fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
Land speed record on a Chopper - my god... I had one....
Why did pedals you can ride in any shoe go out of fashion?
- Thread starter KneesUp
- Start date
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Land speed record on a Chopper - my god... I had one....
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- The Urban Fringe
It was my Mums fault for buying me Chuck Yaeger's biography for Christmas.
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
I'm not being funny, but I can do some mad stuff on my modern bikes, because they are designed for it... Raleigh Chopper - dangerous just stepping over the crossbar.
Punkawallah
Veteran
Especially if you caught some of the empennage on the way.
PaulSB
Squire
- Location
- Chorley, Lancashire
Off topic I know. A friend broke her pelvis a few weeks ago. I realise we are all different and there are many different potential pelvis fractures.
How long did the pelvis fracture take to heal and how long were you off the bike? Is it still uncomfortable to ride?
PaulSB
Squire
- Location
- Chorley, Lancashire
Back on topic. I'm not sure flats ever went out of fashion, more that there has been a growing trend amongst amateur riders to ride clipless. I find it difficult to ride flats after 20/25 years on clipless.
When I first got SPDs I taught myself to unclip on the left and foot down on the left. My logic was it would be a potentially softer landing. Only later did I recognise the safety implications.
I can't remember how I mounted/dismounted before clipless but think it was left foot on pedal and swing right over. Certainly as a kid I would scoot on the left pedal and mount once moving.
When I first got SPDs I taught myself to unclip on the left and foot down on the left. My logic was it would be a potentially softer landing. Only later did I recognise the safety implications.
I can't remember how I mounted/dismounted before clipless but think it was left foot on pedal and swing right over. Certainly as a kid I would scoot on the left pedal and mount once moving.
I can certainly remember - flipping the r/h pedal to get my foot in the clip, avoiding scraping the clip before flipping, reaching down with the right hand to knock the strap buckle (or to pull on the strap) - it's deeply imprinted in my memory. Not so much that I have gone to knock the non-existent strap buckle whilst using clipless - but I have reached down for non-existent down-tube shifters a few times
Punkawallah
Veteran
I’ve solved the problem - still use down-tube shifters :-)
SuperGalactian
Well-Known Member
I've been pondering this description while actually cycling. With no foot attached, my Shimano EH500s rest with one edge up. Push your foot forward on that edge and you click in. Pull your foot back across it and you're on the flat side. It's so simple, I don't normally think about it.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- The Urban Fringe
And while you're pulling your foot back to rotate the pedal you've lost half a second, you've missed that gap, or that hesitation has caused the driver of the car behind to misjudge your movement...
If you're on flats, or on spuds, your pedal is correctly oriented every time. Mixing the two is the answer to a question no one had been asking.
If you're on flats, or on spuds, your pedal is correctly oriented every time. Mixing the two is the answer to a question no one had been asking.
SuperGalactian
Well-Known Member
Referring to the OP, dual-sided pedals can be ridden in any shoe. They may not be the height of fashion, but they are in current manufacture, and IMO they solve a footwear issue that destroys the spontaneity cycling can have.
It sounds as though you have never given them a reasonable trial yourself. In the ‘pushing off from lights’ example you give, I keep my left foot clipped in if wearing cycling shoes, or on the flat side otherwise. It doesn’t matter which side of the pedal the right foot contacts as you set off: you can clip in down the road if you want to.
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Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- The Urban Fringe
Your assumption is... well, just an assumption, and we all know what they make, don't we?
I have tried them at length myself, and as a retired professional cycling instructor (advanced road skills, off road skills, nav, SAR, defensive tactics, first aid, maintenance....) with accreditations from two internationally recognised training bodies I have had dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of students through my courses with them - in every case they have proven to be less optimum than their fellow students who use one standard or the other.
The difference may offtimes be as little as a fraction of a second, but the difference is nevertheless there - every single ride brings moments where the wrong face is presented to the riders foot. An adept rider may be able most ot the time to wiggle and jiggle and take but a moment to correct that, but thats in nonetheless a moment that other riders don't have to take. There's a reason why skilled, high level, professional or competitive riders use clipless or flats but don't mix the two on the same device - if there were the slightest advantage you can bet riders in all of those categories would be all over them.
In your case you merely have a correlation of 1 to guide you.
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