???

If the top of your shoe isn't holding the top of your foot, you have some very odd shoe problems. Or some very odd feet.

Do the strapless half-clips actually do anything? I would think they'd flex and your foot would easily pop out.

They keep your feet from accidentally sliding forward, that's about it.

They would flex a bit it you are pulling up hard, but I don't do that enough to pop out at all.

I saw a couple different plastic variants at REI when I was there this weekend, one with straps and one without.

Not sure what you're saying, I sometimes intentionally don't clip in, and can pedal just fine. It feels a little funny, but no big deal.

How can u pedal a cliples pedal with out clipping in?? They are made to be clipped in with your shoe before u can press down. With the toe clips you can just put your foot in and pedal lightly even if the cleat is not pressed in.. And yes a toe clip comes up the top of your shoe..a clipless pedal has no such advantage, if the shoe were to brake your out of luck.

When I used toe clips and straps, even if I had cleated shoes there was always the possibility I would accidentally pull my foot out ... especially when shifting from seated to out-of-the saddle climbing. I could cinch the strap down really hard, but then it would be uncomfortable. With clipless pedals, there much less of a chance of disengagement, and dialing up the spring tension doesn't affect foot comfort.

I've never experienced or seen a shoe upper separate from the sole; IMO it's not a valid argument against clipless. Really, if toe clips were indeed superior to clipless, clipless would have just been another Power Grip; an anomoly, and not the standard.

I've been using the follow tow cages / straps & pedals for the last 2+ years to commute to work with, and for bounding around town too:

toe cages: https://amzn.com/B0017H2IPK
straps: https://amzn.com/B000AO7CVG
pedals: https://amzn.com/B002MKDN4Q (available in 9 colors, I got blue)

Here they are in action: https://www.instagram.com/p/BCOztl0qezV/
And on my bike, chilling: https://www.instagram.com/p/BCjuFlwKe3v/
and again: https://www.instagram.com/p/BC-kzpMKe23/

They are easy to get in and out of when starting/stopping. and they definitely look great on my vintage-y frame. The combo holds my foot well, as I have a few really short but steep climbs through the park. Definitely a help for some uplift help.

Highly recommended.

I bought a pair to try just out of curiosity. Pretty much useless for me. But my wife, a flat pedal person, liked them to help position her feet.

OK, I am just confused now. It sounds like you never tried clipless pedals because if you had, I don't think you would make this argument. If the shoe were to break? Not following you. As for the former, clipping in an starting to pedal and clipping in kind of goes together. It becomes second nature. You just do it. And even if not clipped in, you can ride clipless without being clipped in.

Wrong on all assumptions, I can pedal without being clipped in, it feels odd but works, and I use campus pedals which are clipless on one side, and a plain platform on the other. I can ride them while wearing steel toe work boots, or bedroom slippers if I wanted to.

Since the OP is on a road bike, and not a MTB'r...
I don't really understand how he/she is not ready for clipless pedals.
unless you're coming off a leg injury, or you're completely new to riding a bike.

now, if you were a MTB'r and wanted more experience, different story.

just go clipless, you turn your road slightly, and they pop out.
or get the hybrid setup like many have suggested.

cheers and good luck!

I don't think there's any reason to use toe clips.

Fully clipless pedals main function is to keep your foot attached securely to the pedal, like when a racer is spinning extremely fast sprinting trying to outrun someone. Whether or not they are faster or more efficient is debateable - some studies have said "no", some have said "a little". The difference is not dramatic.

So if fully clipless doesn't provide a huge speed advantages, cages provide none. Cages do make getting your foot out in an emergency far more difficult.

What's largely replaced other systems for people who don't want to do clipless (like me) is pedals with pins. Here's Specialized Bennies:


I use Chrome Kursk shoes, but obviously almost anything would work.

I think cages are simply a very bad idea. Either do flats with pins, or do clipless. Cages leave you with no performance improvements, but a greatly increased risk that you won't be able to get your foot out of the cage in an emergency. And there's the problem of the cage/strap needing to be flipped up at every intersection when your head should be up looking at traffic. If you want to feel attached to the pedal, clipless are far better. If you don't want to clip in, flats with pins provide a good attachment without trapping your foot on the pedal.

