I haven't ridden platforms in over a decade (since I was 12). I'd probably stumble and bark my shins against the pedals if I tried now. One of the most important functions of clipless is that it improves your pedal stroke.

[QUOTE=aadhils;11055910] I'd probably stumble and bark my shins against the pedals if I tried now. QUOTE]

Wrap them in 2 to 3 inches of masking or duct tape. Your shins will thank you

sucks you don't know how to ride, dude.

I saw no gain and it just felt unnatural to me. I'm selling the shoes and the peddles and am back to the toe clips.

I've been riding for almost 10 years =0)

I just switched to clipless today and can tell you I gained exactly 0 MPH. Oh sure, I could sprint a little faster because I can pull up on the back side, but I can't sustain that for long. What I DID gain, though, was much less fatigue. My muscles don't get fatigued just trying to keep my foot on the pedal and aligned properly. I don't have to consciously maintain my pedal position when I de-weight the pedal on the upstroke (though I'm not necessarily pulling up, I do consciously take the weight off the rising pedal). For long, sustained climbs, I find that pulling up allows me to give my "pushing down" muscles a little recovery. I can go back and forth, maybe 90% pushing down pretty hard, and then 10% pulling up to give me a little recovery. Oh, and the shoes completely eliminate the hotspots I use to get, and also eliminate the foot fatigue I was suffering from. It does seem to transfer power more efficiently but nothing really worth mentioning as far as I can tell.

These are observations from a new user, and are all things which seemed pretty obvious to me AND to my wife (who also just switched to clipless).

I love how I feel connected to the bike, now. It's a much different feeling! I think I will eventually get faster but predominantly because the clipless are encouraging good form and good stroke. The real gains for me seem to be less fatigue and more comfort. It was like trying my first bike shorts. I didn't go faster but boy does it make everything easier.

Clipless doesn't necessarily make you go faster. It does however give you the ability to pull up the pedal with one foot while pushing down on the other. In other words: Better power distribution.

seriously?

I wouldn't put it in terms of mph but since I've gone clipless I most greatly enjoy stop lights, using the cleat to pull the pedal to wherever I want it to start up again. Pretty silly but...

Yeah. I don't understand. If you mean I'm inexperienced, well isn't that the point. What ggod is my opinion 5 years from now with 5 additional years of training under my belt? Those are just my observations for going from platform to clipless with no additional training. I'm sure I'll be faster next year.

I never did clipless before because I have a very wide foot and have always had a lot of trouble finding shoes that were comfortable. I'm recently getting more serious about cycling and have found more options available so I made the switch.

So I guess I don't get it. I'm 100% forthright about being a new user and my opinion is that clipless by itself makes absolutely no impact on my sustainable performance but it did help with comfort and fatigue especially on long climbs.

Joe_mo forgot to eat his wheaties. I'd ignore it if I were you.

[thread hijack]

So what shoes and pedals did you get?

[/thread hijack]

I picked up some Lakes and A530 pedals (spd on one side, platform on the other). The Lake is an MX85 I think. I don't have the shoes with ne to check at the moment. They are very comfortable. There were laces under the Velcro straps. I've no idea why and they just made them tighter than nescessary so I took them off and threw them out. Just FYI, my foot is 10.5 EEE, but the EE size Lake offers seems to work well. They are a touch snug, but not at all uncomfortable. I can't even get the Velcro to grab on a normal size shoe.

I think Sidi makes some wide shoes but I haven't tried them. Other than custom shoes or top of the line road shoes, I don't know of any other options. There should be a sticky somewhere with a list of wide bike shoes. It took going to three bike shops to find a guy that had a clue. The other two just couldn't be bothered to help me.

I guess what I'm really wondering is how much speed I can gain sprinting to max speed.

Currently I have more of a hybrid bike with platform pedals (no straps or anything), and wondering how much faster I can go if I go to clipless vs how much I can increase my max speed by going to a more dedicated road bike in addition to clipless.

Yep. I love that, too. When, you know, a light actually requires you to stop - happens to the best of us. But I used to do the same thing with clips.

Get the clipless system now, but keep your current pedals. If you get a road bike, put the old pedals back on the hybrid and the clipless ones on the road bike.

I don't want to be overly pedantic, but my max speed on any ride almost always comes from going down hill, and won't be affected by virtually anything to do with my bike. I think the clipless pedals and shoes probably let me accelerate more quickly into a sprint, but even here, I'm not sure they affect my peak speed once I reach it. They may or may not let me hold that speed longer ... I've never tried to find out.