Cleats

Mick D said:

Considering going down this road, can someone enlighten me as to the pros and cons of them please.

Do you want to compare them to toe-straps, or to bare pedals? Assuming you currently have
toe-straps/traps,

Pros: - a little more efficient,
- safer in an emergency (once you are accustomed to them.). Cons: - you *will* fall off a
few times (when stopping) before learning.
- relatively expensive pedals, cleats and shoes.

Quoted message said:

I was basically going to get the shoes and cleats and go from there, pedals are a standard pedal
one side and clip[ in the

That eliminates the disadvantage of needing to change shoes for even a short ride.

Quoted message said:

other till someone said the pedlas needed to be matched to my gait, is that true?

Huh? Sounds like bollocks to me. Maybe they mean to adjust the cleat position on your shoes,
but thats not related to "gait". So what is your gait anyway? Do you walk, run, jog, trot,
canter or gallop?

Quoted message said:

--
[email hidden] Replace spam with TPG to reply.

Cleats are good. Keep your foot firmly attached to the pedal. Downside is that everyone will tell
you you _must_ fall of with them before you _learn_ how to get out of them.

Reality - if your not a road racer (sorry to road racers, but this does seem common amongst the
bunch), adjust the cleats so they are not super tight and you can get your foot out easy.

I've fallen over with toe straps - not being able to reach down and release them in time, but never
(yep that's right) never with cleats.

The adjusting takes a while though. You need them tight enough that you can pull back and up without
pulling out. I can get out of all the cleats on my bicycles with the normal heal twist, but also
with lifting the inside of my foot up. Consider if your foot is on the pedal, and you want to move
your foot (without turning the heel) sideways, the inside edge of the foot will lift, and then at
some point my cleat disengages and I am out of it. No problems, No falls.

Megan Fixie rider who needs her feet to stay in the cleat when riding:-)

"Mick D" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Considering going down this road, can someone enlighten me as to the pros and cons of them please.
I was basically going to get the shoes and cleats and go from there, pedals are a standard pedal
one side and clip[ in the other till someone said the pedlas needed to be matched to my gait, is
that true?

Thanks for the replys here and the one in my inbox, it's for an MTB and i'm just a commuter cyclist.
Currently have bare pedals and been pretty much anti cleats/toe clips as I think they're just a
poseur and a lot of [censored] but seems my line of thinking is just an old bloke stuck in his ways a bit
and time to pull the head out a little.

Volunteered at Catani gardens on ATB 2003 and noticed like 1 person in every 500 (at max) that
didn't use either cleats or toe clips and given the option I think I may as well go the whole hog
and do the cleats gig. Not wanting to pay a heap as am not a racer nor intending to be one, thanks
again, time to bite the bullet. "Megan Webb" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Cleats are good. Keep your foot firmly attached to the pedal. Downside is that everyone will tell
you you _must_ fall of with them before you _learn_ how to get out of them.

Reality - if your not a road racer (sorry to road racers, but this does seem common amongst the
bunch), adjust the cleats so they are not super tight and you can get your foot out easy.

I've fallen over with toe straps - not being able to reach down and release them in time, but
never (yep that's right) never with cleats.

The adjusting takes a while though. You need them tight enough that you can pull back and up
without pulling out. I can get out of all the cleats on my bicycles with the normal heal twist,
but also with lifting the inside of my foot up. Consider if your foot is on the pedal, and you
want to move your foot (without turning the heel) sideways, the inside edge of the foot will lift,
and then at some point my cleat disengages and I am out of it. No problems, No falls.

Megan Fixie rider who needs her feet to stay in the cleat when riding:-)

"Mick D" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Considering going down this road, can someone enlighten me as to the

pros

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

and cons of them please. I was basically going to get the shoes and

cleats

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

and go from there, pedals are a standard pedal one side and clip[ in the other till someone said
the pedlas needed to be matched to my gait, is

that

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

true?

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Mick D
Considering going down this road, can someone enlighten me as to the pros and cons of them please.
I was basically going to get the shoes and cleats and go from there, pedals are a standard pedal
one side and clip[ in the other till someone said the pedlas needed to be matched to my gait, is
that true?
--
[email hidden] Replace spam with TPG to reply.

I've just started using cleats and can also say they have their advantages/disadvantages.

I would say they are not suited to commuting where you will be stop starting all the time. I have difficulty getting them to click in first go which is sometimes frustating.

I find its easy to pedal at a high rpm/max out low gears and you can get some power as your foot goes up.

Biggest improvement would have to be in acceleration especially when standing on pedals.

"Megan Webb" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Reality - if your not a road racer (sorry to road racers, but this does seem common amongst the
bunch), adjust the cleats so they are not super tight and you can get your foot out easy.

Hmm.. road racer here.. I never fell while clipped in. I crashed a bit but never just fell over at
lights, etc. I've seen many people do it though. :-) I went from flats to toe-straps to SPD
clipless. I had a few hairy moments in toe-slips and straps when I couldn't get out in time, but I
always seemed to just rip my shoe out just in time. I went down once in traffic with my SPDs, but
that was because I was practicing a track stand and my heavy backpack slipped and I over-balanced...
clipless pedals are not as bad as everyone makes them out to be.

Quoted message said:

Megan Fixie rider who needs her feet to stay in the cleat when riding:-)

I guess the day will come when I pull out of clipless setup and then have to really tighten them
down.. THEN maybe I will start falling over while still clipped in?

hippy

Quoted message said:

Cleats are good. Keep your foot firmly attached to the pedal. Downside is that everyone will tell
you you _must_ fall of with them before you _learn_ how to get out of them.

