Originally Posted by
njkayaker
Pretty-much every piece of equipment (except one) provides a small benefit.
If the drawbacks outweigh the benefits, then it doesn't make sense. No one should care about whether clipless doesn't work for you.
Right...
Originally Posted by
njkayaker
?? Your first post mentioning "ego" said nothing about people "freaking out" over negative comments about clipless.
Here, you manage to attribute merely having clipless as being "mostly about status and ego". If that's not what you meant, your words fail to convey what you meant.
I looked back, and you're right, I apologize, I got a little confused about which post was which.
I wasn't trying to say that having clipless is mostly about status and ego, but that the defensiveness and controversy that shows up is. However, again, I apologize that looking back the wording in my 2nd post could have easily been read that way.
Originally Posted by
njkayaker
And, it's quite likely that very few people using clipless actually "freak out" over negative comments about them. You should probably wait until people actually "freak out" before complaining about them freaking out.
There's always
a few people who do. I think the "carwash job" guy qualifies.
However, from what you're saying, looking back, it could be some of those people interpreting my post in a way I hadn't meant.
But.
I wrote this:
I must have spend at least $1,000 on shoes and pedals trying to get something that worked. Now I have about $150 for the flat shoes and flat pedals and it's far, far more enjoyable to ride. (If you don't have this problem, what I'm saying doesn't apply to you obviously.)
And I got a response like this:
Sorry fitting your feet has been so problematic but it's kind of counter-productive to use that as an excuse to minimize a terrific technological development...
That's ridiculous and what I was talking about, to jump into that it's "minimizing a terrific technological development"...I do think that's absurd. That's what I was meaning to refer to with the ego thing, that I would say that stopping using clipless made the foot pain go away and someone says you shouldn't say that because it's "minimizing a terrific technological development" like it's an ideology you're never supposed to say anything bad about no matter how true.
Originally Posted by
njkayaker
You may have meant that but you did not say that.
That's fair. I was not trying to say that, but rereading I can see how it could be read that way in my 2nd post. But I think that it's gotten way over the top trying to keep anyone from saying that flats work well as well.
If someone had their foot slip on flats, and went to clipless and liked them, that's cool. If someone had their foot slip on flats and got better flats and better shoes and that worked, that's cool. But when someone (me in this case) has foot issues with clipless and went to flats and looked back and said "wow I sure wasted a lot of money trying out a large number of clipless solutions" and the response is to insist they're "minimizing a terrific technological development" or to claim that's stupid...that's absurd.
Neither good flat pedals or clipless is "bad", I think pushing the idea that only clipless works well for most people riding (not racing) has gotten absurd. In both personal opinion and personal experience having tried it.