Originally Posted by
Doohickie
I ride toe clips, no straps. Yeah, sure, missing some power on the upstroke. I don't care. Most of my riding is urban with at least some traffic, so I like not thinking about unclipping.
FWIW, I've seen a couple of experiments using strain gauges to measure up- and downforce on the pedals, and they found that the upstroke contributes almost nothing. People think they're pedaling in circles, but mostly what they do is unweight their feet, and not even that for long.
In my own case, I have bikes with toe clips, Power Grips, clipless and flat BMX pedals, and there's no consistent correlation between what I'm using and how fast I go. But I'm just a gentleman cruiser these days, so YMMV.