Originally Posted by
grolby
My straight-up commuting/city bikes tend to have flat pedals, for sake of convenience. I don't like walking around in bike shoes, even walkable MTB shoes. And I don't bother with foot retention other than clipless, no toe clips or power grips for me. Tried em all, not a fan. But I do have clipless pedals on my road and cyclocross bikes, and I do ride those bikes to work pretty frequently. I keep a spare pair of shoes at work for that reason.
"Unless you're racing" is perhaps the most vacuous, misguided phrase in all of cycling, because it's used to gird all kinds of habits in a kind of defensive rationalism. I've said myself that I keep bikes around without foot retention of any kind, because it can be a pain. But there are plenty of reasons, totally unrelated to racing, that clipless pedals can be a good idea. A big one for me is that clipless pedals can be shimmed and adjusted to compensate for anatomical issues such as leg length differences to prevent or ameliorate injuries as a result. Riding a few slowish miles around the city is fine, but for the bikes that I will be riding for thousands of miles a year, often at high intensity, clipless pedals are a necessity.
Good comments, Grolby.
I use cages and toe clips on my commuter because I use the bike for many different types of trips, in all types of weather, and like to wear whichever shoes I want to wear for my destination. I don't want to carry extra shoes, take the time to change them, or go without the security and power of foot retention, so toe clips are the prime choice for my commuter. A tall toe box clip accommodates even my winter boots, yet can be cinched down on slim cycling shoes if I want to make time over a long ride.
I also ride bikes equipped with clip less (both SPD and 3-bolt) and platforms, and while they're excellent for their intended purposes, they sacrifice versatility.
I've been riding clip less since the late '80s, so the motions are fully automatic; getting out is a no-brainer, getting in only slightly trickier. I rode cage/clips/cleats for awhile back in the mid-'80s, so you wanna talk about hard to get out of...!