Originally Posted by
Steely Dan
but that's assuming that the only reason anyone would ever ride with clipless pedals is for the 5-10% efficiency gain. as i said before, i ride with clipless not for any specific speed or efficiency gain, i ride them because i absolutely LOVE the feeling of being locked onto the bike. it's all about the man-machine meld that occurs when you have a solid, permanent connection between foot and pedal. i feel more stable, secure, and in control of the bike knowing that i have a hard-point connection to it at my feet.
and the fact that i lock in and out of my pedals dozens of times everyday along my commute means that i can do it in my sleep. it is a completely second nature, "don't even have to think about it", action for me to lock in and out of my pedals, so there's really no inconvenince to riding clipless pedals now that i'm completely accustomed to them. all of my bikes are now equipped with clipless pedals because there's just no other way to ride in my opinion.
others will of course have a different opinion, which is fine, but clipless pedals are not exclusively about speed and efficiency gains.
Your comment about the feel of clipless is very much to the point; it's not ultimately about performance at all, is it? I gave SPDs a sincere try, even using them on a couple of tours, and they performed well enough not to disappoint me, but I just couldn't warm up to them, mostly because on a very visceral level,
I just don't like feeling like I'm stuck to the bike. I like to have my feet unable to slip off the pedals, but the whole bike/human cyborg thing just makes me feel uncomfortable, no matter how much practice I get with clipping in and out.
I'm sure at this point that clipless pedals will never quite work for me,, but I don't agree with Grant Peterson's assertion that clipless pedals are one of the greatest frauds ever foisted on bicyclists; they clearly work really well for a lot of people. I just wish that some cyclists could be more realistic about their advantages. Last year I tried to sign up for an organized tour in Spain, but opted out after I was informed that clipless pedals were required for the trip, as if other kinds of pedals were totally unsafe.