Well its pretty true. There is probably the exception but we always laugh at the newbie with
clipless. You dont get hurt (apart from your pride) you only tip over when you stop because you
forget. Then panic when you try and lift your foot off then panic some more. BANG. I fell a few
times before it being a natural movement. The worse was at a busy roundabout where I pulled up in a
hurry. Thats the worst time as I had a big audience to see me just tip over. You start to remember
after the first one but if you stop in a big hurry it can happen again.

Glad to see you didnt have to suffer that.

Pete

You can get shoes that look like 'normal' sports wear and sandals with cleats in them. Lots of my
non-cycling friends only pick up that i'm wearing cycling shoes when we walk on concrete and the
cleat makes grinding noises. So its hard to tell these days who wears spd cleats and who doesn't if
you can't pick the brand of shoe.

btw. I am a commutter rider on a MTB bike frame that has is a fixed gear, fixed wheel. :-)

Megan "Mick D" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Thanks for the replys here and the one in my inbox, it's for an MTB and i'm just a commuter
cyclist. Currently have bare pedals and been pretty much anti cleats/toe clips as I think they're
just a poseur and a lot of [censored] but seems my line of thinking is just an old bloke stuck in his
ways a bit and time to pull the head out a little.

Volunteered at Catani gardens on ATB 2003 and noticed like 1 person in every 500 (at max) that
didn't use either cleats or toe clips and given the option I think I may as well go the whole hog
and do the cleats gig. Not wanting to pay a heap as am not a racer nor intending to be one, thanks
again, time to bite the bullet. "Megan Webb" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Cleats are good. Keep your foot firmly attached to the pedal. Downside is that everyone will
tell you you _must_ fall of with them before you _learn_ how to get out of them.

Reality - if your not a road racer (sorry to road racers, but this does seem common amongst the
bunch), adjust the cleats so they are not super tight and you can get your foot out easy.

I've fallen over with toe straps - not being able to reach down and release them in time, but
never (yep that's right) never with cleats.

The adjusting takes a while though. You need them tight enough that you can pull back and up
without pulling out. I can get out of all the cleats on my bicycles with the normal heal twist,
but also with lifting the inside of my foot up. Consider if your foot is on the pedal, and you
want to move your foot (without turning the heel) sideways, the inside edge of the foot will
lift, and then at some point my cleat disengages and I am out of it. No problems, No falls.

Megan Fixie rider who needs her feet to stay in the cleat when riding:-)

"Mick D" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Considering going down this road, can someone enlighten me as to the

pros

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

and cons of them please. I was basically going to get the shoes and

cleats

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

and go from there, pedals are a standard pedal one side and clip[ in the other till someone
said the pedlas needed to be matched to my gait, is

that

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

true?

Quoted message said:

and I over-balanced... clipless pedals are not as bad as everyone makes them out to be.

They are not bad at all. You will love them. Everyone loves them once they start getting used to
them. You will never go back. You will hate riding without them. When riding without them, I find it
uncomfortable and keep slipping my foot off the pedal.

Pete

Quoted message said:

I've just started using cleats and can also say they have their advantages/disadvantages.

I would say they are not suited to commuting where you will be stop starting all the time. I have
difficulty getting them to click in first go which is sometimes frustating.

Disagree. Adjust the tensions. They are easy to get in and out of once you have done it for a while.
Its like it was attached to your foot all your life.

Pete

i agree .. cleating in is as natural as putting my seat belt on in the car.. it just happens.. once
you get used to it... i got SPD-SL on my road and flats with cleats (shims cant remember the model)
on my mountain bike.. "John Doe" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I've just started using cleats and can also say they have their advantages/disadvantages.

I would say they are not suited to commuting where you will be stop starting all the time. I
have difficulty getting them to click in first go which is sometimes frustating.

Disagree. Adjust the tensions. They are easy to get in and out of once

you

Quoted message said:

have done it for a while. Its like it was attached to your foot all your life.

Pete

Mick D said:

Thanks for the replys here and the one in my inbox, it's for an MTB and i'm just a commuter
cyclist. Currently have bare pedals and been pretty much anti cleats/toe clips as I think they're
just a poseur and a lot of [censored] but seems my line of thinking is just an old bloke stuck in his
ways a bit and time to pull the head out a little.

hehe, well I am on the wrong side of forty, geting too close to fifty for my liking, been using the
shimano spds for the last 8 years or so, before that I used toe clips, never again, the spds are so
easy to get your foot off the pedal in a hurry compared to toe clips, a slight twist of the heal and
your foot is free compared to having to pull your foot backwards and down to get out of toe clips

I have the tension lightened off since I only ride for fun and exercise but have no problems with my
feet releasing by mistake

shimano.com.aumountain pOpen ↗
edals.html

I use both the PD-M646 and the PD-M424 pedals, both are real easy to clip into amd if think you need
to get your foot down in a hurry you can unclip and move your foot slightly sideways and still pedal

shimano.com.aumountainOpen ↗
shoes.html

as for the shoes just pick a pair that are comfortable for walking in, I bought a pair of the
SH-SD60 sandles now that the weather is gettin warmer, very nice to walk around in.

one thing with these shoes that the sole is reinforced so it supports your feet as you cycle, the
bottom of my feet used to get a bit sore after a long ride when I used ordinary shoes with the toe
clips, they are fine now with these shoes and sandles

Megan Webb said:

You can get shoes that look like 'normal' sports wear and sandals with cleats in them. Lots of my
non-cycling friends only pick up that i'm wearing cycling shoes when we walk on concrete and the
cleat makes grinding noises. So its hard to tell these days who wears spd cleats and who doesn't
if you can't pick the brand of shoe.

yep, the shimano sandles I have are not quite as noisy as the boots, but then again the boots are
few years old so have most likely worn down the soles a bit

but as for the sandles they look just like any other sandles out there, people only notice when I
"clink" them into or out of the pedals