This will probably sound elitist, but I think clipless pedals are somewhat like jazz music -- if you depend on someone else to explain it for you, you won't get it. The habit of clicking out as you approach a stop is easy to acquire (watch 1nterceptor's excellent videos), and wipeouts are pretty darned rare after that point (you successfully learned how to stay balanced when mounting, riding, and dismounting a bike, right?) Clipless pedals aren't just for racers, they're for anyone who wants a solid but easy-to-cancel connection to their pedals. Try 'em out sometime!

No I don't use clipless pedals...I've been using platform pedals with pins for the past 7 years and I am happy with them. I can wear whatever type of shoes I want. Clipless pedals are unnecessary, unless you're racing.

Platforms -con denti - on my commuter, clipless on my road bike. I like to be able to commute in any shoes.

Platforms for me. I don't want to deal with cycling shoes.

I got some shoes that are kinda knobbly on the bottom, and they got stuck getting in and out of the toe clips, so I removed the toe clips for now. Also, I tend to hop on my bike wearing whatever -- sneakers, sandals, even flip flops if I'm just going down the street to the store during the summer. Platform pedals accommodate all of those things. Sandals and toe clips was do-able, but not entirely comfortable.

This.

Platforms right now. Someone I work with is going to give me some clipless pedals and cleats that he no longer uses. All I need to do is get the shoes, and practice with them. He swears by them, so I figured I would at least try them out.

SPD clipless. I can't imagine riding without them, it just feels natural. I have never have had a problem unclipping quickly.

I use keen clipless sandals. I like being securely attached to the pedals so my feet dont slip off when the pedals are wet; 20 years later I still have scars on my shins from that. I have no intention on ever going back.

However, I will rock flipflops with egg beaters when the wife wants to go on a bike ride though. However, that's usually twice a year on a sunny day with smooth flat ground, at 6.3 mph, for a total of about 4 miles.

I have dual sided spd/platform pedals. With the tension set low and using the multi release cleats, they are trivially easy to get out of. I prefer clipless, as there are a couple short steep hills in my neighborhood, and I have a tendency to pull on the upstroke while standing. Feels awkward on platforms.

Yep - SPD's here, too. I can't imagine going back to platforms.

I've used clipless and before that toe clips and straps for more years than I care to admit. That said, I love my platform pedals for commuting. Nothing works better with insulated boots in the winter.

Clipless. Every bike, every ride.

I like Shimano's A-520, single-sided "road/touring" SPD. They just work better for me than the double-sided MTB SPDs. (No doubt an operator problem.) My only gripe with them is that I get only 10,000 to 12,000 miles out of the bearings, and it takes 700 miles to break in a new set so that they flop right when I unclip.

I have the Shimano M540 and have done 7800 mi on them so far. My left peddle is giving me a little squeak crunchy feeling. Going to disassemble when I get a chance. Could be the cleats, they have many more miles on them.

Clipless,

Rat traps before that since I was a kid (toe clips and straps)

I am thinking about changing over from Shimano to Look, just because Shimano is double the price on replacement cleats.

I've been debating between clipless with Time Atac's (what I was riding) vs a good platform pedal with pins (what I'm riding now).

It feels like any small efficiency improvements I get from clipless are cancelled out by the time it takes to change in and out of them. I'm still on the fence though.

The two things I don't like:

1. Road pedals. To hard to walk into work doing the clip-clop thing, more annoying to put a foot down at a light, sensitive to getting gummed up if you step into anything by accident. And yes, I have gummed up speedplays before without even stepping in anything obvious.

2. Those "one side clipless, one side platform" pedals. To me it's the worst of both worlds. Have to look down and flip the pedal with your foot awkwardly just when you want to cross an intersection. Annoying, and possibly dangerous. Others have said with different models the pedal always have the same side down, but that still means that one side requires always flipping the pedals. I'd personally rather just use platforms than deal with the hassle.

