Clipless Pedals: Are they really worth it?
goiahawks
Posts: 38
I have become an avid cyclist over the last year. I started off with an old Trek mountain bike and then bought a Jamis road bike. This year I bought a Trek carbon road bike.
Long story short - I ride in my running shoes. They are comfortable and I seem to have no issues. The dudes at the LBS (local bike shop) are telling me I need to get clipless pedals and clipless shoes. They explained that the benefits far outweigh the possible accidents I could get in wearing shoes that I can't just "hop off the bike" with.
I'd like to hear some thoughts on both sides of this issue. I'm just trying to figure out if it is really worth the extra cost and the possible accidents (which, knock on wood, I haven't had one yet where I got hurt) to go clipless.
Thanks!
Long story short - I ride in my running shoes. They are comfortable and I seem to have no issues. The dudes at the LBS (local bike shop) are telling me I need to get clipless pedals and clipless shoes. They explained that the benefits far outweigh the possible accidents I could get in wearing shoes that I can't just "hop off the bike" with.
I'd like to hear some thoughts on both sides of this issue. I'm just trying to figure out if it is really worth the extra cost and the possible accidents (which, knock on wood, I haven't had one yet where I got hurt) to go clipless.
Thanks!
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Replies
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My first bike had clips and was a touring bike. I liked them and they were nice and secure. My current bike came without clips. I was a bit nervous, but I've been ok with it.
I wear boots when I ride most of the time. I try not to ride in flip flops. ;-)0 -
I love them, but it really comes down to your ability and your goals/expectations for your riding.
I find them far more "necessary" on my mountain bike than I do on my road bike. That said, I don't have a great spin... I tend to be more of a pedal masher.
If you want to try them out, pedals can be had for pretty cheap. Shoes don't have to be crazy expensive, but will likely make up for most of the cost.0 -
The clips I had were screwed on so I didn't have separate pedals.0
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I was used to them in two weeks. Theyre nice. Ive wrecked and still landed on my feet while my bike tumbled around me (albeit, it was lucky). I have Look Keos but I'd like Crank Brothers Candy 3s.
The only time my clips screwed me was when a guy came by with a lawnmower while i was stopped with my right foot down. I lifted it up and fell to the left. This was when I had first got them. You adapt to them quickly.
I often wear Etnies skate shoes on my Look Keos and I feel comfortable (wide feet as well). Ive ridden 20+ miles like this and felt fine. I dont know how you bike in running shoes. I need flat bottom shoes. When I pedal with my Asics on it drives me crazy. That may be partially because of the small profile of my Look's versus a standard pedal.0 -
I'd like to hear some thoughts on both sides of this issue. I'm just trying to figure out if it is really worth the extra cost and the possible accidents (which, knock on wood, I haven't had one yet where I got hurt) to go clipless.
I use mountain bike clipless pedals on my road bike. Real road pedals would be more efficient, but I like the face that I can ride somewhere and get off the bike and walk around in the shoes. Road shoes aren't so easy due to the shape of the sole.
The model I'm using is Speedplay's Frog. I really like them. They are easy and smooth to get in and out of. It takes a little practice, but it isn't that hard.
I've got Shimano XT pedals on my mountain bike. Those are a lot harder to unclip, but they feel more secure for rougher terrain.
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Thanks for the awesome replies thus far. I ride more for distance and endurance than I do for speed (but I am always trying to get from point A to point B faster). My average rides are 25 - 40 miles with the occasional 70-110. Will clipless pedals help me endurance wise and help to make the ride easier? Please excuse my ignorance, I am just trying to decide if clipless pedals are for me. Thanks!0
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carbon road bike, and not using good pedals?
Wow. So yeah... you want good pedals, light, strong, integrate well with your cycling boots.
I used to use crankbros egg beaters, but they were only ok, switched to the SPD system, and works a lot better with my tri boots.
Get some good boots, decent pedals, and get to it. If you're riding in your running shoes, you're losing a fuckton of energy during the pedal cycle.0 -
Long story short - I ride in my running shoes. They are comfortable and I seem to have no issues. The dudes at the LBS (local bike shop) are telling me I need to get clipless pedals and clipless shoes. They explained that the benefits far outweigh the possible accidents I could get in wearing shoes that I can't just "hop off the bike" with.
You're losing a lot of power as the shoes flex. You're also losing the opportunity to lift the pedal as well as pull it down, so you're only getting a proportion of the available power delivery.
I came off my bike once as a result of getting stuck, a couple of weeks after I got them. I've been using them for about 20 years now.
