Slick
Guru
I don't think so.
pointless bicycle accessories
- Thread starter tommaguzzi
- Start date
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I note a few comments on pedals (and the usefulness/uselessness thereof), and I hope this isn't too far off topic.
I still ride with clips and straps, with old-style smooth-soled touring shoes and no cleats - I've worn them all my cycling life. I have them not too tight, but just enough to keep my feet from moving around on the pedals, and my feet slide out of them backwards just as quickly (ish) as lifting off flat pedals -- it's at instinctive speed without conscious thought, it just happens.
When I was first cycling I accepted the old idea that clips and straps improved your efficiency by allowing you to pull up as well as push down, and I also accepted the idea that ankling was the way to pedal. I never could do the ankling thing, quickly realized I could ride long distances just fine without doing it, and so I gave up - and now that I have the hindsight of modern understanding, I feel smug in my original conclusion that it was nonsense
Anyway, cue forwards to the MTB I got last year. It has flat pedals, and I assumed I'd need to swap them out for ones that took half-clips, but I tried them a few times first. They're DMR pedals with those little grippy pins, and they're great! My feet never lift from them, suggesting that, no, I'd never been pulling up when pedaling at all.
I do still find it hard to ride a bike with non-grippy flat pedals (I have one I'm fixing up), but I've come to the conclusion that what the clips and straps (and the DMR pins) do, for me, is just stop my feet sliding around - and that's all.
It was quite a revelation to find, after all these years, that I'm just as happy on grippy flat pedals as I am on my old favourite quill pedals with clips and straps (and, presumably, I'd also be fine with smooth flat pedals with grippy shoes).
I still ride with clips and straps, with old-style smooth-soled touring shoes and no cleats - I've worn them all my cycling life. I have them not too tight, but just enough to keep my feet from moving around on the pedals, and my feet slide out of them backwards just as quickly (ish) as lifting off flat pedals -- it's at instinctive speed without conscious thought, it just happens.
When I was first cycling I accepted the old idea that clips and straps improved your efficiency by allowing you to pull up as well as push down, and I also accepted the idea that ankling was the way to pedal. I never could do the ankling thing, quickly realized I could ride long distances just fine without doing it, and so I gave up - and now that I have the hindsight of modern understanding, I feel smug in my original conclusion that it was nonsense
Anyway, cue forwards to the MTB I got last year. It has flat pedals, and I assumed I'd need to swap them out for ones that took half-clips, but I tried them a few times first. They're DMR pedals with those little grippy pins, and they're great! My feet never lift from them, suggesting that, no, I'd never been pulling up when pedaling at all.
I do still find it hard to ride a bike with non-grippy flat pedals (I have one I'm fixing up), but I've come to the conclusion that what the clips and straps (and the DMR pins) do, for me, is just stop my feet sliding around - and that's all.
It was quite a revelation to find, after all these years, that I'm just as happy on grippy flat pedals as I am on my old favourite quill pedals with clips and straps (and, presumably, I'd also be fine with smooth flat pedals with grippy shoes).
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Slick
Guru
I got it, but it's "Slick" not slip.
MontyVeda
a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
- Location
- Lancaster... the little city.
Same here... spent a couple of decades thinking some sort of foot retention was essential. Then I bought some Welgo flats because i liked the colour and figured i'd need to fettle the toe straps onto them... but quickly realised that my feet don't slip off them. Toe clips and the computer are the best two things I've removed... there's no going back.I note a few comments on pedals (and the usefulness/uselessness thereof), and I hope this isn't too far off topic.
I still ride with clips and straps, with old-style smooth-soled touring shoes and no cleats - I've worn them all my cycling life. I have them not too tight, but just enough to keep my feet from moving around on the pedals, and my feet slide out of them backwards just as quickly (ish) as lifting off flat pedals -- it's at instinctive speed without conscious thought, it just happens.
When I was first cycling I accepted the old idea that clips and straps improved your efficiency by allowing you to pull up as well as push down, and I also accepted the idea that ankling was the way to pedal. I never could do the ankling thing, quickly realized I could ride long distances just fine without doing it, and so I gave up - and now that I have the hindsight of modern understanding, I feel smug in my original conclusion that it was nonsense
Anyway, cue forwards to the MTB I got last year. It has flat pedals, and I assumed I'd need to swap them out for ones that took half-clips, but I tried them a few times first. They're DMR pedals with those little grippy pins, and they're great! My feet never lift from them, suggesting that, no, I'd never been pulling up when pedaling at all.
