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Singlespeed & Fixed Gear "I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty-five. Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailer? We are getting soft...As for me, give me a fixed gear!"-- Henri Desgrange (31 January 1865 - 16 August 1940)

Clips & straps or Clipless

Old 08-30-09, 08:27 PM
  #26  
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clipless is the better system, but I haven't found a clipless shoe that I really like, at least not on the bike and off. I just go with clips, but one day, when I meet the right shoe and everything clicks, it'll be clipless all the way
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Old 08-30-09, 08:41 PM
  #27  
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Clipless sucks. Power grips rock.
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Old 08-30-09, 08:47 PM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by kaseri
None of the above for me. Platform pedals on my fixed, really makes you learn how to spin.
Um, what?
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Old 08-30-09, 08:49 PM
  #29  
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Originally Posted by hairnet
can you pull backwards with those? I don't pull up on the pedal unless I'm sprinting or climbing, but I almost always pull backwards.
Yup. The pedal cage fits into the cleat slot and the toe clip straps hold them in place:
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Old 08-30-09, 08:57 PM
  #30  
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Originally Posted by jim-bob
You can pull every which way if you're running slotted cleats with tight straps.

Hope you've got a fast hand when it comes to loosening the straps at stoplights, though. I went over a few times in my junior uscf years.
Plan ahead at stoplights; reach down when your pedal is coming to the top position and swipe your hand across the strap. The flange on the buckle will catch on your hand as it moves across and will loosen the strap. It helps to use good quality straps (i.e. Alfredo Binda) that have buckles with rollers so they loosen smoothly.

Put end buttons on the straps so you have something to grab when you tighten the straps up again; the sooner after you start moving you can do this, the better as the faster your pedals are moving the harder it will be to grab the button as it goes by.
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Old 08-30-09, 09:32 PM
  #31  
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Originally Posted by JohnDThompson
Plan ahead at stoplights; reach down when your pedal is coming to the top position and swipe your hand across the strap. The flange on the buckle will catch on your hand as it moves across and will loosen the strap. It helps to use good quality straps (i.e. Alfredo Binda) that have buckles with rollers so they loosen smoothly.

Put end buttons on the straps so you have something to grab when you tighten the straps up again; the sooner after you start moving you can do this, the better as the faster your pedals are moving the harder it will be to grab the button as it goes by.
+1 on your advice. The Bindas are really great but have become outlandishly expensive, $50 minimum for a pair of the unlaminated model with the good roller buckle and $100 for the laminated model. If I were looking for a top line laminated toe strap today, I'd probably buy the Japanese Toshi DeLuxe, which is about half the price of the laminated Binda. Still, all the top line straps are expensive, no matter how you cut it.
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Old 08-30-09, 09:35 PM
  #32  
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I ride clipless in Look road pedals. I had SPD mountain pedals for a while, but I didn't like them. Here's my two cents.

Road clipless is so much nicer to ride in, but the shoes suck to walk in. Mountain clipless (SPD, eggbeaters, etc.) are still nice, but if you plan on doing any major backpedaling or skidding, expect to have them randomly eject your foot occasionally. If you don't do any of that, go for it, cause the shoes are easier to walk in.
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Old 08-30-09, 11:58 PM
  #33  
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My two cents to this ^ guy's two cents:

I've never ridden a road clipless system, so I don't know what I'm talking about BUT I have a mountain shoe that has a full carbon sole (Sidi Dominator 6) so I don't understand how it would be any different and less nice than a road shoe. The only difference is the cleat and the tread pattern when compared to the Sidi Genius. Maybe someone can enlighten me on that one. And second, I don't know what kind of mountain clipless you've been riding, but I've never had a foot "ejected" occasionally and I ride brakeless and rely 98% on backpedaling for slowing/stopping (I will occasionally backpedal hard enough to skid during oh-**** moments, but I buy expensive tires and don't like replacing them). I ride ATAC XS pedals with the spring tension all the way up and the cleats swapped (R cleat on L shoe & L cleat on R shoe). The only time my foot ever came out unexpectedly was when I was goofing off and doing a hockey skid and twisted my foot out. That was once in 2 years. I have broken more straps in the same time frame, so clipless is definitely the safer option in my experience.
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Old 08-31-09, 12:27 AM
  #34  
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Originally Posted by dsh
I ride clips and straps on my fixed gear, clipless on my geared bike.

If I'm going for a long enough ride that I'd rather have gears, it's a long enough ride that I'd rather be clipless. Works for me.
This, but I think I may try to purchase a set of walkable clipless shoes in the near future and give the pedals that came with my road bike a whirl.
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Old 08-31-09, 05:21 AM
  #35  
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clipless on pretty much anything...
don't care if i have to change my shoes... it's not that big a deal for me
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Old 08-31-09, 05:33 AM
  #36  
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Originally Posted by owenboen
I ride clipless in Look road pedals. I had SPD mountain pedals for a while, but I didn't like them. Here's my two cents.

Road clipless is so much nicer to ride in, but the shoes suck to walk in. Mountain clipless (SPD, eggbeaters, etc.) are still nice, but if you plan on doing any major backpedaling or skidding, expect to have them randomly eject your foot occasionally. If you don't do any of that, go for it, cause the shoes are easier to walk in.
I have owned and ridden both road and mtn style clipless pedals. With mountain pedals, I have run no fewer than four different kinds of pedals.

