Benefits 2

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The Benefits of FlyPaper Pedals

FlyPaper Pedals offer: More Power - Lower Center of Gravity - More Stability - More Control - Smoother Power Delivery - Quicker Acceleration - Increased Ground Clearance - Lighter Weight - Faster, Smoother, More Controlled Cornering - Faster Race Times - Increased Durability - Ease of Maintenance - Improved Safety - MORE FUN!!!

More Stability - This is the basis of how FlyPaper Pedals work, and why they were created in the first place. FlyPaper Pedals actually increase two kinds of stability; the stability of your feet on the pedals and the overall stability of you and your bike.

Foot Stability - Let's look at the drive side of a bicycle. Compare the position of the crankarm to the face of a clock. With other platform pedals, the crank arm must be rotated forward to somewhere between the 1 o'clock and the 2 o'clock positions before you can push down hard on the pedal. If you try to push on the pedal sooner than that, (say at the 12 o'clock position), you will have to push the pedal forward first, before you can begin to push down on it. At the 12 o'clock position, you may be able to push forward a little bit, but if you try to push forward really hard, the pedal will roll under your foot, causing your foot to be thrown off the pedal. While climbing or sprinting, this can lead to disastrous results. The thicker a pedal is, the more pronounced this tendency to roll out from under your foot.

Here is an experiment that you can easily try, which will let you actually feel how pedal thickness affects foot stability. (Don't just read about it; go out and actually try it!) You will be surprised at how much you will learn from this simple demonstration. All that you need is your bike, a spare pair of pedals and some duct tape. First, duct tape both of the extra pedals (one on the top, one on the bottom) to ONE of the pedals on your bike, creating a "triple thick" pedal. Now, go ride your bike around for a few minutes. BE CAREFUL! Try standing up. Find a hill to climb. Then try accellerating; gently at first, then harder, and harder. Do you even dare to try to sprint? Notice how quickly and easily the pedal tries to roll out from under your foot.

Now, remove the spare pedal from one side of your bike's pedal and tape it over top of the other spare pedal. This will place your foot as far above the pedal's center axis as if you were riding on a pedal five times as thick as a normal one. Try riding this set-up, but be even more careful than before! Can you even stand up without being thrown off?

Since a thicker pedal is less stable, then conversely, a thinner pedal is MORE STABLE. Even the thinnest, lowest profile, old style platform pedals are ALMOST FIVE TIMES AS THICK AS FLYPAPER PEDALS!!!

By reducing the tendency to roll under your foot during the early part of the pedal stroke, FlyPaper Pedals allow you to start pushing harder, earlier in the pedal stroke. They also allow you to continue to deliver more power, pulling back longer, at the end of the pedal stroke. FlyPaper Pedals deliver significantly more power for climbing (especially technical climbing over rough terrain) and quicker acceleration when sprinting, than any other platform pedal!

Lengthening your power stroke also results in smoother, more controllable power delivery. This means less spikey power delivery, and less of a tendency to over-power and spin the rear tire on loose, gravely or off-camber climbs. FlyPaper Pedals' smooth power delivery is also an advantage when riding in mud, snow or other low-traction situations.

Overall Stability - Most other platform pedals are around 24 or 25 millimeters thick, with a few in the 20 to 22 millimeter range. The very thinnest still measure a whopping 17 millimeters thick. Since half of that thickness is above the pedal spindle and half of it is below, the stack height of a 24 millimeter thick platform pedal is 12 millimeters above center axis of the pedal spindle. A 17 millimeter thick pedal would have a stack height of 8.5 millimeters.

At just 3.7 millimeters thin, FlyPaper Pedals position your foot a mere 1.85 millimeters above the pedal's center axis, over 10 millimeters lower than most platform pedals, and 6.65 millimeters lower than the thinnest old style pedals! This means that you can now lower your saddle the same amount, (and trim a few more millimeters off your seatpost if you want to) and lower your handlebars the same amount; eliminating a headset spacer or two and a bit of steerer tube, saving even more excess weight! Most importantly, the lower stack Height of FlyPaper Pedals lowers the heaviest part of the bike, the rider, by this same amount, resulting in a lower overall center of gravity. A lower center of gravity means that you are no longer as tall and top heavy on your bike. You are now more stable! Lower center of gravity provides better balance and more control.

This principle of lower center of gravity contributing to increased overall stability is widely utilized in many other human endeavors. Formula One race cars are slung as low to the pavement as possible, for this very reason. Downhill and slalom ski racers crouch low when turning, to lower their center of gravity for faster and smoother more controlled cornering. By similarly lowering your center of gravity, FlyPaper Pedals allow you to now corner faster and smoother, with more control than ever before!

A lower center of gravity also enables you to now descend steeper slopes to harder, squarer hits at the bottom, without getting thrown over the handlebars quite as easily as before. Now that you're less tall and tippy, trackstands become a bit easier, and low speed balance also improves. Stability and balance during wheelies and stopies or nose wheelies also improves. In fact, with FlyPaper Pedals, stability and balance are improved at ANY speed, and while executing ANY maneuver!

Now let's look at the bottom side of the pedal. Not only do FlyPaper Pedals have the lowest stack height of any pedal, they also have less extension below the center axis. This gives them the highest ground clearance of ANY pedal ever made! Now you can pedal more, while hitting your pedals less! Higher pedal clearance lowers your chances of damaging a pedal or crankarm, and can save you from having your foot knocked off the pedal, or even crashing. With FlyPaper Pedals, you're able to keep pedaling through many rock gardens and corners where you used to have to coast.

Imagine riding down a tight, twisty singletrack trail at 20 or 30 miles per hour, and having the bottom of your pedal skim lightly over the top of a milk crate sized boulder. Whew! What a close call! Now imagine coming up to the same boulder at the same speed, and having the bottom 10 millimeters of the front edge of your pedal slamming solidly into the face of the boulder!!! There are times and places where 10 millimeters of extra ground clearance won't make a bit of difference; and there are times when that same 10 millimeters of extra ground clearance will make every bit of difference in the World!!! At times like those, what pedals would you rather be riding?

Have you ever hit your pedal on a rock?

Less of a tendency for your pedal to roll out from under your foot; plus increased stability, as a result of lowering your center of gravity; plus increased pedal clearance in rock gardens and around corners; adds up to a safer ride and less injuries. Of course, less injuries equals more time riding your bike!!!

And that adds up to MORE FUN!!!

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