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I love them, of course I ride a trike so I can't fall over if I don't clip out in time. When I rode a 2 wheel upright I still loved them, but I do have a number of scars from not clipping out in time as I am a klutz.0
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I can't imagine spending the money on a decent carbon bike and not putting real pedals on.
The soles of your regular shoes are soft, and made for walking. You lose quite a bit of power transfer in the bending of those shoes as you pedal. Power that could otherwise be transferred to the drivetrain.0 -
I can't imagine spending the money on a decent carbon bike and not putting real pedals on.
I would say I'm not in the minority when it comes to the fear of going clipless. The more I read on it - the more I know I need to do it. As a beginner (just a year in) I'm still learning a lot. It took me test riding a carbon fiber bike to know it was easier on my body than a steel frame. Maybe I just need to test drive some clipless pedals and go from there.
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GO for it... Practice on a trainer or a spin type bike with your pedals (I just take a pedal wrench to the Y and change them out). You will fall a few times, but that is just life. Because you fall when you stop it is typically more embarrassing and comical than painful... The power you gain from being able to pull up and not having your foot shift is definitely a bonus especially if you like to climb.0
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Everyone falls once or twice. Then it's no issue. It is really easy to learn to do it, and takes only a few tries at it before it is second nature.0
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I know nothing about clipless pedals, but I never met anyone who worked in a bike shop who didn't think I needed to buy something! All I'm saying is - there's a reason they're called sales assistants. I also tend to find they're a little bit 'one twoo way'ish sometimes. Do your own research and make your own mind up before you decide to go along with it - test driving some clipless pedals sounds like a great idea that will help you make your mind up.0
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Clipless pedals are definitely worth it. As many have said, you lose a lot of power through the soft, flexible soles of running shoes or whatever. Also, learning to spin (high cadence, lower force) and not mash (higher force, lower cadence) will help your endurance since you're transferring some of the load from your legs to your heart and lungs on rides. Also, spinning is much, much easier on your knees.
Get some pedals (I'm a big believer in Speedplay myself) and practice clipping in and out, preferably on a trainer, before you take them on the road. Once you're used to the pedals, practice spinning in smooth, round circles and gradually try to increase your cadence up to the 90 to 100 RPM range.0 -
I use speedplays myself, but for clipless newbies basic Shimano SPDs are really easy to get in and out of. That would be my recommendation for a first set of clipless. (Yes I know they are not "real" road pedals, but so what)0
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I've just used a spin bike and my husbands mountain bike to test it out and I can speak when others say the clipless are worth it. Biking is an expensive hobby/sport but investing in something of quality (esp. from those experienced) is advice I'd take.0
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There you go, SPD-SL, super easy to use, cheap...
http://www.wiggle.com/shimano-pd-r540-spd-sl-sport-pedals/
Get em installed, get used to them, then find some better pedals. I like this system myself.0 -
Thanks for the awesome replies thus far. I ride more for distance and endurance than I do for speed (but I am always trying to get from point A to point B faster). My average rides are 25 - 40 miles with the occasional 70-110. Will clipless pedals help me endurance wise and help to make the ride easier? Please excuse my ignorance, I am just trying to decide if clipless pedals are for me. Thanks!
Clipless pedals will no help with endurance and will not make the ride easier. The only true benefit they would possibly have in your circumstance would be slightly better aerodynamics and slightly lighter weight, both of which will have a negligible effect on your performance.
Clipless pedals are only truly worth while in a racing scenario. If you do see a performance increase from running clipless pedals, it would be at most 0.005% improvement. Whereas, the risk of injury increases dramatically.
They're not worth it.
Instead, look at getting a large flat pedal with removable spikes and look for some purpose flat pedal shoes which have a stiff sole. You'll get the same level of "foot stuck to pedal" but you won't get your foot removed from your leg if you have an awkward crash, such as getting lightly hit by a car (I have seen it, it's not nice. Since the shoe will only leave the pedal when the foot is rotated, the shoe didn't let go of the pedal, but the bike went in one direction and the rider went in the other). Your knees will thank you because then your legs will work in a more natural motion and won't require extremely careful and precise cleat/seat/pedal set up to prevent repetitive motion injury (this is what happened to me and the reason why I'm not needing to lose weight).
There really are a lot of reasons not to run clipless, and there aren't any solid reason why you should run clipless.
One of the worst reasons why people like clipless, and one of the most frequent is the "ability to pull up on the back stroke."
