CLIPS VS NO CLIPS

maletac

so i just started riding again after i think a good 5 years.

Back then: i rode a hybrid on the road and used clips. did seattle to portland and then didnt ride again till now

NOW: i have a hard tail mountain bike. i want to do more road biking but i havent found any places im comfortable enough to ride yet except in deep scottsdale. so i just ride trails but im not very stable and i dont trust my bike yet.

i do have bike shoes i just see it ending back since i pull my feet off a lot going down... but up i could see this really helping

solpwr

I ride a road bike and use Look pedals with clipless cleats. I also ride a trail bike that has Shimano style clipless cleats. Also, a downhill bike at ski resorts, and use platform pedals and freeride shoes. Work on your skills, keep your feet on the pedals and buy some Shimano style pedals and shoes.

mostaverage

I go with clips, you get much more energy transfer through the pedals into forward motion. I also have them setup so they are quite loose so it's easy to get in and out of them incase I'm having a wobble. Once you clip in and out confidently you will soon learn to anticipate traffic junctions and lights. I use these shimano pedals that are cage on one side & spd on the other. http://tinyurl.com/cu53grd

HTH

fatboypup

SPD!!!

nerdieprofessor

SPD!!!

SPD clip less pedals are great for both mountain biking and road. They give you more options for show types, as well, including shoes you can actually walk in.

Ant_M76

OP, just to clarify this...

Do you mean cages with straps or a clipLESS pedal system, such as Shimano SPD?

cyclingben

I have recently been using mountain bike clip-in shoes/pedals on my road bike. I like it, took me a while to get use to but it was worth the investment.

fatboypup

just know true roadies will look down their nose at you rocking spds hehe

sillygoose1977

just know true roadies will look down their nose at you rocking spds hehe

Looking down my nose at you right now. I love slip-sliding along in my elfin roadie shoes.

Ant_M76

Proper road cleats are better for long rural rides without much stopping. Unfortunately most of my cycling and all my bikes / shoes are used in an urban environment. My commute has at least 50 sets of traffic lights between home and work. No way I am going to flip a slippery pedal over everytime I want to move away from a stop I have SPDs on all bikes and shoes. I will probably put my SPD-SL pedals back on the new (Sunday best) bike and convert one of my pairs of shoes to SPD-SL

TheBigYin

I wouldn't be without the SPD's for the mountainbike - and to be honest, a good pair of MTB racing slippers like my Sidi Dominators coupled with the XT PD-M780 XC pedals are pretty reasonable for on the road too... comparable weight (probably a little less tbh) to my Ultegra SPD-SL's, and I'm quite happy to stick them on the touring bike and ride all day on them - as long as the shoes are properly constructed, you don't get hot-spots on your foot, and you CAN actually get off the bike and walk into the cafe without looking like a spastic bambi!

Of course, custom dictates that you ride a "proper" roadie wearing ludicrous carbon-fibre soled disco-slippers with a big slippery chunk of delrin on the bottom, so that's what I do - proper fashion victim, I'm afraid...