I agree. Im think they (c-less)offer a little pull in areas
you are not used to when you first put them on
so there is an illusion of extra power. With correct
spin technique platforms can be just as 'fast'.

Ever seen a picture from one of the countries where LOTS of people commute? Last time I saw a picture from Amsterdam there was nary a clip or bike shoe in sight. PLATFORMS RULE in the real world. : )

They also ride heavy bikes with chainguards and other accessories which make them convenient but also not designed to be ridden more than 15 or more miles at a time (I am not necessarily talking about fenders here). If I had a commute of 10 miles (one way) or less I would not bother with the clipless pedals but for my application they do indeed help. I doubt you would see the dutch cycling team using platforms.

You need to attack the problem with the right tools. For short errands, it does not matter what the bike weighs, but the convenience is key.
For fast or longer rides, the tools change with the longer you are on the bike continuously.

And last I checked, I did not live in Amsterdam, so my real world is different. :)

If Phoenix was laid out and designed like most European cities I would be hard pressed to find a commute over 10 miles. Unfortunately I live in the real world as it pertains to me.

Wouldn't it be fun to see how all those single speed Amsterdam bikes would do in a hilly city such as San Francisco? It would seem the "Real World" is highly dependant on geography and local government
planning.

There, I have said my piece, to each their own.

+1...

besides, I've busted me elbow ten years ago not clipping out of my mountain bike fast enough...

never again.

Always a thread to answer to question or raise more questions.

I had SPD's on my Mountain Bike. Just getting back into it commuting after a nasty wreck. The commuter has clipped with cheap plastic toe clips and nylon straps. They are driving me nuts. The plastic toe clip bends in the wind and the nylon just doesn't want to stay open.

I am leaning towards pulling them off and replacing with M520's at $50 vs. getting a good pair of "MKS Touring Lites" plus toe clips and straps = + $70.00.

I don't see any benefit in performance for me, but I do see that I am going to bust my tail end trying to slip the foot into a flaky toe clip at intersections and possibly wobbling around. Or pedaling on the bottom side of the pedal with the toe clips doing the scrape, scrape, scrape thing until across the intersection.

Convenience? If I was going to be making short runs on the bike I would go for the platform. I'm not, close to home I would have to major lock up the bike or it would be gone in no time.

Any thoughts on safety and speed of clipping in vs toe clips or plain platforms. I would vote for the platform w/o toe clips as far as speed and convenience wearing any type shoe. From my mountain bike experience I had good luck with the clipless

I put some MKS sylvan pedals on a bike that I intended to use for "around town" errands and couldn't get used to it after years of using clipless. For me, clipless is superior in every way to platforms, except the requirement for special shoes.

Someone needs to design a clipless pedal with a true recessed cleat. I'm tired of the clacking around with SPD-type shoes.

Platforms here, will never use anything else for city riding.

For me at least, toe clips or clipless does not gain me the ability to add power by pulling up, they just keep my feet firmly on the pedal so that my trailing leg can take its weight off the pedal without slipping off. The trailing leg isn't helping, it's just getting out of the way.
With platforms, you need to maintain a little pressure on the trailing foot to keep the foot on the pedal.
For me it doesn't matter if I'm using toe clips or clipless, either works OK for me.
I've never fallen due to either clipless or toe clips but that's because I have good control of the bike during the summer.

However, in the winter I'm just as happy to go to no clips at all because if I'm really wallowing through deep rutted snow, the bike spins out from under me fairly often and I want my foot to just go straight to the ground. Last time I rode, on Monday, I probably would have fallen a half dozen times in clips or clipless, because I was wallowing through probably 10 inches of mushed-up crap that was badly rutted, and the bike just went out from under me with no warning several times. So for me, in the winter, plain old platforms are the way to go.

Actually it was city riding that convinced me to get some toe clips. I was in front at a light with an F250 behind me in heavy rain. When the light turned green, I stepped on it and my shoes slipped off the pedals. The truck nearly hit me. I decided that in those conditions, it was a safety feature to have my feet firmly attached to my pedals.

Campus/Rodeo pedals from Nashbar. Clipped in power when you need it and fast on the pedal when you need that. I wouldn't commute with anything else.

