Shoes for the Coker

I use hightop basketball shoes. Relatively little crazy tread. Ankles
protected from hub hits. Cheep.

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Memphis Mud - Student of GrandMaster 2T

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I have hightop converse all stars, for the colder weather. Low tops for
the warmer weather.
But I have no COker.

--
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Pair o' Vans. Nice flat bottoms with grippy rubber, and ridges. they are
my Unicycling Shoe

--
The Yang - Everything with practice

"Dude, I once saw a unicycle breastfeed a flamingo back to health"
-Random drunk rantings of a drunk man

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skate shoes in my opinion are the best for unicycling....

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James_Potter - betcha can't stick it!
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I always use skate shoes for riding, the flat bottom, and the stiff sole
(if you feel like you can hook your toes around the pedal as you grip
it, your soles are not stiff!)

I have only bought Airwalks or Vans for riding since discovering their
fantasticness while riding

--
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i second the skate shoes. or if you really wanna save your ankles get
some 661 duallies. they've got hard plastic in the ankle areas of the
high top part. and the grip like crazy.

--
markf - movie nerd

stuck in iowa and unemployed.
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I always ride with Globe skate shoes. I've never worn a pair out. I'm
on my third pair, which look so sweet.

--
halfbike - Obsessed Rider

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I just use whatever shoes I have on when I feel like riding (usualy cons
or combat boots).

--
heavy metal unicycling - Loveland Unicycling Club

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just not being verbally expressive enough.
-harper
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Whatever you use, make sure they do not have long laces that can get
caught in the pedal.

There is nothing worse than zooming along on a coker at full speed and
discovering your laces have wrapped around the pedals. They tighten
until you can't turn the pedal any more and then boom!

Instant face plant at high speed.

I now ride my coker with laceless shoes after having this happen to me
three times in the past couple of years.

--
peter.bier - Unicycle trasher

-Peter Bier

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I *like* having shoes that stay put on the pedals. I ride my Coker with
125 mm cranks and a basic pair of sneakers. The pins do a good job on
most any soft-bottomed shoe.

In the past, I wore turf shoes (with knobbies on the bottom) for all
forms of riding because the hardest kind was Freestyle, where we used
plastic pedals (so we wouldn't destroy our lower legs). But the turf
shoes are overkill on pinned pedals. They don't necessarily grip as well
as a plain old pair of Converse.

I think the time has come for unicycle shoes. There may be a bike
version of this; I haven't looked. What I would like is a shoe with a
stiff bottom, like all bike shoes, but a rubber sole with some "give" in
it. Since we won't be using cleats or similar bolt-on stuff, we just
need a nice tread to match well with our pedals. That and a stiff-soled
shoe should be much better than mushy sneakers at transferring power to
the pedals.

Back to the original post, practice learning how to shift your feet
around on the pedals. Move your heel from side to side to loosen them
up, and just make tiny movements at a time. It gets pretty easy with
practice.

--
johnfoss - More Moab Fun

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
"jfoss" at "unicycling.com" -- www.unicycling.com

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peter.bier said:

*Whatever you use, make sure they do not have long laces that can get
caught in the pedal.

There is nothing worse than zooming along on a coker at full speed and
discovering your laces have wrapped around the pedals. They tighten
until you can't turn the pedal any more and then boom!

Instant face plant at high speed.

I now ride my coker with laceless shoes after having this happen to
me three times in the past couple of years. *

My Coker shoes have long laces but I tuck the ends of the laces under
the cross laces. The laces have never gotten loose after being tucked
in like that (see attached pic).

Riding a Coker with laces that are loose and flopping around is
dangerous, very dangerous. A high speed UPD with your lace wrapped
around the pedal or crank would be devastating. You wouldn't be able to
get your foot off the pedal. You wouldn't be able to catch yourself on
the landing. One foot would still be attached to the uni during and
after the crash. It would be ugly and painful and probably result in
broken bones. If that doesn't scare people enough to make them tuck in
their laces when riding a Coker I don't know what will.

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I have these bad boys on my Coker...