I do still find it hard to ride a bike with non-grippy flat pedals (I have one I'm fixing up), but I've come to the conclusion that what the clips and straps (and the DMR pins) do, for me, is just stop my feet sliding around - and that's all.
It was quite a revelation to find, after all these years, that I'm just as happy on grippy flat pedals as I am on my old favourite quill pedals with clips and straps (and, presumably, I'd also be fine with smooth flat pedals with grippy shoes).
- Location
- London
For general purpose cycling/touring, must admit to being a recent convert back to flats.
No more clacking round london galleries for me.
Pretty much only use the spds around town/london these days if it's point to point. Any wandering around town in between i use the flat side of my pedals and suitable shoes.
No more clacking round london galleries for me.
Pretty much only use the spds around town/london these days if it's point to point. Any wandering around town in between i use the flat side of my pedals and suitable shoes.
OP
OP
tommaguzzi
Über Member
- Location
- County Durham
Just use flats and normal shoes. Clippies are for racers and track riders.
EatSleepRideRepeat
AKA Martin from Wales
- Location
- West Wales
Cheap plastic tyre levers that give you the illusion that when you want to remove a tyre, they will help. Bicycle spanners, the pressed steel ones, made from cheese I think, and those terrible dumbell spanner wrench things that have all the nut sizes, but are impossible to use in any situation..............breathes deeply.
Tom B
Guru
- Location
- Lancashire
My LBS basically refuesed to sell me one of those.
Bells, or audiable warning devices are for me something that could be improved. I ride on a lot of tracks and canal paths that are shared use. The usual Ping bell isnt loud enough and only last a few weeks. The old fashioned ring ring bell is better but large and many jingle annoyingly to themselves. The current electric sirens or horns are either too big, too loud or like the hornit too loud, too aggressive and have suffered mission creep.
I would love a self contained unit perhaps the size of a £2 coin or thes size of a ping bell, powered by a CR2032 with happy, but loud ding-ding "wake up burt/ada/rover" sound that would be recognisably bicycle coming please give way, rather than car alarm - panic - starburst sound of the Hornit.
MontyVeda
a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
- Location
- Lancaster... the little city.
I've no idea what they're called... micro-donuts maybe. They're fitted to my break and gear cables where they run along the top tube, presumably to stop the exposed cable rattling against the frame and chipping the paint. They always work their way along the cable and render themselves ineffective. And my frame has no paint to chip.
Racing roadkill
Guru
Yes you're absolutely right. Have you heard that all the pro teams are getting rid of their clipless systems this year, because clipless stuff is all "nonsense"? No, nor have I, because they aren't, and it isn't.I note a few comments on pedals (and the usefulness/uselessness thereof), and I hope this isn't too far off topic.
I still ride with clips and straps, with old-style smooth-soled touring shoes and no cleats - I've worn them all my cycling life. I have them not too tight, but just enough to keep my feet from moving around on the pedals, and my feet slide out of them backwards just as quickly (ish) as lifting off flat pedals -- it's at instinctive speed without conscious thought, it just happens.
When I was first cycling I accepted the old idea that clips and straps improved your efficiency by allowing you to pull up as well as push down, and I also accepted the idea that ankling was the way to pedal. I never could do the ankling thing, quickly realized I could ride long distances just fine without doing it, and so I gave up - and now that I have the hindsight of modern understanding, I feel smug in my original conclusion that it was nonsense
Anyway, cue forwards to the MTB I got last year. It has flat pedals, and I assumed I'd need to swap them out for ones that took half-clips, but I tried them a few times first. They're DMR pedals with those little grippy pins, and they're great! My feet never lift from them, suggesting that, no, I'd never been pulling up when pedaling at all.
I do still find it hard to ride a bike with non-grippy flat pedals (I have one I'm fixing up), but I've come to the conclusion that what the clips and straps (and the DMR pins) do, for me, is just stop my feet sliding around - and that's all.
It was quite a revelation to find, after all these years, that I'm just as happy on grippy flat pedals as I am on my old favourite quill pedals with clips and straps (and, presumably, I'd also be fine with smooth flat pedals with grippy shoes).
winjim
Smash the cistern
Can we put comparisons with professional racing teams in the pointless pile please?
winjim
Smash the cistern
Everything's on the spectrum somewhere I suppose.
