LBlue

So, I am not a totally beginner biker. I have done a few tours (usually something like 400-500 miles in a week or so). A little bit of mountain biking. Mostly commuting. I have ridden old vintage road bikes, mountain bikes, junk bikes, and nice bikes. But, I have never really gotten "into" the gear thing. For example, pedals. I have always just used the platform pedals that were always already on whatever bike I had at the time. On one bike I added toe clips.

Anyway, I have now bought myself a NICE bike. Well, it is NICE by my standards. I got a K2 Enemy CX, chosen as I will be commuting to work 16+ miles round trip, very hilly, on not-so-wonderfully-maintained roads. I am pretty much excited, definitely the nicest bike I have ever had. Well, I guess anything really would be an improvement of my previous "nicest bike I have had" bike, which was a 1977 Schwinn Super Le Tour. In any event, this bike is coming to me without pedals, and for basically the first time ever, I am being faced with an equipment dilemma. What kind of pedals do I want?

I don't know ANYTHING about clips, or clipless, or anything that involves being attached to your bike (anyone care to explain the difference?).

I am leaning towards just buying a pair of platforms and adding toe clips, as I feel that I want to be able to get my feet on the ground quickly if I need to (you know, avoiding being hit by a car if necessary).

But perhaps I want to be clipped in to make my commute a bit easier (it is 8 miles UP hill on my way to work. Which is going to suck. But coming home will be a breeze )

Someone mentioned to me that they have some type of pedal/shoe combo that can clip in, but also can be used without clipping in? Like one side of the pedal you can clip in, and the other side you don't have to?

Anyway, any help appreciated!

ban guzzi

https://www.buzzillions.com/dz_14472_..._pedal_reviews

Try these out. I have some on a soon to be touring buke and they used to be on my Fixed and my MTB. I really like these pedals and they will let you decide and get used to clipless on your own timetable. And convienant, I will admit.

edit:

You'll need shoes for these. SPD if you didn't already know...

https://www.treefortbikes.com/187_333...Bike-Shoe.html

frankenmike 

As far as getting your foot off the pedal fast: IME toe clips are the worst. Getting out of clipless(click-in) pedals is about as fast and easy as a regular flat pedal.

RI_Swamp_Yankee

This will absolutely not be the experience of most people trying out clipless pedals. Once you get used to them, perhaps, but it will not be a simple transition in the vast majority of cases. There are exceptions to this, and apparently you're one, but the stories of people falling over while struggling to detach are just as common. You do no-one any favors by glossing this over.

xxguitarist

The first day with clipless, you will fall over, you will look like an idiot. The next week, you will be a little awkward, from there on, you'll wonder why you bothered with anything else for real riding. Practice while holding onto something, then on a quiet street, before commuting with them.

ryanwood

I ride clipless on my commuter because they help a ton on long steep hill climbs, but on my mountain bike I run toe clips because last year I had a pretty nasty crash and my left foot did not release from the clipless pedal I was running at the time and my leg got pretty messed up.

I love my clipless pedals and would not trade them in for the world, and while I admit that they did take a little getting used to I never actually fell over. My pedals are adjustable so when I first mounted them on the bike I was able to slip in and out pretty easily, I still had a couple of close calls though. Now that I have been running them for a while, I have them set pretty tight so I have to step pretty hard to get in and I have to yank pretty hard to get them out.

Everybody has their own preference especially on these forums, and asking what kind of pedal to run is like asking what type of saddle to use. The only really good way to know what you will like the best is to test them out. I first went to to clips on my commuter because I used them on my mountain bike and really liked the ability to get a little extra power on hill climbs. Anyway, when I bought a new bike I decided to go for clipless and I have never looked back. Like I said they were even on my mountain bike for one season.

I have reversible pedals on my commuter because in the summer months when I am just bombing around town heading to friends houses or running quick errands I can just throw on my flip flops. I do find it annoying that sometimes I end up trying to clip into the wrong side, but I still dig them.

Personally I would get a cheap pair of platforms and toeclips and see how that feels. If you ride with the straps loose, your feet will slide right out of the back with no effort at all. If you really enjoy the feeling of being strapped in and able to pull up on the pedals, you can upgrade without feeling like you are wasting money upgrading too soon.

Only my two cents though, take it or leave it.

JanMM

No, no, no! You are not doomed to fall over if you use clipless pedals!
Stop scaring people.

crhilton

Shimano has had a new version of these for a year or two now. The platform is more of an oval and the pedal sticks out less. The grip on the platform is quite a bit different than this cage style. I've never used this style, but I have the new style and the platforms are excellent. The clips work as expected.

https://bike.shimano.com/publish/cont..._mountain.html

crhilton

What's the be scared of? It doesn't hurt. The worst you lose is some pride, but those pretty young girls weren't going to talk to you anyway: You're on a bike!

I ended up falling over because I forgot once. It taught me to remember to clip out. Good lesson .

Clipless is worth the embarrassment. Sometimes it's not worth putting special shoes on, but only on short rides.

xxguitarist

Well, on the road, I've only fallen over from clipless once. I stopped to talk to someone, and only clipped one foot out. 5 minutes later, topple.

Mountain biking, there have been a handful of times that i had to clip out after hitting the ground from snagging up on some combination of mud, rock, and tree.

bragi

Clipless pedals are vastly superior to toe clips. Clipless systems keep your feet on the pedals better than toe clips, and it's easier to get your feet down, too, once you get used to them. However, I think the performance of clipless pedals is overrated, and, in stop and go traffic, they tend to be a bit of a pain. Even more annoying is the fact that you have to buy special shoes. Personally, I like wide platforms with pins. Your feet stay glued to the pedals, even on fast climbs up steep hills in driving rain, you can step off the pedals effortlessly if need be, and you can wear any shoes you want. I have found that, if you know how to pedal to begin with, climbing hills with platforms with pins is as easy as it is with clipless, and less of a bother.

