Do most of you run clip less set ups? For those of you that do go clip less do you use SPD-SL, SPD or egg beaters? Do you run shoes like these or standard road style? I currently run another pair of DZR shoes and love them, but I didn't know what other people where using for power transfer.

Many variables here, both for shoes and pedals alike.

What kind of riding are you doing? During your commute... Road, off-road, both....What are you willing to spend? Do you want to wear them casually between rides?

I personally ride using a pair of Lake Cross shoes. I find that having a little tread on the bottom of your shoes is better for commuting than not. I have a few different pair of road shoes that have little or no tread on them at all. If I have to come to a quick stop for some reason, I have found that my road shoes could slip at an un-opportunistic time.

I have a couple different pairs of shoes I keep at work I wear around the shop/office.

From my experience lurking in the Commuting forum, you will find all kinds of different shoes and opinions. Many people, including myself, use platforms. Others feel insecure without the shoe attached to the pedal and use SPD or something else. They are concerned with the shoe slipping off of or around the pedal during rainstorms or other weather where a simple platform might become slippery. I use platforms just for simple convenience.

I'd like to respectfully suggest that you search around the internet as this is one of the top 10 questions with infinite answers.

For pedals, use what you like. In regard to specific shoe style, for commuting I wear cheap mountain bike shoes. The cleat ends up being recessed by the cleat pattern so you can walk around in them somewhat comfortably.

I use SPD pedals with mountain bike style shoes
for my 25 mile roundtrip commute. If my commute
was a lot shorter, I'll probably just use platforms
with pins.

I wore flip-flops on my commute today

Campus Pedals from Performance Bike

in combination with

Keen Cycling Shoes

Wet weather = boots, and platform pedals..
havent screwed on the Clipless ones in a couple years. Time ATAC alium.
spd sandals and TO92 touring shoes and some nice Nike Italian made MTB shoes

summer , both months, the Keen Clones I got for 20 bucks were nice ..
Ergon pedals

I've got about a 25 mile round trip commute and do it via my fixed gear bike 99% of the time. Not once have I felt the need for clipless pedals. Multiple tours and century rides each year on my touring bike and again I've never felt any need for clipless pedals. As always personal preference takes the lead when discussing things such as this and there is no right or wrong answer.

I'm willing to bet that most people who give platform pedals a real chance will never go back to clipless.

ka: but one thing that catches me about plateforms (non clip) is that the equal importance of the up stroke on the pedal stroke. The pulling up (up stroke) is often misrepresented. At least for me. Its the ability to use more muscle groups when climbing a hill or short bursts of energy.

whaaa... ?

Pretty sure most people ride platforms most of their cycling life before making the jump to clipless (or at least toeclips first perhaps).

I was trying to save money/effort and keep platforms on my MTB commuter but hated the platforms. My knees hated them too. The money on an extra set of clipless pedals was well worth it. I wouldn't ride any other way.

Anyway, I have two sets of these - Crank Bros Candy pedals

and one more of these (older model)


I have these as my main shoes

and a backup pair of older MTB shoes. Stiffer sole but not as comfortable for riding, or walking.

Toe clips and New Balance 609's here.

Speedplay Frogs. Nice name, walkable shoes (like coming into the office), plenty of float.

That's a bold statement - I gave platforms a real chance from 1968 until 1995. Since then it's been clipless on all my bikes. I guess I'm not most people.

I use SPDs.

Most people who ride bikes have used platform pedals. I'm never going back to them.

I am more loyal to the mesh shimano mtn bike shoes (they drain great, are nearly guaranteed to be dry at the end of any day if I remember to pull the insole out when I get to work) than I am to the spd cleats and pedals that I attach the shoes to. No reason I wouldn't consider eggbeaters or whatever other 2-hole cleat might cross my path if it were easy enough to check out.

Heh... for me it was ~73-05, I gave them an even longer trial. But I have not completely purged them either, I have some flipflop pedals.

Currently I run a fixed gear for commuting with, egg beaters on and the DZR shoes because I commute to campus and its nice not having to worry about changing shoes, nor having the clicking of cleats. Just didn't know more of what people where doing when they had to dress more professionally.

I'd take that bet with you! I'm not sure what you mean by "real chance." As mentioned by others, we all started on platform pedals and voluntarily switched to clipless. I use SPDs for most of my commutes, but do run platforms on my winter hybrid when I need warmer shoes than my SPDs. It's always such a treat to get back to clipless after even one ride with platforms.

I leave a pair of non-bike shoes at the office. Actually they are sandals w/ velcro straps so I also have a fallback position of trying not to have to dress more professionally.

I use platform pedals myself. Nonetheless, that response was hilarious!

I've used everything you've mentioned as far as clipless goes. They each have their pros and cons so I'm not going to try and recommend anything in particular. I will say that SPD-SL is a road pedal and typical road shoes are pretty stiff so even the ones with some tread on the bottom aren't very nice for walking in. Commuters tend to shy away from those and that's one reason.

Discussions about clipless pedals come up fairly frequently and there's no real consensus over which type is better or whether or not they offer a significant advantage to commuters. Some folks really like them and others are happier with plain old platforms or toe clips.

I use regular platform pedals for the convenience factor. I like to just be able to jump on my bike and go- no special equipment required. Clipless/toe clips etc win for efficiency of power transfer but for general commuting use over not too much of a distance, platforms win for me every time. I think if I went for any type of foot retention it would be toe clips so I could continue to wear ordinary shoes.