Originally Posted by alanbikehouston

You claim to know a way to ride faster without increasing cadence. Please explain it to the rest of us.

Originally Posted by alanbikehouston

Of course not. Pro riders may get some benefit from properly fitted cycling shoes and "pro" pedals (with properly fitted being the key) but for recreational and fitness riders, they are simply "style" points.

If you are capable of keeping up a 100 RPM cadence with pro shoes and pro pedals, you can also keep up a 100 RPM cadence using the best alternative: BMX pedals and any shoes you own. If you are NOT capable of keeping up a 100 RPM cadence, changing your shoes or pedals won't help.

Why do a mention cadence? Because that is what controls the speed of the bike. Going faster means having a higher cadence...a fitness issue, not a shoe or pedal issue.

By the way, the scientific studies done on pedals indicate that as the pedal rises from six o'clock to twelve o'clock, cyclists are still putting weight ON the pedal. They are not "lifting" the pedal. If you focus on increase your cadence, you will instinctively learn to lift the rising leg as the pedal comes up, but the pedal always will come up faster than your leg. No matter how fast your cadence, the pedal will always be lifting your leg...whatever sort of pedal you have.

Originally Posted by alanbikehouston

Am I suggesting cycling shoes are too complex for recreational cyclists? Pro cyclists get pro fittings when they change shoes or pedals. Improperly fitted shoes and pedals lead to foot and knee injuries. During one of Armstrong's last Tour de France campaigns, he was suffering from serious foot pain, because Shimano insisted he use a new Dura-Ace shoe and pedal. After numerous fittings, he was still in intense pain, and finally he went back to his old shoes and old pedals, and won the Tour.

In contrast, I've never seen anyone get a foot injury or knee injury that required surgery while using traditional pedals or BMX pedals. The "unlimited float"...the ability to move the foot and knee freely results in riders finding comfortable postions and riding injury free.

You claim to know a way to ride faster without increasing cadence. Please explain it to the rest of us. You also imply that you are the first cyclist in history that lifts his pedals with his foot, instead of his pedal lifting his foot. I'm sure that you have published many papers on this, just as the people who disagree with you have published their research.

Originally Posted by cooker

Clipless pedals make you lazy. Instead of learning to move your foot in a circle, you let the pedal drag it around.

Seriously, the advantages of clipless are grossly overstated. They're necessary for racing and extreme riding, and they give you a zen-like feeling of connectedness and skill mastery which you may enjoy, but in non-extreme riding the increase in efficiency they offer is trivial.

Since you're riding for exercise, it doesn't really matter if you go clipless or not - the quality of your workout depends on how hard you ride, not on how efficient your set-up is, and making your bike more efficient (if indeed clipless pedals accomplish that) doesn't improve the value of your exercise. But if you think you might race, or you want to learn racing skills, by all means go clipless.

Originally Posted by gcottay

+1 on the benefits of thinking wiping. It really does work well, at least for me. Toward the end of a longish ride when legs being to lose interest, I will do a mile or two putting extra energy into the wiping motion and less into the rest of the stroke. Cadence actually goes up a bit and legs seem to bounce back.

Originally Posted by mloywhite

I can't BELIEVE it took him this long to get started... OP, obviously, everyone on earth but ABH is wrong, we are all a bunch of lemmings. DO NOT get get clipless.

Originally Posted by Nbob

For me it's not so much the "pulling up" but the "wipe" that makes cleats and pedals essential.

I was at a party and ran into a coach for our provincial team- told him about my wussyness going up inclines and asked for some advice. His response:

1. steady fluid strokes
2. don't let the quads do all the work use more hamstring - just after reaching the bottom of the stroke contract the hamstring -think like you're wiping mud off your shoe on a welcome mat.

Never knew that before and it worked wonders.

Without being clipped in feet would just slide off the pedals doing that motion ( although the pedals would likely scrape the mud off you runners so at least you'd have clean shoes)