Several years ago, a friend of mine from Colorado, Reed Jentzsch, mentioned that he was working on a new bicycle pedal design — one that uses magnets instead of the spring clip mechanism that is commonly used. He has been an engineer working with metals for most of his life. One of his passions is white water rafting but for years he also has done mountain biking and road cycling.
Last month, he sent me one of his prototypes to try out — the mountain bike version of his new product called the J-Pedal. My first impression was “Wow, this is really nice…go ahead and quit your day job.” Little did I know he already had quit his day job…or retired from it. I mostly do ultra-distance road or gravel riding. I started out with Shimano clipless road pedals. The problem with them is that the plastic cleats wore down quickly and carrying a pedal cover was a pain. And, on occasion, when I got sand in them, I could not clip in! Within a year of using these road pedals, I switched to SPD mountain bike pedals and have never looked back.
I mounted this J-Pedals prototype on my primary long distance bike, a carbon-fiber Project One Trek Domane. Then I swapped out the cleats on my MTB shoes for the J-Pedal cleats. Before riding outside, I placed my bike next to a table in my warehouse and practiced until I was sure I could “clip in and clip out” without issue. It couldn’t have been easier. I then went out and did a familiar 100km (62 mile) ride using these pedals.
J-Pedal Pros—
- Very easy to “clip” in, especially compared to my one-sided Shimano A-600 clipless pedals. When unclipped, the Shimano do not always end up with the clip side “up” so I usually have to glance down while clipping in. With the J-Pedal, I never had to look down. Super intuitive.
- To unclip from the J- Pedal, you just need to tilt, not twist (see attached picture). I found the J-Pedal to be much easier than the A-600 or other Shimano-type SPD clipless pedals (I have five bicycles with SPDs). This was especially easy with my wonky left ankle, which, due to an old mountaineering injury, makes it difficult to twist out of most spring-loaded clip pedals.
- These new pedals have tons of float. I am guessing 8- to 10-degrees compared to 6-degrees on most of SPDs. At times I felt like I was ice skating with that much float. (Part of the reason for the slippery feel is because my sole is thinner than some so that there is less friction between the sole of the shoe and the pedal). Some people like that. Personally, I prefer a smaller amount of float, especially when climbing. But this is one of my subjective preferences in pedal design.
- Strength. I purposely yanked up with all my force and could not deliberately disengage from the pedal. Nice! (I’m 64 years old and I suspect a younger fellow might be able to pop lose). The strength of the magnets seemed to be just the perfect balance.
Cons of the J-Pedal—
- With my Bont MTB shoes, the thickness of the cleat was thicker than the thickness of my soles…so when walking I could feel the cleat tapping or scraping on the ground or floor. According to Reed, the J-Pedal owner/designer, the thickness of this cleat is consistent with most MTB sole thicknesses and the reason was that my sole was unusually thin. I believe his assessment to be reasonable.
- The weight of each J-Pedal is 211 g and the weight of each cleat (w/o screws) was 69 g. My Shimano A-600’s, by comparison, weigh 276 g a pair. The cleats add 52 g per pair. My first suggestion was to machine out the underside of the cleat to lighten them. Reed seemed to think that would work without compromising the strength of the connection. Even then, I wonder if the weight will be comparable to other road cleats. Now, with a mountain bike, the average weight is perhaps 4 or 5 kg (10 pounds) more than most road bikes, so component weight is less critical on a mountain bike compared to a road bike.
Summary—
Most roadies use and prefer clipless pedals. Unlike mountain bikers, the need to quickly eject happens less often. For them, the speed of releasing is less important. Usually, when a roadie goes down, there is little time to react and unclip. Yeah, sometimes at stop lights, we forget, and tip over, but that is generally in the beginner days of using clipless pedals. (Many novice riders, and some of my randonneuring friends, use platform pedals with sandals or sneakers, but they are the minority). Mountain bikers, on the other hand, are more split. Many mountain bikers use clipless pedals, but I still hear of many others who started to use clipless systems but have gone back to platform pedals for safety — they simply couldn’t unclip quickly enough and crashed. And then, in some crashes, the bike is tied to you as you cartwheel down the mountain, causing you more injuries. The J-Pedal, on the other hand, pop outs much easier, reducing the risk of injury in the event of a crash. I guess what I am saying is that this design seems more suited to those using 2-bolt pedals for mountain biking rather than roadies. This pedal is especially relevant to downhill or enduro mountain bikers that have given up on clipless pedals. It should be, for them, “the cat’s pajamas.”
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