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?

It's a fair question! Even more important, I respect the desire to have a "hot" bike that you can jump on without cycling shoes or lycra. I happen to love SPD cleats, and I have a medical reason for preferring them, but I own lots of bikes, and I keep one bike with toe clips for just this reason. Sometimes I just want a quick ride in whatever I'm wearing.

As for sexy, it's hard to say. I suppose those triangular pedals could be called sexy, but they make me cringe. That's because for some reason, they give me tremendous foot pain. I haven't figured out why, but it doesn't matter. My favorite pedals that take toe clips are the old fashioned rat trap or touring pedals. I can't ride quill pedals because my feet are so wide that the quill jabs the middle of my foot.

Yeah.

There's 2 popular choices...
1. Clipless pedals + shoes
2. Flat pedals with pins + flat shoes with grippy rubber (five tens are the most common)

Toeclips have drawbacks worse than the other options and lack advantages to make up for it.
- For getting your foot out in a emergency it's worse than either clipless or flats
- Getting in and out of the pedal every time your stop is a pain as you have to flip the pedal right side up.
- For convenience you can't beat flats
- The "look"...well...it just sortalost it's "cool" appeal when they stopped using it in racing if you want the racer look it's clipless

I personally used to use clipless but went back to flats because they make riding so much more enjoyable for me, and there's no difference in speed. Some people say there's a difference for racing, I don't race so I don't know about that, but there's not a difference in speed that would make up for the time I have to spend changing shoes on each end. For toeclips I understand the nostalgia appeal but I wouldn't personally recommend toeclips to anyone because I think either flats or clipless do it better depending on what kind of riding you're doing and what your priorities are.

I believe the question is, given that he's going to use toe clips, which pedals are good for the job. I don't think the question was why he should give up on toe clips.

Having ridden for 43 years with either toe clips or cleats, I'm uncomfortable without one or the other, even with whatever disadvantages they have.

No, but you are likely not interested in the kinds of companies that do.
not being at a prestige level .

The question is pretty specific - it seems nobody ever made anything sleeker than Shimano's 80s toeclip pedals, and if I want something like that in carbon, I have to make it myself, right?

Not a big deal to me; no harder than unclipping and clipping in. At the lights, I just trackstand.

Getting my foot out in an emergency isn't slow, because I generally don't have the straps very tight. In fact, without the clips and straps, I just don't feel safe; no foot retention seems sketchy to me.

I have found that "strapless" toe clips are very convenient, especially for keeping my feet in the right place on the pedals. Since they don't have straps, it's about as easy as flat pedals to get out of them quickly. You can't pull up on them much, and they're not terribly good looking, but they are cheap!

Many single-sided pedals meant for use with toe clips have a little tab that sticks up when the weight of the toe clip hangs down. If you tap the tab with your toe, the toe clip flips right up so your foot can slide in. Once you're used to it, it's no harder than clipping in on a clipless pedal (even not looking down!).
EDIT: This tab is visible on the OP's pedal!

Dynadrive was Shimano's exclusive thing , wouldn't want to commute on something Irreplacable

I've always liked the traditional quill pedals -- Campagnolo SL, Atom 700, modern repros by MKS. But, I acquired a Myata 1000 not too long ago that has SR SP155 pedals which are very unsexy and look like they were designed for Herman Munster, but darn, they work well and are very comfortable. Will handle some pretty wide feet, I'd say. Here's what they look like:

My favorite traditional style repro
quill pedal. I don't know how sexy they are, but they are nicely made and attractive and work well. Inexpensive, too.

Yes, indeed. If you practice, you can get your foot into the pedal without looking down and without slowing the pedal stroke. Start off with the clipped foot and when the pedal comes around, insert your other foot and off you go. Faster than stopping your pedal stroke to snap in a clipless, I think.

I mean...needing to do trackstands to avoid the hassle of getting in and out of the pedals is the kind of thing I was talking about.

Sounds like you're trying to work around the drawbacks of straps by keeping the straps loose.

For the "low hassle" crowd or the "not willing to take any risk of my foot getting stuck on the pedal" crowd like myself flats work very well. Flats with pins and five ten shoes solve any "slip on the pedal" issues and you have a rock solid connection to the pedal without the hassle of clipless.
For the "don't care about the hassle" crowd I can see the appeal of clipless and being physically connect to the pedals in a way it's pretty much impossible to slip out of even when wildly sprinting etc. It's not what I personally prefer but I can understand the appeal.
Straps and toe clips ended up in an awkward area with worse drawbacks than either system, without any advantage over them. Clipless just does the "complete connection to the pedal" thing better. Flats + pins + grippy shoes do the "lowest hassle, fastest and easiest disconnect in an emergency/crash" better.

