Originally Posted by
matimeo
Not at all true in my case. Knee pain issues began because I have difficulty keeping my legs lined up so they track correctly. Getting clipless pedals to hold my feet exactly in place the entire ride has eliminated problems so severe that I couldn't ride for almost a year. I know that isn't the case for everyone, but it isn't true to generalize it for everyone.
Fair enough, but thus my use of the phrase "more likely". You're much more likely to get knee/foot/leg pain from using clipless than not. But "likely" is the important word, it's interesting that two people (also [MENTION=374530]winston63[/MENTION]) started using clipless and assumably used some sort of bike fitter and the knee pains went away. I'm not trying to say it never happens, but it's the minority of people for whom it works that way. I've heard that happening 1 previous time, but in addition to personal experience, the experience of people I know, I also see a far larger number of "how do I solve x-pain now that I switched to clipless?" threads as well.
There's a huge difference between "occassionally clipless can improve leg pain for some people" and claiming that it typically does.