You know what’s more frustrating (and certainly more painful) than having your foot slip off your bike pedal when you’re cycling? Being clipped into the pedals, and finding yourself unable to remove your foot in time to protect you from a nasty spill.
That’s what a new Kickstarter campaign hopes to solve with an innovative bike pedal which uses magnets to attach rider’s feet to their bicycle pedals.
Made of an inexpensive, lightweight plastic composite, the so-called Vault MagLock works thanks to magnets built into the pedal body, while riders connect via a steel clip attached to their biking shoes. It’s a smart retro-fitting concept which promises to make life a whole lot easier for a variety of cyclists.
“It’s a very different solution to clip-in pedals, where you clip your feet into the pedal and the only way out is to twist your foot out of it,” creator Dave Williams told Digital Trends. “With a magnet, you just step on it to lock in. This grew out of my mountain biking experience, where I know a lot of people who are just too too nervous to clip-in in case something happens.”
Williams said that the idea for magnetic bike pedals isn’t new. In fact, the first patent for it dates back as far as 1896.
However, he has made some key improvements, such as making it easier to adjust the ferocity of the magnets in the pedals to fit the requirements of whoever is riding. This means that a relative newbie can start out with minimal force, with this force then increasing to a maximum of approximately 25-30 pounds when riders get suitably confident.
He noted that he has had plenty of time to work on the idea, too — having first created it as a prototype for no one other than himself. “It was only after messing around with prototypes for five years that I figured I’d try and actually make a business out of it,” he explained.
Williams’ Vault MagLOCK bike pedals are currently available for pre-order on Kickstarter, where a pair can be (magnetically) secured for $80. Shipping is set to take place in May 2017.
