Having your shoes clipped on the pedals?

[H2Row]

When you clip your cycling shoes on the pedals of your bike, do they hang "upside-down" and drag on the floor? If they do, what have you done about it? Can you do anything?

[cslone]

A small rubber band looped through the pull tab on the back of the shoe. Attach the right one to a bottle cage or FD bolt. The left one to your skewer. Once you start pedaling it will snap off. Or just let them drag. :)

[bcart1991]

That gravity's a mofo, ain't she?

[H2Row]

That gravity's a mofo, ain't she?

Irritating yes :-P


A small rubber band looped through the pull tab on the back of the shoe. Attach the right one to a bottle cage or FD bolt. The left one to your skewer. Once you start pedaling it will snap off. Or just let them drag. :)


Wondering if anyone else has other methods? :)

[cslone]

Not sure how else you are going to keep them level. If you're not comfortable with that, just keep them off. It's not going to save you much time being clipped in if you aren't comfortable with it.

[Kristinb]

Transition platforms. but only if your T1 time is 2.5 min or so

[Plainsman]

I raced all last season (my first season) without the shoes on the bike. My T1 time is somewhere around 1:30, but if I hussled more I might be able to get it closer to a minute. I find what slows me down the most is not getting my shoes on (I wear socks too, and still I can put on shoes and socks really quickly), but how long it takes me to get from the rack to the mounting line. It's not easy to sprint in speedplay cleats. Likewise T2, if it's a large field and I have to run a long way to get back to the rack, shoes slow me down. I once took them off and ran with them and the bike.

I'm curious too, has anyone compared the time saved in T1 to the time lost on the bike leg? I've seen some quick folks, but I'm thinking it's got to draw out the time it takes one to reach top speed if they have to get a foot into each shoe, and then secure it. Just wondering.

[joolied]

I've only just purchased cycling shoes for the first time, so I plan to run in them, but I can clearly see the advantage: either sit on your butt and fasten shoes then clumsily run with your bike, or run smoothly, then place your feet atop your shoes while you start to pedal, then put your feet in and fasten them, all the while gaining ground regardless of speed. And even if you're not at top speed (which you can't usually get to immediately anyway because of early turns and all the bikes around you) you're at least doing two things at once and you had an easier time getting there.

My question would be for T2 ... if you take your feet out before you climb off, won't your shoes be scraping the ground and slow you down (if not toss you)? Mine would but maybe that's because I'm short so I have a small bike frame.

-- Joolie

[cslone]

It depends on the size of the bike and shoes. Mine scrape slightly, but if I keep the crankarms horozontal, they seem to do fine. Never have seen anyone crash because their shoes were dragging. But I bet it has happened.

[^*^BATMAN^*^]

Well when you are comming into T2. You take your feet out of the shoes(the side that you are taking out, is normaly at the top of the rotation, so not an issue of shoe touching the ground). After your foot is out of the shoe, you place your foot onto the top of the shoe. Then repeat with the other side.

It will look like this(This is actually me comming out of T1, but same difference)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/brandonparker/Me/MSTO_0032.jpg

When you are comming up to the dismount line, about 10m or so out, you bring one leg over the top tube(atleast thats how I do it). So you are standing on the one pedal up to the dismount line, then jump off into a run at the line.

I normaly will have a slow T1 time if I am over a minute, I have been a low as 40 seconds. My T2 time is normaly between 25 and 35 seconds.


*disclaimer*- This is a fairly dangerous way to mount/dismount your bike. I fell pretty bad my first race I did this in on the dismount. That being said, it is ALOT faster, and very bennificial in a shorter race(Oly and less). Though practice it alot before you do it in a race.

Oh, and the shoe dragging thing. gravity will hold the crank arms level. So all you do is make sure they are level when your bike is racked, and it should be good. When I hit the mount line I have to do a short stop to kick my one shoe over, stand on it, and push off, but it is still alot faster then if I was not doing it this way. I still cant stand running in cycling shoes with cleats. I had to do it in the IM this year, and it sucked.

[Treefox]

When you are comming up to the dismount line, about 10m or so out, you bring one leg over the top tube(atleast thats how I do it). So you are standing on the one pedal up to the dismount line, then jump off into a run at the line.

I do that on my town bike - lots harder with clipless.



It's been suggested, and studied, that it's actually faster to just put your shoes on in transition - then you can get up to full speed much faster once you're on the bike. Try it some time - pick out someone who is about to leave transition with their shoes clipped in - but put your shoes on in transition - it's almost guaranteed that 30 or 40 metres into the cycle you'll pass them because you'll be accelerating at full power while they're faffing about trying to get their feet into their shoes while in motion. They may have had a technically faster transition time, but you'll be the faster competitor. Taking shoes off en route to T2 may be a different matter though. But I'm willing to give up 3 seconds to keep my shoes looking cool. :)

[Treefox]

I raced all last season (my first season) without the shoes on the bike. My T1 time is somewhere around 1:30, but if I hussled more I might be able to get it closer to a minute. I find what slows me down the most is not getting my shoes on (I wear socks too, and still I can put on shoes and socks really quickly), but how long it takes me to get from the rack to the mounting line. It's not easy to sprint in speedplay cleats. Likewise T2, if it's a large field and I have to run a long way to get back to the rack, shoes slow me down. I once took them off and ran with them and the bike.

Time cleats are much more agreeable to running, though do wear a bit quickly.