If you do this, you will slowly separate your knee joint. Your legs are designed to push, not pull. Think about it. If you pull of on your leg, you are effectively pulling apart your knee joint. Also, you cannot exert any significant power on the up stroke. It has been thoroughly tested with professional cyclists to see how much power can be applied on the up stroke of the pedal and the results showed that - even for a professional cyclist - the amount of power given on the up stroke had a negligible effect on the full rotation of the pedals. All you should do is lift up the foot enough so there if you resistance to the foot that is pushing down. This can be done on flat pedals.0 -
Clipless pedals are definitely worth it. As many have said, you lose a lot of power through the soft, flexible soles of running shoes or whatever. Also, learning to spin (high cadence, lower force) and not mash (higher force, lower cadence) will help your endurance since you're transferring some of the load from your legs to your heart and lungs on rides. Also, spinning is much, much easier on your knees.
Get some pedals (I'm a big believer in Speedplay myself) and practice clipping in and out, preferably on a trainer, before you take them on the road. Once you're used to the pedals, practice spinning in smooth, round circles and gradually try to increase your cadence up to the 90 to 100 RPM range.
Clipless pedals do not help you learn how to spin quickly. All they do is help you learn how to be lazy with your feet because your pedals will effectively pull your foot around in circles. If you want to learn how to spin incredibly quickly, do it on flat pedals where you need real control over your feet to prevent them from flying off the pedals. Once you can do this, imagine how much better you could be when your feet are attached to the pedals.0 -
lol. separate your knee joint... I'd love to see the research on that.Clipless pedals will no help with endurance and will not make the ride easier.
orly? Funny, when I switched to clipped pedals, my cadence increased, cruising speed increased, heart rate during climbs decreased, and overall ability to ride over long distances increased both perceptually and corroborated by cycle data.
You're making up stuff as you go. If you understand anything about power transfer, you know your statement is pretty silly. The reason those pedals and shoes exist is to increase efficiency and power. Both combined makes the experience easier. derp.
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I'm about a year into cycling (CAAD 10) and went with the newbies basic Shimano SPDs. Less than $100 to get started. I fell over once while adjusting to them (fatigue after a long ride contributed to that). It really wasn't a big deal at all. They become second nature after a week or so.
When you want some extra power during the ride, they just deliver. Even though I find myself pushing down only at times, I can really tell the difference when I keep the pressure up 360. It also helps to keep my feet at the correct angle and protect my knees from improper angles.0 -
lol. separate your knee joint... I'd love to see the research on that.Clipless pedals will no help with endurance and will not make the ride easier.
orly? Funny, when I switched to clipped pedals, my cadence increased, cruising speed increased, heart rate during climbs decreased, and overall ability to ride over long distances increased both perceptually and corroborated by cycle data.
You're making up stuff as you go. If you understand anything about power transfer, you know your statement is pretty silly. The reason those pedals and shoes exist is to increase efficiency and power. Both combined makes the experience easier. derp.
https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/s-2008-1038374
"There was no significant difference for pedalling effectiveness, net mechanical efficiency (NE) and muscular activity between [flats] and [clipless]."0 -
lol. separate your knee joint... I'd love to see the research on that.Clipless pedals will no help with endurance and will not make the ride easier.
orly? Funny, when I switched to clipped pedals, my cadence increased, cruising speed increased, heart rate during climbs decreased, and overall ability to ride over long distances increased both perceptually and corroborated by cycle data.
You're making up stuff as you go. If you understand anything about power transfer, you know your statement is pretty silly. The reason those pedals and shoes exist is to increase efficiency and power. Both combined makes the experience easier. derp.
I was about to go point by point refuting everything the previous poster said, but I will just say +1 to this post.
I don't have the energy to deal with how wrong that was.0 -
I suspect the reason why you saw such an improvement in performance was because you were going from crappy flat pedals with running shoes to purpose built cycling shoes with clipless pedals.
Have you ever ridden on a high quality, large aluminum flat pedal with purpose build flat shoes?0 -
One look at published pedal force curves from Kautz or Coyle and it's clear that rider's, especially national level elite racers do NOT spin smoothly around the pedal stroke or generate significant power by pulling up, scraping mud or otherwise doing the things that firm attachment to the pedals is supposed to allow:
Kautz SA, Feltner ME, Coyle EF, Baylor AM: "The pedaling technique of elite
endurance cyclists: changes with increasing workload at constant cadence".
International Journal of Sport Biomechanics 7:29-53, 1991.
Coyle EF, Feltner ME, Kautz SA, Hamilton MT, Montain SJ, Baylor AM, Abrahams
LD, Petrek GW: "Physiological and biochemical determinants of elite
endurance cycling performance". Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise
23:93-107, 1991.
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Biggest thing for me being clipped in is that you can rest your quads and use your hammies for extended periods of time if need be.
They will definitely increase your speed, endurance, handling and efficiency.0 -
In to see where this goes.
I am thinking of getting a road bike in the spring and everyone that bikes says I need switch to clipped pedals when I do that.0
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