then all we need to do is to get every single person to post in this thread...

worthy endeavor i think

I've been wearing SPD shoes on about 200 days per year for the last 3 years. That's a fair bit of walking around, and I have not been swallowed by a black hole or anything - yet.

Of course there are more comfy shoes to walk in than SPD, but most of the time I don't notice it at all. If you walk a lot, it's obviously not going to work. Normal in/out of buildings etc. aren't bad at all.

I don't feel comfortable riding clipless. If I ever start racing, maybe I will learn to use clipless, but for around town and training rides... I love them staps :).

i am with lofarkas

comfort and fashion vary by individual

but i walk all the time in clipless shoes and ive never broken a bone doing it

if you can learn to ride a bike you can learn to walk in clipless mountain biking shoes too

I prefer riding clipless, but my job requires me to be on my feet all day. Even with really comfy adidas minretts, I still have to change my shoes when I get to work. So- my commuter bike gets clips and straps (soon to be powergrips). I'm also getting a pair of real mtb shoes with stiffer soles for long rides. The minretts suck on anything over 20 miles.

hey folks who ride clips and straps

do your feet sweat when you ride
?

i am happy to change my shoes and socks when i get to work

i wonder if my feet are extra sweaty or something

i never ride slow sweat up a storm and dress accordingly

am i dirty
?

My Sidi MTB shoes are plenty comfortable for the bar/friend's house. As for work, I just leave a pair of shoes there. I don't think anyone has mentioned pedal clearance as a plus for clipless.

Truthfully, I keep a pair of shoes at work for my commute days.

Mark

Converse All Stars.

I love riding with clipless pedals.

I do not, however, like hanging out in clipless shoes. There are plenty of times when I spend a whole weekend on my bike, and my feet start to hurt and feel tired. Wah, wah, wah.

Also, ****in' around and whatnot - less fun with clipless. I find clips and straps to be better for ****in' around, easier to pull out of when that no-handed one-foot-on-the-front-wheel trackstand goes awry and sends you up that exponential disaster slope (leaning, leaning... FALLING!).

Same goes for stupid skid attempts.

clipless is great for commutes and long rides, but for the week end ride to the shops or cafe for lunch, straps and sneakers are better. i've swapped back and forth a couple of times - i like both.

For the sake of redundancy, I'll chime in. Clipless is a fantastic ride. Any decent, modern pedal simply will not disengage unpredictably, and unclipping becomes second nature. For both reasons, I feel infinitely safer with clipless than in clips. Clips just take more time to wiggle out of; otherwise, they're set too loose to provide much of an advantage. But that's just for riding, and as others point out, that stiff sole sux on land.

If your commute is long enough or you're big on how your ride feels, go clipless. Get mountain or touring shoes so you can walk moderate distances -- you're not out racing in lycra, so the extra shoe ain't slowing you down. Keep a pair of regular shoes at your destination, because you don't want that stiff sole all day. If you don't put in crazy miles and/or you're not super-fussy about your ride like I am, clips are fine and far more versatile.

i go back and forth. i get tired of wearing my clipless shoes around (and slipping on those marble lobby floors downtown), so i switch to the clips. then i get tired of the extra hassle they add (not as much power, the frustration of not being able to get your foot in), and i switch back to clipless.
i used to be terrible at skidding and skipping with clips, but it gets easier the more you use them. i still get a little sketched out trackstanding at lights, but that fear is slowly receding.

?
20dollar pedals and 12 dollar clips?

As a MTB rider I always depended on my Times, loved them. Liked Look style on my roadie. I ride brakeless and would never ride brakeless with any clip system, they do unclip from time to time(I'm thinking railroad tracks and roots). And I just ride for fun and commuting so I like to wear comfortable shoes for off the bike which accounts for at least half my time.

I recently got on the clipless bandwagon, and I'm not going back. I love it. I ride Eggbeaters with a pair of Specialized Riata MTB shoes. I think if you want to be able to walk decently you should go for MTB shoes, they have a little grip to their soles.

Clips/straps would dick over my nice shoes so I'd end up bringing two pairs anyway.

ive actually gotten very used to converse allstars, at first they really suck but, i have to say now any other shoe just feals cumbersom

Eggbeaters and SPDs must not be decent, then. Unless you count that a good sharp upward yank will release the cleat is "predictable". :p

I like clips and straps for what just happened 10 minutes ago...

as I was coming up to my apartment, I started to wheelie, I soon started to wheelie too much and went over, pulling my feet out in time and catching myself. if I had clipless, I would of probably fallen.

I just have two bikes. One clipless for longer rides/commuting (I leave a pair of shoes at school and at work) and one clips and straps for messing around in.

They must not be, I have simply -never- accidentally come out of my Looks

I just have a pair of shoes bolted to my pedals, no straps, no clips, no nothing. Now thats simplicity!

Not bad. I have Campy axles implanted in my foot ball bone though. Ketchup.

why didn't you just slow your pedals down some?

In the late 80s, that actually became a bit of a fad amongst SoCal kilo riders. Driving to a district championships you'd see cars with funny bikes on the roof, shoes flapping in the breeze.

Problem ended up that folks were pulling out of their shoes during the standing start, so you'd see people getting into their shoes on the bike and then wrapping a toe strap or two around. Eventually some genius figured out that if you had to use toe straps anyway then you might as well not bother with the whole bolted-down shoes bit, and that was the end of that. Fun while it lasted anyway -- especially when you were wasted at the end of your kilo and looking for someone to catch you before you fell over.

I've never seen anyone pull out of Looks on the upstroke. On the models with non-spring-centered float, however, it was not unheard of to unclip on the downstroke during a sprint. Maybe this has been solved since my day.

riding brake-less with straps doesn't have to be scary.
get some good straps.

I'm curious as to how people are pulling up out of eggbeaters without either twisting their foot or having severely worn cleats.

Eggbeaters are designed so that the wings move together as you pull up on them, so I can't see how it's possible to pull up out of them.

A good, hard upward yank on mine will do the trick every time. My left leg isn't strong enough to do it, but the right one is. New pedals and cleats, BTW.

+1 I'm geared steep and I have never, ever pulled out of my eggbeaters unintentionally. You can switch up the cleats to increase the disengage angle if you tend not to pull straight. But as pointed out in the quote above, these pedals tighten themselves, so it seems likely there's something wrong with your setup or your pedals are defective if they're not staying engaged. Is the problem pedal a Candy or other such "eggbeater" with a platform? If so, are you sure the tread on your shoe isn't preventing the cleat from fully engaging? Sometimes a little tread needs to be cut away or you need extra shims.