Hi guys,

A good friend of mine gave me a pair of mtn bike clip pedals. he says that since im riding every day i would enjoy their use. so i rode after work to the LBS to check some shoes...i was very pumped! my first pair of cycling shoes.

Parked my 1965 Moulton inside the store, and ask the guy to show me some shoes, he said they have no shoe my size at the moment. so i ask when are they going to have my size, and he interrupts "what bike do you own that uses clips?" i knew were he was going with this ... i reply "for my bike, the pedals are original form 1965, so i guess an upgrade is due" ... he gives me the look "i cant recomend you to use clips on this bike, because this bike is only good to go from point a to b, its not a high performance bicycle"....

SUPER DOWNER! i couldn't say a thing! from my point of view my only other response would be a sarcastic mad violent one...so i guess i did what was right, swallow my pride, and RIDE from point B, to point C, to point A (home)

one thing is for sure! i wont be buying my first cycling shoes form this LBS!

I wanna try clips, to see if there's a performance difference with the back stroke...

Definitely go to another store. That particular one doesn't cater to you and doesn't want your business.

What a load of bull****

What a ignorant comment! (From the LBS guy). I have clips on my fixed 1986 GT Outpost. Its old/ beatup, weights a ton, and by no means high performance. But works wonders, with clips, on the 2-3 overpasses on the way to school. As mikeshoup said, go to another LBS.

If the owner(s) of that store encourage this type of snobbery, they're in for a rough time in this economic climate. People show their displeasure with their pocket books and through word-of-mouth. Customer goodwill is an actual business asset evaluated when valuing a company. If you have such poor business practices and/or people skills, your business will wilt and die on the vine (pretty quickly). (Brand/Product) Snobbery might have been used as a sales tool during the era of easy credit when people were stupidly willing to go into debt on the belief that if they owned a house it's value would appreciate continuously. It's no long a viable tool. Businesses that don't modify their behaviors aren't going to be around too long and I say good riddance.

fo'sho! whats your take on clips mike?

You mean toe clips and straps? or clipless? (the kind with the cleats, I know, kinda counter-intuitive)

I use toe clips and straps right now, and am thinking of switching to clipless.

When it was my commuter, I was running Shimano A520 SPD clipless on my '77 Le Tour II. They were great. I ran M520 SPDs on my '86 Diamond Back Ascent MTB as well. Definately go somewhere else and get some shoes. What pedals do you have?

Was it a large store? A couple of the biggest stores in these parts have a reputation for trying to sell new bikes when they're really not needed. One woman I know who owns a very nice bike (about 10 or 12 years old, one of the earlier carbon fiber models). She went back to the store she bought the bike from because her chain was skipping, where they advised her that it was probably time to replace the bike and barring that the best thing they could do was replace the chain (which, if you know much about bikes, will NOT fix a chain skipping problem). Being a little tight on cash, she balked at that answer, and her next stop was our little community shop, where I diagnosed that it was, in fact, time for a new cassette. We biked 80km the next day, and it works beautifully. $20 vs $1000. I can see why the store wanted to sell her the bike.

A good bike store is about the long term relationship. Sell you shoes today (which probably have decent profit in themselves), and then a helmet next month, gloves the month after, etc. Evenutually, if you ever want a new bike, you'll probably buy it there. However, the larger stores tend towards commission based sales people who are only there for a few months. They don't care if you come back. This appears to be a successful model, but not the one I would choose to send my business to.

As long as there's nothing strange about your cranks that would prevent them from fitting a standard pedal thread, you're good. You may not have a performance machine, but that doesn't mean that you can't benefit from better pedalling efficiency. (Incidentally, you get more efficiency gains from the proper foot placement and lack of movement between your foot and your pedal. You don't get much out of the backstroke)

im actually not sure how to call this...i dont really understand the concept of not being cliped and at the same time having your foot stuck to the pedal...lol im a noob!

heres a pic, mine are used, and well, they don't look shiny at all.


its actually a small store, but they have some big brands like specialized...i drool all over those nifty bikes, because they'r so slick and shiny! not sure how fit for commuting but. The store is very well known, they have a great mechanic (his a very nice humble guy, he deals with really expensive bicycles but has no snobery at all..unlike others!)

I'll play devil's advocate. The guy could have easily sold you something that in his mind you really didn't need. I tend to agree that for commuting, the performance benefits of clipless pedals are not at all a given. I like them for commuting but they don't make my trip into work faster in any significant way.

Now, what I might take exception to is that fact that he didn't recognize the Moulton as a very capable bike performance wise.

Just an FYI, because the terminology is confusing: That's clipless


The thing on the right is a clip.

yeah, i've noticed how some cant think a 16" wheel bicycle to perform at all...plus it has internal hub gears... i was actually going to purchase some Kool Stop break pads....left them...=-(

since i cant see the clip i'm clipless, lol...