breadbin

could have gone awful badly with a fall or whatever but went amazingly well. used to the flat side of a look pedal but monday was lashing rain and my runners kept slipping off the pedal so i decided to go for it and so glad i did.

they arrived this morning, XT spd and i popped them on, got new shoes too and put the cleats on. tried to get them setup right and bit the bullet! didn't expect to fall but it was in the back of my mind. i have to say i did my usual 9 miles and was grinning on the way home thinking i must have shaved off 10 minutes from my usual time. i didn't but i felt like i did which is probably more important.

i think they encourage you to pedal more, i didn't do nearly as much freewheeling and the hill at the end was an absolute doddle! got a small bit of cramp in my feet getting into the shower but nothing to write home about. heres my old worn out looking 'Looks'

My retired #look #pedals by evildiesel, on Flickr

jyl

If you fall, it'll be on the second or third ride, when you're feeling comfortable and stop thinking about your pedals . . . that's my experience.

breadbin

i'll let you know today how i get on

scrming

and i'm pretty sure everyone falls at least once...

Willbird

I used them years ago on my second time around as an adult cyclist, never FELL but I DID yank a foot OUT of a shoe once :-).

I have 1700+ miles on them this summer, I did not go long without them, where I am in "danger" is when something out of the ordinary throws me a wild pitch :-).

I was going to roll a remote country stop sign one day then I noticed a car parked along side the road, a POLICE car...and I braked suddenly, unclipped the left foot (my natural foot to unclip one foot for some reason) and leaned RIGHT :-), I did not go down but it was close :-).

I guess to me "clipless" means "no straps and cages".....I would have counted the Looks into the "clipless" category ??

I know people evolve as cyclists, and we should never say "never"....but I do not see myself ever going away from a fairly flush system that you can walk decent in. I may look for a very stiff flush system though :-). I have heard of some makers that just add some lugs to a very good road shoe to make it a flush system.

Bill

scrming

I was kind of curious about the picture of the "LOOK" peals myself... i certainly considered them clipless... i actually had a couple sets a very very long time ago... back when you foot was fixed, with no "float" so you had to make sure your cleat was perfectly aligned on your shoe! And then i remember when they came out with the pedals that allowed a few degrees of float... had to upgrade to those! In fact i have a pile of junk parts in the shed and i just seen the LOOK pedals the other day...

And agree... the recessed/flush cleat is the only way to go!!! No more goofy walking around or putting plastic protectors on your cleats when you get off the bike!

Willbird

The walk of shame with road shoes and non flush cleats must be extremely shameful ?? hehehe

breadbin

sorry for the confusion, yes i would also consider the LOOK pedals clipless but as i was just wearing a pair of trainers cycling i'm using the underside as a regular platform pedal. this is the first time really in years that i used the actual clipping mechanism

i bought a pair of road shoes to use with the LOOK a while back but did not use them. i love the new shoes these days that have the cleat recessed too. makes a world of difference!

Willbird

So indeed you were "going clipless" :-).........I am naturally dazed and confused, my hair is blonde going to grey, the blonde is a code :-).

Riding platforms now just feels so "weird and disconnected" :-).

Black wallnut 

I use speedplay pedals and have keep-on covers over the cleats. Sure they are somewhat funky to walk on but when I am on my bike I am not walking, except for maybe into a cafe or the LBS. My time wearing my biking shoes is over 90% on the bike, 9% sitting on a bar stool or restaurant chair and less than 1% walking. I enjoy the support the pedals give me on rides over 40 miles. On the CX bike I have egg beaters and the cleat is a bit recessed, they are great for the use of cx racing but are still not what I would call comfortable for walking in. With either pedal system I sometimes jump on in my running shoes and ride for a short distance. My Schwinn hybrid has mtn bike platform pedals and will stay that way, but I hve no plans to either race it or go on rides longer than a couple miles at a time or at most a 7.5 mile commute. If the recessed cleats are your best option great! I'm just saying that it is worth the time to think it through as true road pedals do have benefits worth considering. Oh yeah and I have close, almost tipped over almost often enough to stay humble.

Willbird

Lake shoes were the ones mentioned by another Clyde here as being basically a nice stiff road shoe with enough stuff glued on to make the sole flush with the cleat. I sent him a PM asking him which shoes he had but he must not stop by here much as I got no reply.

He was giving away another set of shoes due to finding some Lake ones he liked.

I ride a lot in the mornings due to working second shift, the wife is at work, if I have a major mechanical failure most days I could end up walking 8 miles to get home :-)......I really do not want to do that with a domino glued to the ball of each foot, more or less :-). I have never HAD to do that, but if the zombie hordes DO attack, options are always a good thing :-).

Bill

Willbird

These are the shoes that the person I was referring to ended up with, may not be avail here in the states...

