Originally Posted by
meanwhile
I'll make the wildcard suggestion: forget pedals that need special shoes and go for BMX pedals. They stick to your feet like glue, give lots more position options, and not even clipless compares to the ease of getting your feet in and out. I'd use them if I ever did courier work again.
As the article on them at Rivendell bikes says, use of clipless pedals is based on something we now ***know*** to be a myth - the idea that good riders can use them to pull up as well as push down. Why keep spending money on something that makes a bike more of a pain to use when the reason we though we had has gone?
Link:
http://www.rivbike.com/article/clothing/the_shoes_ruse
Plus you could add Powergrips or Feetbelts. (Google 'em.)
That is an absolutely ******** article.
While true that you're not going to generate much power from pulling up on the pedals, the point is to unload that pedal as much as possible to maximize efficiency. The article mentions this, and then completely goes off the rails.
When unloading said pedal on normal platforms, there is a fine line between unloading it and lifting your foot off of it, leading to a spectacularly hilarious and tragic accident when you miss putting your foot back on it at speed. This is the reason for the evolution from platforms -> toe clips -> clipless. Each of these represents a step toward more foot retention and away from less, and the article completely misses the fact that if there was no point to retention, and it led to people having a bad time and doing more poorly at races, it would have never been invented or gathered as much popularity as it has.