It seems I'm a freak; I've never come across anyone else who shares my philosophy of cycling...

The closest I've seen folks get is the minimalist courier-inspired fixie peeps; and after that craze died down it sadly appears they were mostly just bandwagoners without any deep appreciation for what they were doing. I'd hoped some subset of them would be bitten by the speed bug and come around to my way of thinking, that the ultimate expression of cycling is embodied by Shimano's toeclip pedals from the 80s:



The idea is to get a no-compromise race bike, and compromise it just enough so you can just hop on it and go, with no mucking around with shoes and lycra. But since the advent of clipless pedals, it's quite apparent that virtually nobody shares this idea with me... I've been a mechanic for five years, and in that time I've seen exactly one high-end race bike rocking toeclips that wasn't mine.

Here's my weapon of choice, BTW:



This thing obviously depends on a destination that doesn't require locking up outside, not to mention trips short enough that I don't need a drink, and reasonable proximity to train lines in the event I get a flat, but those parameters suit my purposes just fine. This bad boy weighs 6.68kg, and as far I'm concerned, is the only way to fly.

So anyway, having had my pedals dissed in the Hot r Not thread over in the Road forum, it reminded me of something I've pondered from time to time - if I want to go one better, do I have to make my own pedals?

Did every company in the world just completely give up on making toeclip pedals sexy once clipless was a thing?