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02-21-07, 05:46 AM
Hello everybody,
I usually commute with a beater bike but I want to give commuting with my touring recumbent a shot. The recumbent is equipped with SPD pedals and I can't imagine riding it without clips. The problem is, my commute is only 5km and I don't want to change shoes twice for a 15 minute ride, twice a day.
Some years ago, I was looking inside the parts bin at my LBS and I found a very special pedal : it was a sort of full-size platform, the size of a shoe sole, with a full plastic cage that went around the entire foot, and an enclosed toe cage that could open and close by tilting up and down about 45 degrees. To clip in, one just had to get the front of your foot in, give a good kick downward and the toe cage would tilt up and force the rest of your foot inside the pedal. It had all kinds of adjustments to lengthen or shorten it, widen the cages, move the platform forward or backward with regard to the pedal axle, and adjust the force at which the cage would open and release the foot in the event of a fall.
The pedal was freakin' heavy and ugly, but the system was brilliant : it made possible to ride exactly like with SPDs, but in street shoes. Unfortunately, there was only one pedal in the parts bin, not a complete pair, so I didn't buy it. I asked the LBS where he had gotten it but he couldn't remember. He figured it might have been some sort of prototype that never sold, but he couldn't tell for sure. It didn't look like a one-off though, it was all moulded plastic, so I figure it probably was manufactured in numbers at some point.
So I'm trying to find these pedals, in case they still are (were?) on the market. Would any of you know what I'm talking about? Have you seen this system? In retrospect, I should have bought that single pedal, if only to take pictures, but I didn't, silly me. Something like this would probably be a terrible solution on a regular bike, but I'm sure it would work well on a recumbent. So please if you have any information, let me know.
I usually commute with a beater bike but I want to give commuting with my touring recumbent a shot. The recumbent is equipped with SPD pedals and I can't imagine riding it without clips. The problem is, my commute is only 5km and I don't want to change shoes twice for a 15 minute ride, twice a day.
Some years ago, I was looking inside the parts bin at my LBS and I found a very special pedal : it was a sort of full-size platform, the size of a shoe sole, with a full plastic cage that went around the entire foot, and an enclosed toe cage that could open and close by tilting up and down about 45 degrees. To clip in, one just had to get the front of your foot in, give a good kick downward and the toe cage would tilt up and force the rest of your foot inside the pedal. It had all kinds of adjustments to lengthen or shorten it, widen the cages, move the platform forward or backward with regard to the pedal axle, and adjust the force at which the cage would open and release the foot in the event of a fall.
The pedal was freakin' heavy and ugly, but the system was brilliant : it made possible to ride exactly like with SPDs, but in street shoes. Unfortunately, there was only one pedal in the parts bin, not a complete pair, so I didn't buy it. I asked the LBS where he had gotten it but he couldn't remember. He figured it might have been some sort of prototype that never sold, but he couldn't tell for sure. It didn't look like a one-off though, it was all moulded plastic, so I figure it probably was manufactured in numbers at some point.
So I'm trying to find these pedals, in case they still are (were?) on the market. Would any of you know what I'm talking about? Have you seen this system? In retrospect, I should have bought that single pedal, if only to take pictures, but I didn't, silly me. Something like this would probably be a terrible solution on a regular bike, but I'm sure it would work well on a recumbent. So please if you have any information, let me know.