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I’ve been riding an older bike to work since my Specialized was stolen. When I first bought the bike it had some old platform pedals that I shunned because I wanted cleats. I’ve ridden in clipless pedals for years and am totally used to the locked in feeling I got from them. This time, I’d decided to try to build the bike so I could hop on and ride with my son without having to dig out the dorky bike shoes just to ride to the park. That kind of thinking led me to some Wellgo pedals that use cleats on one side and are flat on the other:

Because this pedal takes SPD cleats, and I have road shoes, I couldn’t set up my old shoes to ride this pedal. Even more frustrating, it’s not weighted. That means most of the time, the cleat side comes up when pulling away from traffic lights! This started to get on my nerves. I decided to see what I could do about reviving the old MKS platforms.

I pulled the dust cap off and took a look. Turns out that these are really straight forward pedals, just a lock nut and a cone nut on one end. 11 little ball bearings on each end of the pedal. The grease was a mess though! This stuff had been in there for years and really needed replacing. It took twenty minutes to scrub out each pedal and then my son put in some new grease for me. After placing all the bearings and setting the cone nuts properly, I had nice smooth pedals!

These are nice. Every time I pull away from a stop, it’s the right way round! The platform is huge, and the little knobs are perfect to keep my foot from slipping. I like these, and I can’t believe how easy it was to overhaul them. I’ve been riding them for a week, and it’s a very nice ride. Not as solid as clipless, but very nice for commuting or riding around.