'Brooklyn Machine Works Shinburgers'
(http://www.brooklynmachineworks.com/parts_pedals.htm) (except mine are
all-black)

With those pedals, regular sneakers provide comfortable grip except in
the rain. Then I wear my 661s. Shinburgers plus 661s equals
super-grip.

I think you just have to experiment until you find a pedal / shoe
combination that feels best for you (try all the shoes you have to get a
better feel for tread patterns and rubber softness and the resulting
grip with your particular pedals). And practice the skill of adjusting
your foot position. The 661s are so grippy on the Shinburgers that it's
a bit annoying (I should practice one-foot riding so I can lift my foot
off the pedal without crashing).

But I'm posting mainly to echo Peter's and John's advice about shoelaces
and to say thank you to everyone here. When I started unicycling two
and a half years ago, I was warned on this forum of the dangers of loose
shoelaces. So, I have had a healthy paranoia of dangling shoelaces
right from the start.

Peter -- I was horrified and full of empathy (I really felt your pain)
when I read "after having this happen to me"... but then I got to the
part that said "three times" and all the empathy drained out of me
suddenly. THREE TIMES??? Once, I feel for you. Twice, you had a
string of bad luck. But three times? ... 🙂

--
Dave Lowell - _
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Dave Lowell said:

*I think you just have to experiment until you find a pedal / shoe
combination that feels best for you (try all the shoes you have to get
a better feel for tread patterns and rubber softness and the resulting
grip with your particular pedals). And practice the skill of
adjusting your foot position. The 661s are so grippy on the
Shinburgers that it's a bit annoying (I should practice one-foot
riding so I can lift my foot off the pedal without crashing). *

The choice of pedal makes a big difference in how easy it is to
reposition your feet. Pedals with a big square platform are harder to
adjust your feet on that pedals with the DX style shape (pedals like the
Wellgo's, Shimano MX-30, Sun Ringle Zu Zu, etc.).

I have the Sun Ringle Zu Zu pedals on my Coker. They make it pretty
easy to adjust my feet. I can walk my foot over the pedal without
needing to completely remove my foot from the pedal. I tilt my foot to
the outside so that I'm only making contact with the pedal right near
the dust cap. From there it is easy to pivot my foot around to get a
new position on the pedal. My foot never completely leaves the pedal.
You can't do that kind of maneuver with big square pedals because you
can't disengage your foot from the corners of the pedal to pivot. The
shape of the DX pedals makes that foot position maneuver possible.

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peter.bier said:

*Whatever you use, make sure they do not have long laces that can get
caught in the pedal. *

I tie my shoes with the bow towards the outside of the shoe. On the
right side for the right shoe and on the left side for the left shoe.
Then I double knot the laces. Keeps them away from the pedals and keeps
them from coming loose.

Sometimes I do like JC suggests and put the extra through the laces.

A shoe lace wrapped in a crank scares the begebbies out of me.

I wear vans for riding. Coker, freestyle and MUni. I've gotten my last
three pairs for $35.00 each. I watch for them on sale at JC Penneys.
That's pretty cheap in my book.

Added benefit for the vans is that my 13 year old niece thought they
were cool. 😎

Bill

--
billham - LEVEL 4
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Just before you posted I was writing 'a detailed post about my new
shoes on unicyclist.org'
(http://www.unicyclist.org/blog/show.cfm?serial=00760)

peter.bier said:

*Whatever you use, make sure they do not have long laces that can get
caught in the pedal.*

Or for those without militairy or riot-police experience: you could put
your laces in your shoe. I *always* do it by habit.

--
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I ride my Coker on and off road 5-8 miles a day and use Wellgo's and
Vans. Vans are the answer. Just tuck those laces in. Everyone is
correct, it will not feel to good if they get stuck in the cranks
It took a ton of riding before I found this match which is like glue.
If you want your feet to stay on the pedals try them, you will not
regret it.

--
JustOneWheel - Every One Should Ride One

There is no better way to have Fun and Excersize. "UNICYCLE"
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cheap hiking shoes are really good.
I've a pair of Hi-Techs that cost me £20, which were only bought on a
trip as I'd forgotten my usual ones. Offer a very good grip on pins, and
a nice flexible-ish sole. more durable than (what I usually go for) the
posers stuff.

--
mikepenton - sometimes level
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