jschjol

Hi - this is my first post and I'm very new to the world of bicycle mechanics so bare with me. I'm having some trouble installing toe clips on my platform pedals. They look very similar to the ones in this picture:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/images/pedals-dx.jpg

As you can see, the top/front of the pedal kind of hangs over the holes where you would attach a toe clip. Does this mean that you can't put toe clips on these pedals or am I missing something?

Thank you in advance for you help!

toolboy

Not designed for toe clips (unless you are a creative problem solver!) The little studs sticking up from the pedal are designed to sink into the sole of your shoe and hold your foot on the pedal. They may be sufficient.

Habu2112

I would agree. Your best bet is to buy different pedals. Bontrager makes two different levels of pedals with toe clips already installed. I think you could score a pair for $35 at the high end. See your local Trek dealer, or just go clipless.

jschjol

Great - thanks for your help. That's what I suspected but since I'm new to this stuff I wanted to make sure there wasn't some trick to it that I wasn't aware of. I'll get new pedals for now and maybe go clipless at a later date.

igor441

I guess I am a creative problem solver, as I just accomplished this very task with identical pedals. I used size 10-32 bolts about an inch long to attach the toe clips. Use two extra nuts and washers to clamp one end of the bolt to the clip, the other end to the reflector mounting holes in the pedal. Works fine for me.
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No_Minkah

What's that about?

mactheknife68

Trek dealers carry Bontrager componentslike the pedals he was recommending to OP. Answer yer question?

MichaelW

I find that MKS make the best pedal for toe-clip use. Their Sylvian touring model is very popular.

TallRider

I also would say that converting the existing platform pedals (designed for downhill or freeride applications, I think) isn't worth it - you can get a cheap set of toeclip-compatible pedals for $15-20. Here are a couple of cheap examples: #1
#2
#1 is nicer and slightly more expensive. You can get pedals like this at your LBS also. And yeah, MKS makes very nice pedals, probably better than #1 linked here.

mactheknife68

My $0.02... Never liked clips/straps, nor recommended them. Im totally biased toward clipless but if a cust. doent want to shell out $$ for pedals/shoes, I steer them toward mini-clips. Basically a toe clip without the strap but with a heavier duty/stiffer toe box. Provides a more stable platform but much safer in a emergency than having a strap cinched around yer shoe. You can do the same thing obviously by removing the straps on existing clip but unless you have metal clips, most pedals have flimsy plastic that arent very stiff. Ditto timcupery..$15-20 + $4-9for miniclips= Better solution overall.

TallRider

Right now I'm running Power Grips on my commuter bike, and I like them okay. But I am a fan of real toeclips for commuting purposes, because you can use them with any shoes. I like to be able to tighten them down, and even when tehy're tightened down, I've never had a problem being able to get my feet out when I need to. I don't like the strapless toeclips because they don't give much of a positive lock of my feet into the pedals.
That said, if your commute or other riding are such that it wouldn't be inconvenient for you to use clipless pedals, do go for that.

Landgolier

hmm...couple of issues...

The pedals you have now weren't designed for clips, you can kludge a solution and make it work but those are just kind of the wrong tool for the job. I would run powergrips with them if anything.

MKS sylvan touring pedals are great, they're like the steel rat traps that came on every 70s/80s road bike ever, only high quality. But I wouldn't reccomend them for someone new to clips, as they don't have any little tab or anything to help you kick in. I run them and can get in ok most of the time, but in shoes without much tread it can really be a pain. If you don't have super-wide feet the road or even the track versions will probably do you better, as will some of those performance pedals somebody linked. If you do get the touring version, you might want to put a little bolt in one or both of the other set of reflector/clip mount holes to give yourself something with a little traction. There is some aftermarket thing that somebody on here showed me, too, but bolts seem to work fine.

Sheldon thinks strapless toeclips are way jingus, I've never run them but I can't see how they'd do much for you, but then again I only run clips and straps on a fixed gear so my needs are different.

dbg

I use toe clips for commuting and would expect to do the same for heavy touring. I never try to cinch down the straps preferring to leave them loose. They basically provide a cage to keep my feet from slipping off the pedals but allow quick exit when necessary. For light touring (only kind I've ever done) and road training it's clippless all the way. Clipless is really worth checking out.

I think you could easily adapt your clips for those pedals using the creative suggestions from previous posters.

grolby

What everyone else said - if your pedals look like that, they aren't toe-clippable.

By the way, those are not platform pedals, they are plain pedals.

https://sheldonbrown.com/gloss_p.html#platform