Faster with toe clips?
 

Hi,
I've been using toe clips with sneakers for years and have recently changed over to clipless. It has been roughly a month using clipless and I find that my average speed per ride was much faser using toe clips that it has been with clipless pedals. Does anyone have an explanation why this may be the case? Thanks.

"Much faster"? What speeds are you talking about?

Since racers don't use toe-clips with sneakers, it could be something funny with your technique or a change in position/fitting.

For most riders, the speed difference is likely to be fairly small (not "much faster") anyway.

think circles...

ftfy

true

Did you adjust your seat height when you changed over? This could make a difference in your ability to produce power.

Placebo. Just like all that weight weenie BS. Think fast thoughts and be fast.

Serious answer: toe clips, more than anything, keep your foot on the "sweet spot" of the pedal. It wouldn't be called a sweet spot if there weren't performance gains.

Adjust your seat height to get your old position the same as Bob suggested. Your new shoes will have much stiffer sole that don't flex so you need to get used to that. Also you need to get used to the entire upper surface of the shoe supports the movement rather than a narrow contact point of the old clips

If you haven't done so, check you cleat placement as well. Place you cleats at the ball of the cycling shoe, roughly in the same place where your clips held your sneaker. Make sure both left and right cleats are in the exact same place (fore/aft and left/right). Do a test run. Your pedal stroke should feel natural and pretty much exactly the same as it did with the sneakers and clips (except better ;) )

Oh you already went clipless?

It's gotta be the shoes.

http://i.imgur.com/oH7Ti.jpg

You're not going fast enough because your shoes and pedals aren't cRabon