Originally Posted by
16Victor
Can someone define, for the benefit of bike doofuses, what a rattrap is? Twice in the last week, and never before, I found someone referring to old school toe clips as rattraps. In my significant history, these are rattraps:
Please help me fix the world.
my take on it: if you've seen spring-loaded traps (bear, wolf, etc.) opened and set, they have a slight resemblance to what this style pedal looks like: teeth at the edges, pivot in the middle...but since this pedal is small it's more like "rat-sized". And rat-trap is easy to say and almost rhymes...sort of.
I think many novices saw toeclips and straps and were frightened at the idea that their foot would get "trapped" if they ever (foolishly) stuck a toe in there, so the slang term for the pedal got transferred to the clip/strap.
But, I agree: the term refers to a pedal, the use of rat-trap to describe toeclips and straps is a mistake...one that persisted. And I should say I have heard it misused many, many times. The first I can recall was when I was a 14 year old boyscout...and that, my children, was looooong ago.