[^*^BATMAN^*^]

Tree fox, I am still averaging 38-40km/h in oly distance races. So I geuse I am doing ok on the bike. I definatly accelerate just fine without my feet in my shoes. Most races that I can think of have atleast a 500m ish strech of raod that is fine to put your feet in your shoes on, I normaly am up to about 90% race pace atleast before I put my shoes on, I put one on, pedal back up to speed, put the other on.

Though like Plainsman said, I race in speedplay too, try running in those metal bad boys. Its like running on ice, the chance of going down is alot higher for me cus I see my transition times as the kind of thing that I can make or loose alot of time in(a minute or less can decide a race). So I run through them.

[Treefox]

Tree fox, I am still averaging 38-40km/h in oly distance races. So I geuse I am doing ok on the bike. I definatly accelerate just fine without my feet in my shoes. Most races that I can think of have atleast a 500m ish strech of raod that is fine to put your feet in your shoes on, I normaly am up to about 90% race pace atleast before I put my shoes on, I put one on, pedal back up to speed, put the other on.

Though like Plainsman said, I race in speedplay too, try running in those metal bad boys. Its like running on ice, the chance of going down is alot higher for me cus I see my transition times as the kind of thing that I can make or loose alot of time in(a minute or less can decide a race). So I run through them.

Fair enough on the metal cleats. But excepting that, how long does it take to put on shoes? Five seconds? And then you get the up-pull on the cranks accelerating onto the bike course. And from that logic, one might as well wear a proper pair of road shoes rather than the quickie sort of Tri shoes that most manufacturers put out that don't hold a foot nearly as well (some are better than others, of course).

I almost imagine you could glue scraps of innertube to the edges of a speedplay cleat..... Not the most stylish solution though. And one's friends would laugh about it...

I suppose I also like the psychological advantage of toasting a bunch of people right out of transition. Crush their souls and all that - especially with a good wail of a disc wheel as I go by. :)
(they'll get me back on the run, of course....)

[^*^BATMAN^*^]

The reason you use tri shoes, ESPECIALLY for doing a flying mount/dismount(what I call the whole shoe on the bike thing), is that the straps open oposite. Look at road shoes compared to tri shoes. The tri shoe strap hangs to the outside of the shoe when it is open.

I may be biased, because I am a fairly good cyclist(i suppose a sub 5 hour IM bike allows me to say that), but I still feel that I am faster by doing this. Mentaly or in actuality, i do. I very rarley see anyone in transition with me that doesnt do this though(I am a pretty quick swimmer too, its my run that kills me). So I have never had anyone go by me early into the bike, but I do see what you mean about the quick acceleration to get you up to speed.

This is all my opinion...I have no proof to back it up, other then I dropped a minimum of 30 seconds each transition by doing this. Though I may have gotten faster at changing, cus I started practicing this in the spring before race season, did it on the first race of the year, and everyone since. So it really is up to you. Triathaloning(i can make up words if I want.....:D) is all about having fun, so if doing it one way or another enhances your experience, all the power to ya.

[Plainsman]

Great exchange all, seriously. This has given me a lot to consider, and practice ;)

[^*^BATMAN^*^]

Great exchange all, seriously. This has given me a lot to consider, and practice ;)

If you do a search from some older threads I posted in. I typed up a very detailed explanation on how to do this.

[TysonB]

Yeah, like Plainsman says. thanks Batman and Treefox for an informative discussion. I have been doing tri's for fun periodically for quite a few years. Now that I'm 58, I'm finally considering getting half serious. Tri shoes and how to use them is one of the things I'm considering.

Thanks, again.

Tyson

[joolied]

I have a question - in T1 could you run with your shoes in hand, put them on right at the mount-bike line (or whatever that's called :P), thus avoiding running in bike shoes without a newbie having to figure out how to insert feet into rubber-mounted shoes?
Likewise, in T2 could you take your shoes off immediatly and run back with them in hand?
Would the time, safety and ease of running make up for stopping twice to equip yourself?

[^*^BATMAN^*^]

I think that doing that would be pretty sketchy. No offense, i am assuming that you are more of a middle or back of the pack triathlete, so you would be in the middle of the big rush of people going out of transition. So that would mean that if you were to do that, you would need a place to either lie your bike down/lean against so you could put on your shoes, then get on your bike. I think that it would be the slowest of any option.

That being said, whatever floats your boat dude. If i was to not mount my bike with my shoes on it, I would wear them in transition. Though if thats what you would do, you just take it easy in transition. Dont run so much as jog, and watch your steps so you dont take a spill.

[H2Row]

Well I suppose that if you are pretty good at putting your feet into your shoes while riding then you won't lose too much time - I think it would just be a good thing to practive that before though.

[^*^BATMAN^*^]

Oh, practice your arse off before racing. Like I said earlier, I didnt practice enough, and I had a wicked crash because of it.

[Coach Ice]

What about for dismounting and shoes dragging? I have lost a shoe twice after I dismounted and the shoe hit the ground and was knocked out of the clips.

Also, in the HIM I did 3 weeks ago, my brain melted down and I forgot to unstrap my shoes before the dismount line. I stood there foolishly and took my shoes off and carried them back to the rack. Too much blood going to the muscles and not enough to the brain.

[^*^BATMAN^*^]

Coach, I have never seen this happen. Though I can imagine it COULD happen.

hahaha, sounds like fun at the HIM. Just be happy its warm enough to race, it was a balmy 23(-5c) degrees here today. Up from the -13(-25c) it was a couple days ago