Unchained Commencal 25

Would love to try this. Bike must be so quiet. We could ride these in wilderness areas!!

I like it. Clearly, you ride lift-assisted only. Are there sections where you have to push with your feet, Flintstones-style?

#ionlyridepark

yes.. if i am in a hurry... or i push with one feet, or simply walk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypybkpsGc9U

That's awesome! Love the effort you put into the design.

Good handling? Your centre of gravity would be so high!

My stand is about 3-4cm lower, than with the usual setup ==> the hole you see on the sideplates, sits on the bottom bracket axle.

Hi Gabs,
Wicked, been thinking of this since Gwin won without a chain, especially coming from a Mx background. Where did you get it made please.
Would love to try it...

Hi Gazza,

glad you like it.

I designed it by myself and a colleague milled the 2 main peaces. The footrests are stock parts from a ktm-freeride e

maybe there exist grippier footpegs... Think about using pivot-pegs... (http://www.pivotpegz.info/)

Not sure why you'd want the pegs so close to the frame. Mount them wider for better handling and if wanted the best overall feel, you'd want something spring loaded that the pedals would sort of "not lean" with the same angle as the bike. The outboard pedal would stay more level the ground as you leaned the bike.

Anybody understand what I mean? Basically if you could mount a pivoting BB pointed front to back on the bike and the pegs pivot on that axis like if you stood on a balance board.

With the laser-cut-plate mounted on the iscg, I prevent the rotation of my footpeg-mounting-part. If I'd remove it, the whole assembly could rotate freely just like crank arms do.

You think this was it would be better? I could give it a try... would be interesting. I started with this setup, cause it is the established mx-design... as soon as I have news, ill let you know.

I understand what you mean although having more angle on the outside pedal when the bike is leant over generates more grip on that pedal. I think if the bike was unweighted mid corner for example, your outside foot might slip off. All speculation of course.

not sure if I get you right? but the footpegs are oriented flat. By rotating the ISCG adapter plate, i can adjust the angle from the pegs to the main frame. Changing this angle has a surprisingly big impact in the ride-feeling.

by allowing them to rotate, im affraid to slip of way easier... we will see ^^

The moto footpegs I wouldn't think would be ideal unless you're wearing moto style boots because you need those riser heels on a moto boot to keep you from sliding forward off the peg and that super stiff shank inside that keeps your foot from folding over the peg.

If you want to run 5.10's, you should consider mounting bicycle pedals, but try mounting them spaced out WIDE, way WIDER than an 83mm bottom bracket even. Since your pedals aren't on a 165mm crankarm, it will give you a nice wide balanced stance AND there's no way your pedals or pegs will ever touch the ground at that height anyway.
Heck...I've thought of mounting 2 parallel 155mm Profile steel cranks and just riding them as pegs. Your way puts the rider weight higher than is advantageous for handling and a set of parallel mounted 155mm cranks on a 83mm shell BB would be a pump track bike for DH.

- I do wear mx-boots and they work really well.. compared to my 5.10 they offer some great safety bonus
- the footpegs are spaced out wide to reach a total width, SAME as I have had on the old setup (cranks + pedals)
- using pedals was my first try. simply bolting them onto the BB... this didnt ride well...
- having "steel pegs" who dont get out of the way, if they get in contact with an obstacle, can cause nasty crashes. have experienced this "folding" feature already many times

Oz you get what I'm saying. I think the owner thinks I'm referring to the pegs spinning like a typical pedal. And I think you have a point, so the pivot would need to only go to a certain angle, so you could have that bit of tilt. It would also need to be somewhat spring loaded to have a bit of tension (ever seen an internal coil sprung axle)?
Gabs, what I am referring to is like this. Look at your bike from behind. Now imagine you could lean the bike left or right, but as long as the pedals are weighted, your pedals remain parallel to the ground.

==> https://pivotpegz.com

bb-axle, pedal-axle and rear-wheel-axle stay parallel to each other all the time and that's good =)

love it! (and you and team robot could be cousins)

ROBOTS knew he was German and an engineer by the second photo, before reading anything,

What is the advantage? Being able to move with cranks I can shift my body weight where I need. Also does not feel like having my feet just on BB keeps me well balanced on bike as normally I would have one leg way far in front and one behind. And I kinda feel being able to move my pedals around the axle, I can actually stick more to bike better (better grip between shoe / pedal). Probably someone will say this is a moto style, but they have a completely different seat and weight distribution over it. Maybe i'm wrong and this will be a norm next year

glad my project makes you curious =)

you mix 2 things…

I was rolling on my dh-bike all the time. Doing this, your pedal force needs to be equal at any time, to keep the crank-arm in a horizontal position. So you are not able to shift your position on the bike by putting load on the front or rear pedal….. So from a mechanical point of view, you stand on the bb-axle anyway

This brings me even to a big downpoint of the crank-arm-setup. The rear leg is bend all the time… (the maximal force it can resist, would be way higher if it would stand in a more straight position)  the maximal possible bb-axle-force = 2x the weak leg ….
But if you ride footpegs, each leg can resist a way higher force (independent from the other leg) So you can land and ride massively harder, without coming out of your comfort zone.  riding harder and safer

On top I ride with mx-boots. These are a huge savety bonus for my ankle in g-outs, hard landings and crashes

To rotate the body in the vertical axis on the bike, it might look easier to do so with pedals, because foot-distance is bigger than with footpegs, right. But therefore I have put the side-plates. These provide a very good contact to the bike, and allow a good handling

sry vor my very german accent

This looks rad! I rode chainless for pretty much half a season in the alps after breaking several shifters/mechs. The challenge is how far down the track you can get without using the brakes :-)

I have a question. How does the bike perform on flat turns and off camber? Normally you would have the outside pedal down to generate more grip on the side knobs of the tyre and to lower the center of gravity.

if you ask me, the height of the CG does not affect the grip... I looked at many pro-videos and in 99% they keep the pedals in a horizontal position. no matter how the turn looks like. if the put the inside foot of the pedal, the outer pedal must go down (mechanically there is no other way).

if i put the foot down - offcamber - i need do bend my outer leg... right

seems less comfortable, but didn't put me in any uncomfortable situation yet

Maybe I ride differently but even when I do downhill I still shift my weight... and I would say I do it pretty often. Its not only about cornering. Shifting body weight does not mean i have to turn my cranks or vice versa. But definitely not having my legs locked around same position allows me to shift my body weight better. I think that is a big difference to moto, where the power comes from a different source and also how you handle whole thing, where your legs are, where you sit. I think being able to have one leg upfront and one back actually gives me opportunity to relax more instead of pumping with both in the same place.

No hating here. I did not ride it. Totally curious. Good for you if you enjoy it more

no worries... ==> as long as you roll (no chain tension), you dont have any advantages with the crank-setup for shifting your weigt front/back or left/right.... any
because there is no difference.... you stand on the bottom-bracket-axle with both systems

in other words... rolling, you can not put a different load at the pedals at any time (front/back) ==> they can not help you more than the footpegs do

Bike of the Day October 15, 2018!