Road Cycling - Pedals

I'm a real newbie when it comes to pedals. My bike pedals don't have any sort of thing to hold my shoe to them.

Do most bikes have some sort of pedal clamps or anything like that? If so, what are they like?

On one site I've looked at, the pedals they were selling have these little foot clamps at the end, but I don't understand how it could comfortable hold a shoe on unless it was just crushing the toes. When I was in a store a while ago, I remember this pedal with this strip (plastic?) going up from one side of it to the other, and a strip from the front of the pedal connecting to the middle of the other strip.

Sorry if my description is unintelligable nonsense. I'm a really newbie with pedals. Could anyone give me a quick overview/explanation?

(thanks in advance for your patience :D )

there are several types of pedals..

To make the pedal "hold-on" to your shoe? you have two options...

Use a pedal w/ a clip. You can use regular shoes with these pedals..

Next is the clipless pedals. It mechanically hold your shoe on top of the pedal. You will have to use compatible cycling shoes to use these.

I'll post pics later...

Brent,

2nd type you mentioned are toe clips and straps. these
were standard a while back and are still popular. they
do not require special shoe, and will allow you to pull
up on the pedal during upstroke. you could also use
cleats on these which clipped to pedal.

1st type are clipless pedals based originally on ski bindings
(look manufactured em I believe). the small clamp on the end
mates to a cleat which is attached to the bottom of your
cycling shoes. the toes etc. have nothing going over them
(other than shoe).
hope this made at least some sense.

I'll see if I can find pics of the different types an post
pics later.

Marty

pedals w/ clips

clipless pedals

cycling shoes(for use w/ clipless pedals)

Originally posted by brent_dube
Do most bikes have some sort of pedal clamps or anything like that?

Not all, but if you want to develop an efficient pedal stroke for road or off-road riding you really need to have your shoes/feet attached to the pedals of your bicycle. A great deal of the pedal stroke efficiency comes from pedalling in "circles" which infers that you are pull up -- or at least unweighting -- each pedal as it moves up on the back stroke instead of only pushing down on each pedal as it moves through the downstroke.


Originally posted by brent_dube
If so, what are they like? On one site I've looked at, the pedals they were selling have these little foot clamps at the end, but I don't understand how it could comfortable hold a shoe on unless it was just crushing the toes.

That would have been a quill pedal, also known as pedals with toe clips and straps. The plastic ones you mentioned are not ideal, but certainly better than having only platform pedals. Ideally, toe-clips and straps are used with cycling shoes that have a very simple cleat or recess just behind the ball of the shoe/foot that catches on the back edge of the pedal. The shoe is then held down on the pedal by the strap and, to a lesser extent, the clip which really exists to hold the strap in place on top of the shoe/foot (Tallis bone) and to facilitate easy entry of the shoe onto the pedal and under the strap. This page shows it rather nicely.
http://www.yellowjersey.org/tocleat.html

In the late 80's "Clip-less" pedal and shoe cleat systems were developed that eliminated the toe-clips and straps. There are clipless systems that work with slick soled road racing shoes (i.e., Look, Time, Shimano, Campy ProFit, Speedplay X) that are not meant to walk on and other systems that work with lugged sole touring or mountain biking shoes (e.g., Shimano's SPD pedal systems, Time, Speedplay Frogs) and the like that do permit you to walk pretty much as you would in any low-rise hiking or sport shoes.

Pay a visit to your local bike shop and ask someone to show you the various systems (system = shoe + pedal/cleat) that are available and to discuss which would be right for the type of riding you plan to do.