J-Pedals magnetic “clipless” pedals work for road or mountain w/ easy release

I wonder how the stack height compares to SPD or others?

But how do magnets work?

Aerolite pedals unclip the same way. It’s not bad.

Interesting. I wonder if you could superglue or otherwise affix the cleat to whatever street shoes you want to wear for those of us less serious riders. And are they strong enough for backpedaling n a FG? I guess my straps are fine…

Aerolite pedals were terrible in too manys ways to list here, so in no way is any similarity to them a positive thing. I also wonder about the magnets collecting bits of debris, and thus impeding entry.

No mud clearance.They will get packed full and no amount of stomping will get it out of that pocket in the pedal.

I’ve designed products that use rare earth magnets and they are extremely brittle. Plating them helps a lot, which I assume these are, but we’re talking about a rider’s weight + rocks being pulverized into them. Perhaps these have a thin aluminum plate covering them?

I actually have a pair of these on my road bike. Been riding on them for 3 years, with about 12,000 miles of wear. These seriously are quite amazing! It’s a very innovative idea.

J-Pedals are designed to allow the magnets to pull the cleat in the same spot every time. The channel in the pedal is engineered to allow the shoe cleat to drop (magnetically pull) right in without ever having to look for placement. There is about 7 degrees of float designed into the pedal/cleat system, and about 80 pounds of pull force per pedal on the upstroke. I climb up to 25% grades quite regularly (both in/out of saddle) without any fear of coming disconnected from the pedal. I always have felt secure riding these. The same applies to out of the saddle sprinting too. I’m not the most powerful or fastest cyclist, but I can get up to about 32 mph on flat ground in an all out sprint out of the saddle on J-Pedals, and have never had an inkling of feeling like I was going to separate my shoe from the pedal.

I haven’t noticed any degradation in the magnetic pull of my pedals over these past 3 years. I guess I could get a gaussmeter to measure it against my new J-Pedals, but why? I feel just a secure in my 3 year old pair as I do with my new pair. And they aren’t falling apart either, as some have described them as being super brittle. The magnets are coated (not with aluminum) to protect them from wear and tear. They are as fully intact as they were when they were new. All the people I know using J-Pedals have had the same experience too (roadies and mtb). These pedals are Extremely durable, and will last you for many many years and miles to come.

As far as mud, my experience has never shown mud as an issue. If it gets on my shoe, I try to knock it off. I did this with my Ultegra clipless, and do it with these too. If it gets on my pedal during a ride (which hasn’t been my experience) I can just press down and mush it out. I can always scrape out an residue with my fingernail if needed. Not a problem. Last week I must have stepped in some mud on a century ride at one of the break stations, but didn’t realize it, and then road another 30 miles to the finish. The next day when I was cleaning my gear I was surprised to find a bunch of dried mud around the cleat on the bottom of my shoe. I hadn’t even noticed any change in the connection of my cleat to the magnets in the channel of the pedal…because there hadn’t been. Fully secured. This has been my experience over and over again this past 3 years.

I’m not a mountain biker, but I do have friends who are avid mtb’ers that ride with these pedals too. Mud has never been a problem for them either. But, like with any cleat, you can knock it off by tapping your foot on the side of a rock or your pedal. If you are riding around in mud all the time and have mud pies on the bottom of your feet, then good luck getting connected or feeling secure to any pedal (clipless or flats)!

J-Pedals are as easy to step off of as a flat pedal, because of the lateral extension design on the outer side of the pedal. The article says: “Rather than an outward twist of your heel like with traditional clipless pedals, you simply roll your ankle outward slightly to use the edge of the pedal as a lever to pry your foot off”. Rolling your ankle kinda sounds weird, and isn’t necessarily the mechanics of stepping off the pedal. Just rolling your ankle isn’t the whole picture of what’s happening. You don’t just roll your ankle to disconnect. When stepping off a pedal, there’s a full hip/knee/ankle/foot movement involved, not just a simple roll of the ankle. None of us really ever thinks about all the body mechanics used to step off a pedal. We just do it. But what happens in stepping off J-Pedals is this: the hip moves in a lateral outward direction, which is then followed by the knee (because of course it’s attached proximally to the hip), followed then by the ankle and foot. As this fluid movement occurs, the natural force of the hip moving to the side causes the foot in the shoe to begin moving off the pedal, but because it’s attached to the magnets, the lateral extension extension bar on the pedal acts as a lever arm on the outside edge of the shoe, causing the shoe to disconnect from the magnets. It feels as fluid and as easy as stepping off a flat pedal.

I did get SPD’s and thought I was done with it. I tipped over and hit the ground a couple of times, but got used the heel out movement to disconnect. It hurt both my body and my ego, especially when I was in front of other people, but I had no intention of ever going back to a flat pedals after experiencing the feeling of being able to pull during a sprint or climb. 3 years ago, a buddy of mine showed me J-Pedals and told me his experience of moving from flats to clipless, and then trying J-Pedals. He asked me to test out a pair before they came to market. I thought magnetic pedals were a stupid idea, for all the same reasons the people above have made comments about, but he was a good buddy of mine, so I thought I’d give J-Pedals a try just to appease him.

Really glad I was open minded enough to listen to a friend and try an innovative new product. That was 3 years ago, and I haven’t put my SPD’s back on my bike! So glad to see that J-Pedals are finally launching to the market, and cyclists of all kinds (mtb, roadie, gravel, commuters) will get to experience what I and other early testers have experienced too!

Black sand will collect on the magnet’s, it’s in every region in the world. No good for walking on sand it loaded with black sand, Not good for mtb. But will work for a road bike if it’s not in a sand region.

Deputy Dawg- there is about 7 degrees of float designed into J-Pedals.

Hugh Brown – which multi-release Shimano cleats are similar to J-Pedals?

but could be a lot cheaper.