Going Clipless – What’s best?
 

I’m a 64 year old newbie to cycling, and want to go to clipless pedals on my 1996 Trek 5000 road bike. I will be riding on the road, and can see advantages of clipless pedals. My concern is getting out of them easily. Need advice. Which would be the best for easy exit.
Thanks.

I'm partial to Crank-Bros eggbeaters myself, but others seem to really like cheap shimano SPDs. Both are inexpensive and easy to get in and out of with a little practice.

SPD pedals.

Lots of reasons that IMHO these are the best:

• you can adjust the tension making it easier or harder to unclip.
• assuming you buy a "mountain" type shoe with a recessed cleat, you can comfortably walk around for reasonable distances without changing shoes.
• lots and lots of different pedals and shoes available from several manufacterers in a wide range of price points.
• I've found them to be very durable. I've been rocking a pair of Shimano 545's for over a decade and they are still going strong (outlived 2 bikes they were attched to).


I rock a pair of bulletproof Shimano 545's on my mountain bike, some Shimano 324's (platform/SPD combo pedals) on my greenway bike, generic Ritchey dual sided SPD's on my fixed gear bike, Bonterager dual sided SPD's on my wife's hybrid, and I'm about to buy another pair for my wifes fixed gear.

Once you ride clipless you'll never want to go back to platforms or clips/straps again.

EDIT: Don't worry too much about the ease or speed of unclipping. With a little practice it becomes a reflex no matter what brand you decide on. I compare learning to unclip to driving a manual transmision car- once you learn to drive stck shift you do not conciously think "I need to push in the clutch before I hit the brakes for that stop sign ahead", it just sort of happens. Unclipping is the same thing, once you ride clipless pedals for a few days you don't even think about it anymore, it just happens by reflex.

I second the shimano spd, I got the 520 dirt cheap $50 or so. Use them on road and off road riding. The only issue I had with them was when temps got 95+F the cheapo mtb shoes started giving me hot spot on the feet on 50+ miles, though good pair carbon soles mtb shoes fixed that. Another thing that sold me on the mtb style pedals for road riding on a you can walk in them after falling down a flight of stairs in my complex with my road shoes while carrying my bike, don't worry the bike was ok just bounced down the stairs but my back was sore for a week. While I will admit I had a little more solid feel and more float with my looks I can't recall ever unclipping by accident with my spds. Pretty much maintenance free I don't even know the last time I even put some grease on them. MTB cleats seem to last forever and you make a cool crunching sound when walking on concrete like you are squashing large cockroaches.

summary thread

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=401343

I just noticed you are pretty much local.

http://www.easttnriders.com/forum/im...milies/039.gif Howdy. Do you ever ride in Knoxville?

I used spd for years, quite good unless conditions got muddy. Was introduced to time atac and currently prefer them. Used crank bros for less than a season before they broke.

which model did you use and how'd they break?

ease of getting into and out of? Go for speedplay frogs.

Candy. The platform bashed in after a pedal strike, locking the clamp arms in place(no rotation). The times have a big bump that guards the wires from pedal strikes- I've hit stuff so hard that it turned me sideways and the pedal barely gets knicked. FWIW, most of my buds use crank bros. and seem to have no big problems. I'm hard on pedals.

If walking on cleats doesn't bother you, Speedplays. Lots of float, which makes them very comfortable. If you don't like walking around with cleats clacking away, spds. I've used both, as well as Look-type.

You will probably fall over once as you get used to them. Stopping at a light and falling in front of motorists is embarrassing, but not likely to result in serious injury. They're actually much easier to get in/out of than clips and straps.

If you don't have a problem with mud, my practiced policy is to use whatever cheap crap SPD pedal came with my bike, and loosen the tension to the bare minimum amount. With that rule, it took me over 4 years to have my first accidental spill over.

I just went clipless this year. Use Shimanoe SPD's & some MTB type Shimanoe SPD shoes. I was used to straps & it really is more similar than you may realize. Took me maybe 10 minutes to get used to clicking out of the pedals. I fell though on my 2nd ride with them. Was coming to a slow stop & didnt get my left foot out. Tipped over cartoon style! I've heard this is to be expected- best to go ahead & get a foot off before getting to your stopping place! I'm sure I'll tip over again!

My wife brought a new bike at probably one of the top and experienced LBS anywhere. She's been riding for years but had problems with Look, SPD, and toe clips in general. The LBS had her get on a stationary trainer and use Speedplays until she was comfortable clipping and unclipping. She's now good and is very proficient.