Lake MX236C Carbon Sole SPD MTB Shoes

mprelaw

And when you do, you'll discover that a 0 mph fall only hurts your pride.

Willbird

Having once rolled a 750 Honda off the center stand and onto my foot, I'll take the 0 mph fall off the bike:-) as opposed to recovering from that faux pas gracefully :-)

fmt_biker

As mentioned previously, if it happens it will be on the 2nd -3rd ride. Mine was on my 3rd, zero mph and it hurt more than my pride, but if I had been wearing cycling gloves I would have been fine I switched to them 3 years ago, and i use them for all my road/light mountain riding. For single track riding, I still prefer regular pedals.

Covanant

Lol,my first fall was my third ride when I was slowing at a traffic light.chatting with a buddy.just fell over on my side in front of a lot of traffic!
had a good laugh out of it tho.

andr0id

Yes, that is the normal terminology. You used to have pedals, cages and straps which were referred to as toe clips.

You would ride your new leather soled cycling shoes for a while until the back edge of the pedal left a clear mark on the bottom of the shoe.
Then you would like up the cleat which was just a metal bit with a slot in it along the mark and nail it down. Then flip back the tongue and bend over any bits of nails stickup up through the sole.

Diadora was the king of cycling shoes then.

adrien

That would be me. Not here as often anymore as I tend to hang out more in road forums and over on Velocipede (I have a bit of a handmade bike habit).

So, some thoughts for you guys on this one, prompted by PM. In no particular order:

- unless you want to go nuts, if you have more than one regular bike (I have 3 -- fixed, road, and MTB), odds are you'll want one set of shoes with a standard set of cleats, using whatever system works for you
- all the systems have advantages and disadvantages. Roadies will tell you the engagement, amount of surface contact and generally stiffness (more on that in a sec) and hotspot minimization are better with road cleats (like the Look system, or Speedplays, or the Shimano systems, or Time…). MTB guys will tell you (and they are right, too) that you can actually walk in MTB and cross shoes, and that the syetms are MUCH better with dealing with snow, dirt, or anything really getting in there
- Individual feet and issues vary
- the advantages of each can be accentuated and the disadvantages minimized

For me, I am lucky in that I don't have foot issues and have never had hot spots. I also do like to walk, and have never wiped out (though most all of my buddies do). Finally, I like a REALLY stiff shoe, with a lot of contact.

What I have settled into is a refined compromise:
- I have Lake shoes as my primary, and older Time shoes as backup. Both are very stiff, carbon-soled and modified road shoes (with MTB cleats and pontoons to allow walking). Others to look at -- Sidi, Spesh (both nice, but don't fit me right)
- On my road bike, I have "platform SPD" pedals. Specifically, VX. they are heavier, but have a mice platform which, combined with the cleat and a super-stiff sole, allows for great engagement: First Look: VP Components VX Series Clipless Pedals - Features - Vital MTB

…bottom line is everything is a compromise. This one, so far, works well for me.

Willbird

I really like the system some lake shoes use to tighten the laces , looking at it anyway it looks cool.

adrien

Boa -- used extensively in cross-country ski shoes. It's very cool and tightens very quickly and evenly across the foot. Some Lake shoes also tighten the heel at the same time, using the same adjustment.

ckFoxTrot

I have the Specialized Comp Road shoes with this, works very well.

It's great that you like your new pedals breadbin, hope you can avoid that fall most of us experience!

I fell twice early on with mine. For the first fall, I simply forgot about the pedals when I arrived home. Coming to a gentle stop I pulled my foot up, causing me to tip over. When it happened I was more concerned about my bike than anything, which led me to try to protect the bike I guess and absorb all the impact of my 6'2" and (then) 230lb frame falling over. I scraped up my leg and bruised my hip a bit, but the personal embarrassment was the worst of it. The second time, I was riding a path through a park for the first time. Coming out of the park and up to the road I didn't expect the sidewalk to have a hard, square curb, leading me to panic brake and tip over. Scuffed my jersey a bit but nothing else (again, except for the embarrassment). I'm sure both were good learning experiences, the first cementing in my mind the fact that I am attached to the bike, the second teaching me how to better handle unexpected stops.

intransit1217

Oh god. Unclipping one side and falling the other? The worst.

scarleton

same here, I have Speedplay on my Surly Pacer and love them. When I am not riding I put the keep-on covers on them. What I find interesting is that it doesn't feel funny to walk around in them, don't have a clue what I look like though, you would have to ask my wife in that one

Willbird

I read in a book about Jet Fighter pilots working from an Aircraft carrier....the one guy said if you drove the jet off the deck what killed you was the realization "yes I am indeed THAT stupid" hehe. The same kinda though went through my mind when I unclipped left while leaning right :-).

intransit1217

Whenever it happened to me it was because I was distracted for a split second. DOH!