I like Time Atacs. I live in Minnesota and bike in the winter, and the spd's have a reputation for doing well with things like mud, but not as good with snow and ice. Atac's also clip-clop less as the cleat is a little shorter. The Crank Brothers pedals were similar for snow and clip-clop, but didn't have a distinct clip when clipping in (wasn't sure by feel if I was clipped in or not), and older models were notoriously unreliable, breaking fairly quickly and in ways that they shouldn't. They redesigned them, but since I'm already happy with the atac's no need to switch.

Platforms with fixie type pedal straps.
Works with any shoe, easily adjustable, and cheaper.

I like my hybrid SPD pedals -- I ride clipless everywhere when I'm alone, but put regular shoes on if I'm taking the kids to the park. This year I'm going to buy clipless winter boots at my lbs and get rid of my shoe/overshoe combo.

I especially like pulling on the upstroke when plowing through deep snow; I could never go back to platforms in winter for that reason.

Toe clips on my 1935 Raleigh which is my weekend play bike, my other bikes for commuting, running errands, and casual riding are plain platforms. I was an early adapter to clipless, but never really took to them and the required shoes. Still have those Look pedals in a box somewhere.

I'm basically the opposite - I'm much more worried about my foot slipping in Chicago traffic than not being able to clip out in time. That said, I might use platform pedals on the winter bike I'm putting together. Right now I have Candy pedals on my commuting bike.

My straight-up commuting/city bikes tend to have flat pedals, for sake of convenience. I don't like walking around in bike shoes, even walkable MTB shoes. And I don't bother with foot retention other than clipless, no toe clips or power grips for me. Tried em all, not a fan. But I do have clipless pedals on my road and cyclocross bikes, and I do ride those bikes to work pretty frequently. I keep a spare pair of shoes at work for that reason.

"Unless you're racing" is perhaps the most vacuous, misguided phrase in all of cycling, because it's used to gird all kinds of habits in a kind of defensive rationalism. I've said myself that I keep bikes around without foot retention of any kind, because it can be a pain. But there are plenty of reasons, totally unrelated to racing, that clipless pedals can be a good idea. A big one for me is that clipless pedals can be shimmed and adjusted to compensate for anatomical issues such as leg length differences to prevent or ameliorate injuries as a result. Riding a few slowish miles around the city is fine, but for the bikes that I will be riding for thousands of miles a year, often at high intensity, clipless pedals are a necessity.

SPD with Shimano M077s


Great for walking around the grocery store, but for the office, I still keep a pair of dress shoes in my desk if needed.

I actually have Look KEO pedals on my road racing bike, and do ride that in traffic on occasion. That is mostly with my cycling club where I feel safer since I am in the group, in the early morning with less cars and on streets in the burbs away from Chicago traffic. It's my commuter hybrid that has platform pedals. I sometimes only ride that bike for a short distance, and it might be unnecessary to be clipped in, although I am aware that I can get MTB pedals and shoes that I am able to walk in.

Good comments, Grolby.

I use cages and toe clips on my commuter because I use the bike for many different types of trips, in all types of weather, and like to wear whichever shoes I want to wear for my destination. I don't want to carry extra shoes, take the time to change them, or go without the security and power of foot retention, so toe clips are the prime choice for my commuter. A tall toe box clip accommodates even my winter boots, yet can be cinched down on slim cycling shoes if I want to make time over a long ride.

I also ride bikes equipped with clip less (both SPD and 3-bolt) and platforms, and while they're excellent for their intended purposes, they sacrifice versatility.

I've been riding clip less since the late '80s, so the motions are fully automatic; getting out is a no-brainer, getting in only slightly trickier. I rode cage/clips/cleats for awhile back in the mid-'80s, so you wanna talk about hard to get out of...!

Platform with pins during the winter and a combination of clipless and platform the rest of the year. I prefer riding clipless but sometimes circumstances will lead me to choose a regular shoe.

For non-winter riding my bikes have the dual-sided platform/spd pedals. 95% of the time I'm going clipless, but it's nice for the occasional time I'm riding a short distance over lunch and don't want to bother changing out of my work shoes.

My winter bike is set up with platforms. Most of the time if I'm on that bike it's cold/snowy enough that I'm wearing my boots, so platforms work well for me in that situation. My winter bike is crazy slow anyway with the studded tires, so losing a little more efficiency isn't a big deal to me.