Originally Posted by
njkayaker
The use of toeclips that matches clipless is to use shoes with cleats and tighten the toeclip straps. Clipless is much, much easier to use than doing that. Once clipped- or strapped-in, the two have the same performance benefit.
The biggest difference between really tight toe straps and clipless is safety. Being able to twist and escape versus having to really struggle to pull your foot out ... got my leg run over by a truck. No joke.
The other big difference is that it can be a real pain to get your foot into a tight towe-strap set-up. I sometimes find myself using my toe-clip pedals as flats across intersections, because I don't have to time and concentration to work my foot into the straps before the light changes.
The small downsides I see to clipless are less adjustability (I can twist my foot any way I want inside my toe-clips) and the occasional difficult dismount---I have seen experienced riders go down because of a sticky cleat. (On the other hand, I have fallen because my toes got hung up in the straps.)