I finally got off the platforms and put on some spd pedals. My feet move a little from side to side, is this normal? It seems fine. I can't pull my feet off the pedals unless I press the heel out as designed. I just want to make sure I'm supposed to have a little wiggle in there. Seems like you should to allow natural movement of your foot during the pedal strike.

They call it "float".
Supposed to be kind to your knees.

I use a speedplay set up.
A little strange at first...
...you get used to it quick.

A bit of heel movement left to right is normal.

if u want less float they make different colors not sure of the float for red and black but think yellow has the most I'm assuming your using road pedals and not mountain pedals

They are road pedals, they came on the bike. I put some platforms on it because I've never used clipless pedals and I needed shoes and cleats. Also just wanted to get used to the bike as is. So now I'm gonna be nervous as all get out on my next ride. Getting clipped in is a challenge. I know I'll get accustomed to it though.

One time a dollar fell out of my pocket. I stopped to retrieve it but fell on the side of my ass because I forgot to unclip. Remember to unclip!

Falls will happen the first few rides I still remember my first time with spd pedals think it was my second time with them on and was coming out of strictly bike shop any one from NYC area should know it well.coming out of the driveway and forget to unclip had to stop for the oncoming traffic must have been at least 50 riders there luckily only one more spill after that takes a good 100 miles too get used to them just remember to unclip before the lights and stop signs and u will be fine

Yeah I've heard lots of stories about falls. Everyone that uses them has one. I feel sure I will too. I'm just hoping I'll be in a very small group when it happens, lol.

Don't think of it as a fall, think of it as a "horizontal track stand".

I did a horizontal track stand the very first time I rode with clipless pedals in 1987. No harm, no foul (to me or the bike), just a little embarrassing. Haven't done one since.

I biked since i was a kid and was hesitant to get clipless pedals in my late 40s. I read tons of posts on here how they could be difficult . From the first second clipless pedals were very simple , i worried about them for no reason . I have been athletic my whole life so that may have something to do with it . I just done see how clipless pedals are hard at all .

Clip and straps are WAYY more difficult to get out of, especially if you are using cleats. At least with clipless you can adjust the spring retention tension.

At the end of my first ride with clipless pedals I was ecstatic. I'd gone 30 miles without once falling over! I coasted up to my garage feeling very proud of myself, ready to punch in the code to open the garage door. Some small concern began to bubble up from the back of my brain, like something I'd forgotten. As I started to topple over into the garbage cans I remembered that I'd forgotten to unclip for the final time.

No one saw.

I use to use clipless and switched back to flats, five ten flat bike shoes with flat pedals with pins. They've done studies on pro racers in the lab and found they're the same speed with clipless as they are wearing basic tennis shoes (some people argue they give an edge in racing where you're sprinting but I'm not racing). Most of the real advantage of clipless is in foot retention, keeping a racers foot on the pedal as they all out wildly sprint, it's not in speed.

I just say this because I spent years trying to make clipless work, then realizes it was greatly diminishing my enjoyment of biking, when I switched back to flats I started enjoying biking a lot more again.

Clipless is a perfectly good system, but if you end up in the situation I did where it was causing problems that kept me from biking it's not worth it. It's the "stick shift vs automatic" of the biking world.

I knew the warnings about clipless but still fell on my maiden voyage using them, at a fully populated 4-way stop, with my wife behind me grinning widely on her platforms. I laid there on my side, still attached to the pedals, for what felt like minutes trying to unclip. Now unclipping is just 2nd nature, and is something I do instinctively, even if I'm on platforms.

Riding clipless on very technical uphill mtb is a whole other next level skillset, and not for the weak of heart, since you sometimes have to unclip (or clip in) while continuing to pedal at full cadence and power, while only going 2 mph, and while maintaining your balance.

I fell on my first clipped-in ride. Cleat wasn't screwed into the shoe tight enough, so when I went to clip-out, the shoe rotated without the clip. After I fell, took about 45 minutes to get my shoe out of the pedal... While I was on the ground on the side of the road, a driver "might" have been staring at me instead of the crosswalk and nearly hit a pedestrian. When they slammed on the brakes, the car behind rear-ended them.

Some systems remove the float, but 1st make sure you want that ,
give it a couple years..

I haven't adjusted anything, I just saw on the instructions on the cleat package. They unlock pretty easily.

Well, I don't know what the pros are waiting for, if someone can win the TDF in tennis shoes, let's see it.

Such a person would make cycling history, become the bane of the rich and powerful pedal corporations who are used to calling the shots, and probably earn a huge sponsorship with Payless Shoes.

I honestly think there is a rather substantial mechanical advantage to being clipped in, but if you don't use it, I suppose you might as well run flats.

My first cyclocross race last year, I was powering up a hill used for sledding in the winter. It was a hill I could just barely ride up. Guy in front of me lost steam, couldn't clip out, and biffed it right in front of me. I was able (barely!) to stop on the hill, unclip, and run past him. It wasn't graceful, but it was far superior to laying down on my side with 50 hecklers on the other side of the fence

One definite advantage is the chance of slipping when climbing is nil.

pros climb a lot and i can tell you from experience that the pain of falling over when climbing in flats is much much more than failing to unclip..

Well I made a couple trips on my street to get used to them. Went on my first real ride today. Did 36 miles. Got to a road that is being newly constructed. It was an old dirt road that they are building up and paving. I was going around a barrel and didnt see the yellow tape. Well jammed on the breaks cause I didnt want to break the tape. You can guess what happened next.... lol. First spill on the clipless pedals... couldn't do anything but laugh about it cause me and the bike were fine. Other than that it was an uneventful trip. Had a great ride. And I do feel the difference and advantage of going clipless, especially when climbing.