Originally Posted by
bhop
I don't get why you don't want to be clipped in while you're accelerating through traffic. That's when being clipped in seems to help me the most...
I've noticed that if you wait with your 'foot off' side in the down position, you should make sure the part of the pedal you want your foot to land on is facing the ground. In your case, the platform side. When the crank moves to the up position when taking off, your foot should land on the platform side. I've reached the point where I check every time I stop to make sure my cleat side is facing the ground so i'll clip in automatically and it seems to work usually.
That's a good tip, I'm going to have to try it.
With my normal SPD shoes and combination platform/clipless pedal it doesn't really matter which side I hit, the shoes will work on either one. The cleats seem to fit nicely between the edges of the platform if I should end up on that side of the pedal. And I guess I've never saw much of a downside to the shoes clipping in if I hit the mechanism side.
There are certain situations like when I've unclipped and found that I need to go another 20 feet forward or something where I may not really want to clip in again. What it comes down to I think is having the confidence that you can unclip quickly if you need to. If you have that confidence then clipping in won't be a concern.
I will agree with others about powerGrips. They work pretty well for places with lots of starts and stops. You don't get quite the same ability to pull though.