Your original question was "Did every company in the world just completely give up on making toeclip pedals sexy once clipless was a thing?". I was trying to describe why the answer is "yes". There just wasn't much market left for them.

What's a 'quill' and why are they 'quill pedals' or 'quill stem'?

If you look at the picture of the MKS Sylvan road pedal I posted above, on the right end of the pedal, you will see a protrusion pointing up. That is what I always thought was the quill for which the pedal is named. Tom up above says quill pedals are typically so narrow that the his shoe doesn't stay inside the quill and the quills pain his feet. My wag is that Tom thinks about quills as I do. But looking over the internet, it appears that the term includes all sorts of pedals, including the likes of MKS touring pedals, that don't have what Tom and I thought was the quill. So, it seems that any parallel plate rat trap type pedal is a quill pedal inclucing traditional road pedals like Campagnolo, etc. What the quill on those pedals is, I don't know, unless it refers to the serrated edges.

A quill stem is a stem with a prong that enters a tube and has some sort of jam wedge or cone to secure the stem to the inside of the steerer. Threaded headsets take quill stems. I guess the metaphor is to a porcupine quill with a securing barb.

Toeclips were really designed for cleated shoes.

Once the cleated shoes migrated to clipless, that left the toeclips in the commuter and city riding realm. And, perhaps a few intro bikes that are too cheap to go clipless.

I kept my toe clips on the bike for years before going clipless. About 15 or 20 years ago, I realized that the metal toeclips were scratching my shoes, while plastic clips tended to be easier on the shoes (although not always made with rounded edges). So, I put on all plastic clips.

Of course, the clips can be either colored plastic... or painted or powdercoated metal.

Lyotard “Marcel Berthet “ pedals are hands down the "sexiest" toe clip pedal. Everything else is just bits of metal. The MKS Urban Platform is similar without the panache. The White Industries Urban Platform has the panache and price.

Add either full wire toe clips or half wire toe clips and they are almost sexy enough to get me to use them. Just just "almost".

But if you are going to spring for the White pedals, you have to use King Cage clips on them.

I appreciate the OP's passion for clips, but not the ones in the picture! I had them on one of my bikes, but they definitely didn't feel as good underfoot as more traditional pedals and clips (see below). Something about the shape didn't support my foot well either, and it was uncomfortable.

As a matter of fact, I just removed a set of Shimano 600's like the ones the OP has, that came on the bike with the cranks pictured below. I replaced them with a set of Gipiemme pedals and some black Cinelli clips I found on ebay for 10 bucks. Since I'm using them to commute in the city, which means frequent stops, I don't use straps. Getting in and out of them is easy, and they do help your foot stay planted and consistently placed on the pedal.

Ah, that metaphor kind of makes sense. Maybe the nubbin sticking up on the end of a pedal is a different metaphor, reminiscent of the tip of a quill (feather) pen?

I always thought the "quill" was the little tab to the outside of the pedal that looks like a quill pen nub. But the "quill" is the bit on the bottom of the rear plate that allows you to flip the pedal up to get into the clips.

While desconhecido's theory about the porcupine quill is interesting, I think the "quill" has more to do with the way that quill stems are cut at the bottom for the wedge. It gives them a quill pen like appearance.

Ah yes, without the expansion bolt, the diagonal cut on the bottom of a quill stem does look like a quill pen

Would then Cinelli and Gary Burgess (et al) not be quill stems?

? I have a GB stem on one of a couple bikes with threaded headsets, and as far as I recall, it has an expansion bolt driven by a diagonal cut just like any other

I've not seen every GB stem, but don't recall ever having seen one with a wedge rather than a cyclindrical expansion nut. Here are a couple (Raleigh used them on a lot of bikes). Two different styles. The bog standard was on a Super Course, the one labeled "forged" on a late 70s Grand Prix.

I think some to even most people would still call them "quill" stems, although "quill" is falling out of favor generally. Most people are just as likely to call them threaded stems to differentiate from threadless stems. At my co-op, we have a bin of threadless stems and a bin of threaded stems.

I would say the same is happening in terms of quill pedals. Most people are just going to classify them as clipless and platform or even just clipless and "regular" pedals.