Interesting Clipless idea (not mine!)

[Profpointy]

Must be a way of making your own - how about piece of plywood, cut to desired size, cleat screwed to it, piece of coarse wet and dry glued on for grip?

Or screw a cleat to a piece of alumnium - and screw in some grub screws by way of grip.
Quite why he needs crowd-sourcing when any small metal shop could knock these out cheap if bough in reasonable quanity.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Must be a way of making your own - how about piece of plywood, cut to desired size, cleat screwed to it, piece of coarse wet and dry glued on for grip?

That's not really an argument against it though is it? There are ways of making lots of things on your own. I could make some new mudguards out of hammered baked bean tins and coathangers for example, but I'm going to chicken out and waste my money on "shop bought" ones.

 

[Pointy boy]

Quite why he needs crowd-sourcing when any small metal shop could knock these out cheap if bough in reasonable quanity.

Precisely for that reason: to achieve a reasonable production cost you need a volume of orders to justify the production-run. By funding through Kickstarter he can approach a fabricator, if that is what he inends to do, with a guaranteed minimum-order, which puts him in the best position to negotiate price. It isn't the most ground-breaking idea in the world, but seems a neatly engineered bit of kit, and better than what most of us could produce ourselves.

 

[youngoldbloke]

That's not really an argument against it though is it? There are ways of making lots of things on your own. I could make some new mudguards out of hammered baked bean tins and coathangers for example, but I'm going to chicken out and waste my money on "shop bought" ones.

I think mudguards constructed from baked bean cans and coat hangers is in a different league, and would involve considerably more work , but $46 ish for these seems extravagant to me. I'd sooner swap pedals - would take me no longer than fitting these and I wouldn't have to pay out for another pair of cleats .....

 

[Profpointy]

Precisely for that reason: to achieve a reasonable production cost you need a volume of orders to justify the production-run. By funding through Kickstarter he can approach a fabricator, if that is what he inends to do, with a guaranteed minimum-order, which puts him in the best position to negotiate price. It isn't the most ground-breaking idea in the world, but seems a neatly engineered bit of kit, and better than what most of us could produce ourselves.

Well ok, but do you want to trust your money to someone unable to pony up £10k out of their own resources - say 1000 units at a tenner a pop? Totally guessed figures.

 

[Pointy boy]

Well, yes . Otherwise we'd only ever give our money to the massive corporations. Sometimes it's worth taking a punt on the little guy with a decent idea who lacks the resources. I'm a big believer in Kickstarter - you need to be discerning about who you back, as in any walk of life, but it is a valid route-to-market for small independent designers.How many of them have 10k to spare - and the banks sure as hell don't back them anymore.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I think mudguards constructed from baked bean cans and coat hangers is in a different league, and would involve considerably more work , but $46 ish for these seems extravagant to me. I'd sooner swap pedals - would take me no longer than fitting these and I wouldn't have to pay out for another pair of cleats .....

Yeah, see your point. But if I wanted some of these, I'd buy them, not make them. As it happens, I don't.

Stand by for my "green recycled artistic mudguards" pitch on Kickstarter. "Each mudguard saves five empty food cans, and two dry-cleaners coathangers from going into landfill. As you ride they make an appealing sound rather like wind chimes would, if they were made from old cans being rubbed by a bicycle tyre. Save the planet and be the envy of your friends".

 

[cyberknight]

Its a good idea although i doubt many people who ride on road shoes are liable to ride the bike casually enough to warrant this design and pedals with flats one side and clip in the other already exist for mtb style cleats .

 

[youngoldbloke]

- and, amazing but true - it IS possible to ride on Look or SPD/SL pedals in trainers - for short distances anyway - but who would want to?

 

[Profpointy]

And on crank brothers egg beaters in my best brogues - but harder work

 

[azir]

I think it would be handy for those folk like me who only have 1 bike - I like riding clipless but I don't want to change to pedals with 1 side clipless and 1 flat. I have ridden on one sided pedals before and, whilst not a hateful experience, I wouldn't choose to go back. I'd like these clip in flats so that I could ride my bike relatively far and in comfort and know that I wouldn't have to carry my shoes about at the other end - this might not be a regular occurrence but would be handy for going out in the evening when I want to cycle but don't want to wear my bike shoes all night (they are recessed and MTB style but there is no pretending that they're comfortable for strolling about in!)

 

[Stephen C]

These would actually be useful for me, but I realise I probably have fairly unique circumstances. I commute on a road bike with SPD-SL pedals as going from home to work involves almost no walking, but where I work is 2 miles from the centre of Cambridge. I often (once a week or so) go into the centre to do some shopping etc, and although I can ride with trainers, this would give me just a bit more stability.

 

[petergc]

I like the idea but not for me. I would just use my hybrid if I was popping to my local shop.

 

[EltonFrog]

I think it's a nice idea, I don't need them, but judging by the amount of backers they have already it looks like its going to be successful, good luck to them I say. Although their comedy routine on the video was a bit bollix.

 

[steveindenmark]

Mine are SPD one side and cleats the other side.

But I like this idea and like how the guys present it. I like the simplicity of the pedals.

Steve