Alekhine

Same here. I wear clipless both when I'm grocery shopping for the week and when I'm on a fully loaded tourer (4 panniers and the entire rear rack covered with camping gear), and have no trouble getting in or out. It's second nature.

I've also had 2 wipe-outs since going clipless in 2002, one of which landed me in the hospital last July, but in neither one of them did I end up "sticking" to my bike when I hit the ground, and neither were caused by pedal disengagement reaction time. I instinctively unclipped just fine. Even though I have assured my girlfriend that they are safe, she still calls them "pedals of death." Oh well.

I know I had trepidations when first buying the things, and based on this I suspect that they do tend to scare off a lot of people the way they did me, but I'm not trying to sell them to anyone*, so I'm not going to belabor the point or get into a "pepsi vs. coke" thing about it.

I'm also spandex-less and greatly prefer riding in everyday clothing. I don't think the clipless thing is by necessity part of the cycling fashion scene or only meant to be enjoyed by the racing crowd. They are functional enough for any kind of riding, IMO.


*Addendum: Not that it's happening here in this thread (!), but I do find it tremendously funny how people can get into heated arguments over products in much the same way sports fans support their favorite teams to the very brink of bitterness. I was reading this negative review on the Aeron chair earlier, and I was laughing myself silly at the comments section because a few folks out there seem to quite literally take offense when something they've bought is maligned or criticized by someone else. I've seen it plenty on these forums too about this or that bike thing being sold out there. Our corporate overlords must be so pleased at this behavior.