MKS platform pedals, no toe clips, Keen Venice sandals, wool socks. This setup works great all year round for commuting and all the other bike riding I do. I am 53 and ride 5K to 6K miles per year, and don't have any knee pains or other bike related aches and pains. Comfort trumps speed for me, but honestly platform pedals with Keen sandals doesn't make any difference in my speed compared to any kind of clip in pedal.

Riding clipless in the city is like driving a manual transmission. It's more hardcore, but in stop-and-go traffic it can be a pain.

Thankfully, bikes have the freedom to move ahead in clogged traffic. But stoplights and stopsigns every 100 ft or so is painful. Nonetheless, I roll with platforms. But, I'll purchase a roadbike this year for commuting etc. and they'll have clipless.

After fiddling around with shoe covers for the last two years, I've given up and just wear regular boots when it rains (which is pretty much all winter around here). My pedals are flat on one side, spd on the other, so I can use my bike shoes on dry days, boots on wet days.

One nice thing about lugged sole boots - they stay in place on the flat pedals pretty well.

*anit-clipless zealot chiming in*

I ride pinned BMX pedals on the franken-Breezer xtracycle... you want a pedal that you won't slip off... go with pinned BMX and your foot will not move.

I have cheapo nylon platforms on my recently converted to single-speed Steamroller, boy what a fun bike.

I use MKS touring pedals, with... ahem, Powergrips, on my fixed gear bike. The powergrips are more of a retention device to keep feet on pedals when spinning really fast downhill.

All these bikes see a lot of service in the city. My commute is only about 7-8 miles round trip, and I often hop on and off the bike throughout the day to run errands. I just can't justify wearing special shoes to do all this, even though I have used, and like walkable SPD style mountain shoes and pedals.

This being said, SPD pedals do reside on my tandem, and my LD road bikes.

Use the right tool for the job. I imagine if my commute was, say 30+ miles round trip, I'd probably have a different approach. But even then there really isn't any reason why you should think it is a requirement to ride clipless just because you're putting on longer miles ;)

I had always used some sort of toe clip or cleat and felt I HAD to have them. But then I managed to misplace my cycling shoes, so I climbed on my bike with my sneakers and made it - but hated it that first day! I ended up wearing my sneakers for a couple weeks before I found my cycling shoes again and by then I enjoyed the idea of being able to walk through a grocery store normally or being able to get to work and not having to change shoes the minute I walked through the door. Now I"m considering going clipless on our upcoming tour, but haven't decided yet.

SPDs in the summer, platforms in the winter.

No clips, no clipless or anything fancy here!

I used to use SPD's, but now that I'm riding a folding bike, that's not an option; and I hardly miss them. I also found it's easier to spin and still keep your feet on the pedals if you use short crank arms (I'm using 152's now!).

I guess I should qualify that I can clip in and out of eggbeaters as good as I can use platforms so for me it really is a no brainer. SPDs and such would be a much different story. (and for the record I don't pull up on the pedals either. Just like having my foot attached so I don't need to worry about keeping that slight pressure on the backend of the stroke).

I guess my other reason for clipless is that my commuter bike is my brevet and weekend bike ride bike too. I can't imaging riding 200+ miles in a day on platforms. I tried 40 once with platforms and it was brutal.

Anyone ever use the half clip (Toe clip w/ no strap)?

2 sided Forte Campus pedals. Use the SPD side 95% of the time. The flat side if I don't want to put on my SPD shoes just to run to the store.

I've used them, and I generally like them. Two shortcomings - they rub a hole in the toe of my shoe eventually, and they don't fit when I wear my hiking boots.

I will be switching to BMX pedals as well. They are also more environmentally friendly as there is less miscellaneous stuff that goes along with them.

I'm a big fan of bmx platform pedals with the adjustable pins too (I'm using Kona Jacksh*t pedals). They grip better than any sneaker/toeclip set up I've run and have such a big surface area they don't bother my feet even in soft shoes.

I use clipless pedals on everything else.

++1. Agree. I switched to platform pedals in 2004 on my commute bike, and found the same thing on my approximately 1 hour commute in each direction. I have done time comparisons also on a 34 mile recreational ride loop that has almost no stop signals and some rolling hills, and even on that my time difference between clipless attached pedals and platform unattached pedals is virtually nil.

I like big flat downhill pedals. They grip my big snow boots real nice while my feet are nice and toasty!