In my opinion cages are just a very bad idea, they're the worst of all worlds, and I work on a lot of family members bikes and take pedals with straps off the bike if they come with it new as I think they're a bit of a safety hazard - with no benefits.

I disagree with this. If you can't get your foot out of the cage then you've got the straps too tight. They definitely provide a little extra performance because you can lift up with them - it's not nearly as dramatic as with clipless, but it is there.
Lastly, when you start off at at intersection just pedal on the flat side of the pedal, and then flip the pedal around and get in the cage after you've started going. I do it multiple times every day. plus you can do it by feel after like 15 tries, so you don't have to take your eyes off the road to look down.

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One advantage of toe-clips is that when touring you don't need to carry a pair of off-bike shoes.

If you're used to toe-clips, flipping the pedal is so automatic you don't think about it, as is putting your foot down just as quickly as from a platform.

So... Whatever suits you best!

x2...

Well...I disagree with your response. :-)

I mean getting your foot out in an emergency.
With flats and pins you get out without thinking about it.
With clipless it takes a little practice but it's mostly the same movement - throw your foot to the side and it unclips. It's not perfect, some people don't unclip, but it's close to what you naturally do - throwing your foot to the side.
Straps are a lot worse. You get an emergency situation, and you have to remember to unweight the foot, pull it backwards out of the strap (where your instinct would naturally be to go to the side), and only then can you get your foot down.

If you're worried about being able to get your foot detached from the pedal quickly, I think that both flats with pins, and clipless, are going to be better and safer options.

Studies on professional racers with clipless have shown that they do not actually pull up with clipless. They unweight the foot, but the idea they're gaining power by pulling up is a myth.

That's cool, for someone not already using cages I just think going fully to clipless would make more sense - if they're going to invest time and skill into practicing that.

That's it. It's time for a clipless-toe-cage-off.

I don't use clips, and clipless for extra performance, they just help me keep my foot on the sweet spot of the pedal without any thought or effort which reduces fatigue. It also eliminates pedal slip in the wet on hills without tearing up the soles of some of my shoes like pins do.
I'm not the most graceful person in the world, yet I've never had an incident using clips with loose straps, or Shimano Click-r clipless pedals.

I can get my feet into my toe-clips a heck of a lot easier/faster than I usually do with road clipless pedals. MTB style = I gave up on them as my cleat NEVER landed where it'd engage instantly - I alsways had to move my fot a bit to get the cleat to engage.

I also fell over after a sudden stop far more often with clipless than I did with toe-clips. A lot of times a sudden unexpected stop (in soft ground or up a hill) would find me leaning the wrong way, my foot at to high a position and thus unable to twist out.

Clipless or toe-clips = different strokes for different folks.

Cheers

For mountain biking and dense woods trail riding, i wouldn't do toe cages, or probably clipless either, I'd probably to flat with pins, because in those situations you definitely want to be able to kick out a leg for stabilization or keep from falling, etc. I hear ya there for sure.

But in just normal road riding, toe cages are a breeze.

my son rides technical single track and always uses clipless, as does most of his team. About half the team uses Crank Bros, the other half uses SPD. The problem he ran into riding flats was his feet slipping off the pedals, leading to loss of control.

Interestingly enough, my son uses flat pedals for regular bike riding and sees no advantage to riding on roads with clipless.

I've used both clip-less and toe clips. I have bikes with both. They both work; however, I prefer toe clips mostly because the shoe I wear for the toe clips is much more comfortable than my clip-less pedal shoes. I have an old pair of Specialized shoes that were made specifically for toe clips. They have a stiff smooth sole, a kinda pointed toe and leather top over the toes. These shoes slip in and out easily, stay in place, and protect the toes from the pressure of the clip. They are as comfortable as a sneaker when I need them to wear them like that. If I didn't have these shoes, I probably would just go clip-less.