Except when I was running insanely worn-down cleats on old, worn-down pedals. I have never had my foot "ejected" unexpectedly. Never. And when I was running the stupid, unsafe setup for a week, the times my foot did come out were at times when it would be rather expected, and not remotely at random.

Point here is that if you're going to run clipless pedals of any kind, maintain your ****. Inspect your cleats and pedals periodically, replace/repair/adjust as necessary.

I didn't find road clipless any nicer to ride in. In fact, I found them more of a pain in the ass on all levels. Far more difficult to get properly adjusted, harder to get in/out quickly (relevant in traffic), and walking in road shoes with road cleats is pretty much impractical past six feet.

I like MTN pedals. I like my float. I like my easy in/out. I like that they're easier on my knees. I like that I can walk easily in my clipless shoes (<3 Sidi). And I like that they're still as secure as I could possibly want.

I'm not saying road pedals are bad or pointless or anything, but for my purposes they just don't make sense and I don't like them. Someday I'll build a really nice road bike, and for that I'll have some nice Time road pedals. For city fixed riding, though, it's Time ATAC all the way.
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Old 08-31-09, 07:24 AM
  #37  
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Originally Posted by glacialreign
clipless on pretty much anything...
don't care if i have to change my shoes... it's not that big a deal for me
Seriously.
Keep some slip on's, in a locker, desk, bag, what ever.

Or just suck it up and walk in your cycling shoes all day.
Specialized shoes, have the body geometry ****, which, when properly set up and broken in, is the most comfortable shoe on the planet. You will never take your cycling shoes off.
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Old 08-31-09, 08:36 AM
  #38  
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For the Record pull up on Eggbeaters and they get tighter and more difficult to release from
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Old 08-31-09, 01:05 PM
  #39  
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Yeah, I absolutely hate having any sorta float in my clipless set up. It just makes me feel weird, I dunno.
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Old 08-31-09, 01:15 PM
  #40  
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Originally Posted by owenboen
Yeah, I absolutely hate having any sorta float in my clipless set up. It just makes me feel weird, I dunno.

wow Float is probably the biggest thing I like about being clipless, I know my knees are very pleased with it
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Old 08-31-09, 01:27 PM
  #41  
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Clips and straps for me.
 
Old 08-31-09, 01:28 PM
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i ride SPD clipless and I love it. it's great for fixed gear riding. i wouldn't go back to anything else.
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Old 08-31-09, 02:04 PM
  #43  
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I ride SPDs after using clips and straps for years, and I would never go back to clips.
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Old 08-31-09, 02:24 PM
  #44  
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getting new pedal set...

questions:
mks steel clips large or medium? i wear size 10

i know i should get large but i was wondering compared to medium, where is the pedal positioned in relation to your sole? where is the ideal location?

just wondering bc i've found a deal on a set. thanks!
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Old 08-31-09, 02:29 PM
  #45  
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Originally Posted by Xgecko
wow Float is probably the biggest thing I like about being clipless, I know my knees are very pleased with it
Yeah, if a no-float cleat puts your knees at a weird angle then float is definitely a good thing for you, but I know for me the feeling of my feet shifting around on the top of the pedal just kind of unnerves me, taking away some of the confidence of having your feet connected to the pedals. As soon as I get enough scratch to experiment with it I'm going to try a set of zero-float cleats. If I wind up getting a comfortable angle with them, I'll probably switch to that. If not, I'll just have to get myself psychologically accustomed to the float.
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Old 08-31-09, 06:32 PM
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float does take some time to get used to I decided that I would ride every day for a week until I was comfortable...it took about 3 days and 40-50 miles...I was freaked when I first started out, mind you I have like 2 months on my Eggbeaters, I never saw the need before now I can't figure out why i fought the switch for so long. The comfort, power and control is unparalleled, the other plus is how much easier it is for my old body to perform compared to toeclips. At times I still have to think about disengaging but it's becoming more automatic
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Old 08-31-09, 06:41 PM
  #47  
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Originally Posted by JohnDThompson
Plan ahead at stoplights; reach down when your pedal is coming to the top position and swipe your hand across the strap. The flange on the buckle will catch on your hand as it moves across and will loosen the strap. It helps to use good quality straps (i.e. Alfredo Binda) that have buckles with rollers so they loosen smoothly.

Put end buttons on the straps so you have something to grab when you tighten the straps up again; the sooner after you start moving you can do this, the better as the faster your pedals are moving the harder it will be to grab the button as it goes by.
what a pain in the ass. I can see these being used on a road bike, but with a fixed gear on the road seems just stupid.
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Old 08-31-09, 08:03 PM
  #48  
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SPD's on all my bikes, I like'em quite a bit.

I use a pair of Northwave Kameleon shoes for everything, easy to walk in, great to ride in, I spend all day in them.
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Old 09-01-09, 05:58 AM
  #49  
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Originally Posted by hairnet
what a pain in the ass. I can see these being used on a road bike, but with a fixed gear on the road seems just stupid.
For those of us that rode before clipless pedals hit the scene, it's second nature and no biggie.
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Old 09-01-09, 07:38 AM
  #50  
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I cinch my straps down pretty snug when I roll out of the driveway and go, and I don't usually have to touch them at all during the ride.
 

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