Originally Posted by
spectastic
I've ridden both clipless and platform pretty extensively. on a lot of my group rides, I've shown up in toe clips and hiking shoes, and people thought I was really strong to still be able to keep up. but to be honest, I don't find any loss in performance riding platform unless I'm accelerating or in an all out sprint, where the upstroke actually plays a role in my pedaling output. And while this is important in competitive situations, I don't believe this is important for casual riding or touring. even when climbing, most of that effort is spinning, until the rider stands up and starts pulling the pedals on the upstroke. So I felt compelled to find some evidence supporting clipless in pedaling efficiency over platform pedals.
Here's a video of them testing clipless and platform
Granted, this experiment with only 1 data point is not too convincing. So I pulled this off of another forum that someone posted. It indicates that while the upstroke does play a role in clipless setups, it actually decreases your mechanical efficiency, which support the idea that the upstroke is only relevant when you're trying to beat someone up a climb or to a finishline/corner - it's not sustainable in a long ride.
What do you think? I feel like the whole argument that clipless being more efficient than platform pedals, while true in certain situations, is mere exaggerated hyperbole in most other situations. Foot retention is also important for a variety of reasons, but platform pedals can do that very well with toe clips (imo) for road riding anyway.
When looking at an experiment of any kind, you should always keep George E.P. Box's in mind: "All models are wrong. Some are useful." Both of these "studies" have flaws as pointed out in the video at about the 7:30 minute point. The video was done under laboratory conditions without the need to react to road conditions. As the rider pointed out, having the ability to pull up on climbs and sprints is important and does make using clipless worthwhile. Touring cyclists may not need to sprint but we do have to climb.
As for the abstract, it isn't kosher to just go grabbing an abstract without providing a reference. We have no way of knowing under what conditions the experiment was performed nor what they are really measuring nor what they are defining.
On a more personal note, you can ride whatever you feel like riding and I'll do the same. I know from my experience that pulling up on the backstroke while climbing greatly enhances my riding. If you don't want to use clipless, don't use them. I would also suggest you try clipless before you poopoo their effectiveness. I've used platforms and don't find anything useful about them in any situation.