Hi all, Reference the issue on what type of pedals that John Nicholson used during the early part of his cycling career.
At the world track championships in 1970 at Leicester here in the UK . I too was intrigued by the pedals that John used.Not only did he race around the velodrome using these unusual pedals,he even popped out of the track down to the local shops[using his training wheels of course] with his shoes still bolted to the pedals. John wore a pair of sandals, and just used his racing shoes as if they were a normal pair of pedals without toe clips. You can imagine the looks that he got,especially from the the police, because he had no brakes on his bike other than the fixed gear. The following year John payed a visit to the Carlton Cycles factory in Worsop UK.
What a golden opportunity this was to ask John about the pedals and his thoughts. First of all I asked John why he had bolted his shoes to his pedals, and also how he had achieved this. His obvious reply to why he had done this, was to get maximum power through the pedals and not having to worry about pulling his foot out of the pedals, when jumping out of the saddle and kicking and pulling hard on the pedals. His answer to how he had done this was soon revealed, when to my surprise John took me across to his car [ a battered old Volkswagen beetle ] and took out his kit bag the very pedals we are questioning. These were made by John himself from a block of solid alloy and machined to take only the finest of axles, none other than Campagnolo. The alloy block had been made quite small with a flat top with 4 bolts [from memory] possibly 6. Here I was holding the pedals in my hand in disbelief. I then asked John what would happen if he was to crash,how dangerous would that be. He replied with the most unusual answer, and to this day I wasn't sure if he was taking the P or being serious.He said when a rider crashes , with the sudden force his feet would shrink and release his feet from his shoes?? However a year or so Later John had a bad crash whilst still using the same pedals and shoes,resulting in him breaking his leg. The next time I met John he still had the pedals and shoes,but he no longer had the battered old Volkswagon beetle,he was driving a top of the range Mercedes.
Dave Marsh Carltoncycles United Kingdom