That said, I realize that you'll probably end up going with clipless. (Peer pressure in the biking world trumps all.) If you do go clipless, take a serious look at egg beaters; they're more expensive than SPD, but worth the price difference. If you go SPD, try to avoid getting the ones with platforms on one side and clips on the other; you'll be endlessly flipping the pedal over, trying to get the side you want. Also, whatever shoe you get, make sure it has a tread of some sort; nothing is more disconcerting than pushing off at a busy intersection and nearly falling on your face because your stupid cycling shoes have no traction on the pavement.

ban guzzi

Not quite...

If your using the platform side, 'scrape' ball of foot towards backwards to platform, clipless~ ball of foot pushing pedal towards front as you clip in. Way less complicated than it sounds and works just fine. Co-ordination is your friend.

noteon 

I've used toe clips, clipless, and platforms on my commute over the years. All have their advantages, but IMHO, those who say it's just as easy to get out of clipless as off a platform in a panic situation are assuming ideal conditions: You have good reflexes; you haven't just gotten back on the bike after life kept you off it for a week or two or three; you don't ride other bikes with different pedal systems, etc.

I now ride clipless on long distances and platforms on my commute--so I'm not anti-clipless in the least. However, I think platforms are unambiguously the best choice for my NYC commute for the obvious reason: They are the fastest, least thinky option to get my foot off of in a panic situation. I don't need to have a storehouse of muscle memory to get my feet into the correct slide/twist/slip motion. If it's day 1 after a 2-week bike hiatus, there's no split second of Wait, I used to know this when a split second is all the time I have to react to something.

Clipless is great, in my opinion, when I'm either using it constantly without a break or when I'm using it on a recreational weekend ride--in which case the situation itself is enough of a break in routine to be a reminder that the pedals are different on this one. But I no longer use them on my commute. I just don't see a good reason to layer unnecessary clipout routines onto hazard situations. Regardless of how simple those clipout routines are, they're one more thing that can go wrong.

apricissimus 

I know this has been discussed ad nauseam, but I still can't comprehend for the life of me why some people have a hard time getting out of clipless pedals. Nothing could be easier.

noteon 

It's all a matter of muscle memory. Either it's right there, ready to use, or it's not. If you haven't been riding with that system for a while, or you've been in a different system for a while, it's not right there.

capejohn

I'm on board with this statement. Lot's of guys from the 50's forum fall a lot using clipless, but I don't think it's because of the pedal style.

noteon 

No, it's because somebody told them clipless would work for them when it doesn't.

apricissimus 

Why wouldn't they "work" for them? (Not questioning their pedal preference though, which is another matter.)

JeffS

You do noone any favors by spreading your doom and gloom.

His summary was spot-on.

JeffS

We wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings by calling them uncoordinated now would we...

noteon 

Lack of experience, lack of coordination, lack of time on the bike, neurological issues that affect balance or reaction time, reduced processing ability from age...who knows?

It's not reasonable to dismiss those factors. If ANY piece of gear requires a certain level of ANY of those things, that piece of bike gear isn't the right one to simply recommend without if/then statements in an across-the-board fashion. No one of us is magically the objective baseline for judging suitable gear for everybody. Different gear is suitable for different riders and contexts.

And I frankly don't believe anybody who says they've never experienced a split second of trying to remember how to clipout. That eventuality exists. I'd as soon eliminate it from the equation while commuting in heavy traffic. It's not as though clipless ever gave me much advantage dealing with the taxicabs on 2nd Ave. anyway.

On brevets, you'll get my Eggbeaters when you pry them out of my cold, dead Lake MX300s.

DataJunkie

Sorry to say it but he is right IMHO.

Bat22

I'm trying to be color co- ordinated. Wonder if I can tip these sails
to the vertical on long downhills. These pedals could supplement
as aero brakes.

Longfemur

I was once a long-time road bike rider who hesitated to go to clipless pedals, but eventually I did -- without necessarily becoming a fanatic about it.

Based on my own experience with rat-trap pedals, toe clips, and various clipless, I will say to you that nothing is easier to get into and out of then mountain bike/hybrid SPD with the multi-release cleat and with the tension backed off almost as low as it gets. If you are inclined to use toe clips anyway, and you cycle a lot, but you don't necessarily see yourself or pretend to be an athlete or a racing type, there's no better automatic pedal system than Shimano SPD (with multi-release cleat) and whatever SPD-compatible shoe you want. It's EASIER to use these than it is to use full toe clips with straps - guaranteed.

If in addition, you want to be able to ride your bike with regular shoes any time you want, than you need Shimano's M324 pedal. This will give you the best of both worlds, and you simply cannot go wrong with it if you are a recreational cyclist or commuter... even a very fast one.

I personally would not be a cheapskate. This is one occasion where you are better to go with the original brand name. It guarantees smooth operation, and perfect mating between the shoe and the clipless pedal.

Torrilin

I *am* uncoordinated. It also takes me a long time to get a new skill into muscle memory so I do the right thing every time. I also live in a city, and have a lot of routes where I might need to stop as often as 6 times a mile. And I ride in street clothes. This means clipless isn't a good choice for me.

It doesn't mean clipless is bad. It doesn't even mean I couldn't learn to use it. But it does mean I should think long and hard before trying it. If I end up riding mostly centuries, with my in town mileage dropping down to 10%... it might be a lot more worthwhile.

But every rider is different, and there is no choice that will suit all of us, all the time.