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Dangerous Pedals how did they do it?

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obliquepen

Look Ma, No Hands!
I grew up in the 40's and 50's in an era of time when nearly everyone wore street shoes or should I say leather soled shoes. I still do even till today but old pedals and leather soles are a dangerous match and ones feet easily slip off them when you least expect it. In this new era the rubber soled shoes work great and anchor your feet quite nicely as they are not prone to slipping. So my question is how did those young riders of yore manage to ride those old bikes safely without having catastrophic accidents because of slipping off those old pedals.

I might also mention that those old pedals play havoc with the bottoms of leather soles by chewing up the leather as the sharp edges of the pedal make deep cuts into it. The harder you pedal the worse it cuts up your shoes. Of course there is an easy solution just don't wear leather shoes.
 
Perhaps they wore bicycle shoes.

1892:
Shoes1.jpg


1895:

shoes2.jpg
 
I always wore loafers when I was a kid in the 1990s (after they were WELL out of style--one time I accidentally wore my gym shoes to class and a girl next to me told me with wide eyes, "Welcome to the '90s!" But, I don't recall slipping off the pedals of the 1930s-1960s bicycles that I rode (I started collecting them at 12 and detested newer bikes), but I didn't have leather soles--they were rubber soles.

Now that I'm an adult, a big problem I have is the ends of the pedals digging into my shoes because my feet are too wide for the pedals, even in the narrow PF Flyer sneakers that I wear. I don't think modern pedals are wide enough for adult feet. I really wish someone would start reproducing wider versions of the vintage pedals.

Also, I think that when these pedals were new, the rubber was probably softer and gripped better. With age and wear, the pedal blocks become hard and smooth.
 
You guys had shoes?
Really its true most everybody wore leather shoes back then and our family shopped at the Buster Brown shoe store. They even had a X-Ray machine located in the store so they could look and see it your toes had enough room to move around. Kids loved the X-Ray machine especially me. Its a wonder my feet aren't falling off me now from radiation poisoning.
 
I grew up in the 50's and 60's and never wore leather soled shoes when riding a bike. I purchased a new 1964 Varsity, Union Rat Traps, and rode that with sneakers or track shoes to school but most of the time I rode it barefoot even when I was doing 900' + wheelies. A few weeks into Summer break I could walk across the asphalt on a 112 degree day in with no problem. If Tarzan could run thru the jungle naked and shoeless I figured I could too. :p
 
Keep even pressure down on them and you are usually fine. My real problem was having one shear off...I've laid bikes down at speed down hills a few times. :grimacing::grimacing::grimacing:
 
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