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AEST-Cycling- ... SwSHZWd7bS

Only time will tell how long they last though...
I filed the pins down to about half the original and made them more rounded as well... (the filing doesn't take long... but taking them in/out is possibly longer)