Originally Posted by
crhilton
I would love somebody to try and throw numbers on this. If I owned a power tap I'd probably throw the bike on the trainer and ride threshold (by heart rate) for 5 minutes and give you my average power. Then do it with the other pedals. If a half dozen riders did this we could get an idea of what clipless pedals are or aren't doing for us power/efficiency wise.
That wouldn't cover max power, stability, or spinning speed though.
Several problems with the experiment (including motivational bias, placebo effect, and fatigue.) Moreover, I think you'd have to make it much longer, or much shorter. I'd be willing to bet that I could hit pretty close to my 5 minute power with platform pedals, and a fairly rigid shoe. But I'd also bet that there's no way I could do a 4 hour century on platform pedals.
On the other side, I am certain my 5 second power would be substantially lower, given that in a effort like that you're recruiting every muscle fiber you possibly can.