Was on a club ride today and was talking pedal systems with a couple of the guys. One of them kept saying "spuds" (like potatoes) for SPD pedals.

I had never heard them called that...is this a common/accepted expression (like 'tubies' for sewups)? Or is the dude just wacky?

omg first comment

Thanks a heap.

You knuckleheads have not let me down yet.

Some people are just too lazy to pronounce the three letters, I guess.

Maybe. But i'm guessing this was the same kind of jackass that calls his shimano tiagra a 'gruppo' instead of just saying 'group'.

I LOL'ed.
No really.

Im guessing that "spuds" is used by the same group of people who use the term "biffter"

I don't have spuds on my road bikes. I have spudsels.

Never heard SPDs called spuds.

Whereas the group of people who take every opportunity to get bent at the term brifter isn't completely laughable, you see, because

I have heard this.

so not pro

spuds are for mashers

I've heard them called "spuds" all the time. It is also the colloquial term I use.

When is anyone going to stop caring about the terms being used?

language is how people, monkeys, dogs, etc, what have you, all communicate with each other. so when some person or some dog creates a stupid term for an object or idea, not only is that person/dog brought down, but really the whole pack of dogs is brought down.

and if some monkey calls SPDs "spuds" i will be confused and then i will have to say "wtf are you talking about?" and they will have to explain it and by that point we've already wasted 20 minutes and the monkey just goes back to throwing its own poop at zoo visitors. from that point on i know that when somebody uses the word "spuds" in place of saying SPDs i just need to exit the conversation and never talk to that person again. either that or deliberately run them off the road when they are riding beside me.

Thanks to the two folks who at least had the courage to say they have heard this.

I was simply wondering if this was in common usage or was totally idiosyncratic.

Carry on.

I've seen it on other (UK) forums. I think it sounds stupid. Some people seem to feel obliged to give everything a dorktastic nickname.

been calling em that for more than ten years.

English is a living language. I'm sure you say a lot of things someone that speaks a different dialect of English will consider stupid.

orly

rry

calling them spuds is still stupid though.

chalk me up as one of those crabs that thinks brifter is a dumb term. those doovde players are sweet though.

I use eggbeaters to mash my spuds.