Steve Freides said:Is there an comparison of the various types of pedal
systems out there suitable for the casual cyclotourist?
I'm no expert, but a friend of mine asked me about clipless
pedals about a year ago and I wrote him an email with my own
personal analysis.
It's probably neither complete nor fully accurate, but it's
a comparison and it's for a casual rider.
I'm sure folks all over are going to jump on me for things I
wrote, but I'll post it anyway, just for fun.
[By the way, I personally just switched from a pair of
cheap SPD pedals (PD-M515) to a wonderful, amazing,
beautiful, fantastic pair of pedals (PD-M959). The
difference is night and day. I found my pair brand new at a
local co-op for $100. If you are willing to spend the money
(they retail for a fair bit more than that, but see what
you can find), they are worth every penny. Not only do they
clip in and out as smoothly as you could ever want, they
turn like butter and are just a goddamn JOY to ride. I put
them on my fixie and I swear it felt like I dropped my gear
ratio. I'm just in love with them and won't hesitate to
spend the bucks on great pedals.]
Here goes (I'll attempt to read it and edit it right now,
but remember I wrote it a year ago for somebody else whom I
know well):
Clipless systems consist of pedals and cleats that interlock
and give you the ability to apply force to the cranks at
every point in the stroke (even the back stroke at the
bottom, which a clip will never give you). They're a little
bit daunting because you actually have to consciously unclip
your foot before taking it off the pedal and the truth is
that you WILL fall down within the first few times you try
to ride with these things. The cleats require special shoes,
but mostly these days they've standardized enough that most
cleats fit most shoes.
There are many types of clipless pedal systems and they're
all proprietary to some extent (though there is some
licensing). They break down into walkable and unwalkable
categories and have relative strengths.
I just went online looking for a good comparison, but there
wasn't anything apparent to me. Mostly, folks like what they
have or what they used first and can only compare in one
direction.
Really, there are only four practical walkable types:
Eggbeaters, Frogs, ATACs, and SPDs.
Eggbeaters (from Crank Bros.) have a pedal that looks like
an eggbeater with four blades. The cool thing about them is
that they are mechanically super simple and essentially have
four "sides" for connecting to the cleat, whereas most have
two. The drawback is that they're a bit less common and
expensive and I don't know anybody that actually uses them
to attest to their walkability, though they have "road" and
"MTB" (mountain bike) cleats which might say something about
walkability. They do now have a platform petal which makes
NOT clipping in sometimes workable. (Mike has these, but
he's not really happy with them.) <URL:
crankbros.comcrankbros.comOpen ↗ >
Frogs by Speedplay are an attempt to adapt a popular fancy
road pedal to more practical wet/dry, walkable pedals.
There's only two models from one manufacturer. The cleats
are more expensive if you have more than one pair of shoes,
but only one set of pedals. Some people really like them
because they're light and they look cool. The other
Speedplay pedals look better, to my eyes, but they're not
really walkable. There's a new cleat for the Frog line
that's supposedly totally compatible with standard (we'll
see in a moment what that means) shoes. <URL:
speedplay.comspeedplay.comOpen ↗ >
ATACs from Time are considered the sort of "high
performance" multi-purpose system. They're a bit more
expensive, but they're lighter and they don't come in a non-
durable low-end. As with all the others, the cleats fit just
fine in standard shoes. They're not as adjustable as some
others, but they claim they don't have to be. My friend
Michael Wolfe (who rode his recumbent from Portland to
Boston, as I've said a billion times) swore by them, but now
he rides eggbeaters. <URL: timesportusa.comtimesportusa.comOpen ↗ >
SPDs from Shimano are the most common type of pedal. Shimano
is the leading maker of bicycle components and equipment, so
this shouldn't be a surprise. As with everything is the
industry, "standard" means the way Shimano does it (except
in cases where Shimano stupidly patented something that
could easily be done another way). So you'll find that shoes
made for ANY walkable cleat will be called "SPD shoes",
regardless of which system you use. There are two SPD
systems. There's the regular SPD that's general use (like I
use -- sometimes called MTB) and there's SPD-R for road
racing and track and stuff. The second isn't really walkable
and you'll see the difference immediately. Nothing confusing
about it, really, except the name. SPDs are recessed enough
in the shoe that you can actually make a shoe where the
cleat never touches the ground... granted, such a shoe might
not be compatible with some of the more hybrid-type pedals
without a little cutting away of sole. There's a kind of
staggering variety of pedals available for SPDs. I've heard
bad things about the knock-offs and have always had good
luck with the Shimano brand (three pair, so far... all
different). Cleats are essentially the same way: stick with
the brand name. They license somewhat promiscuously. Anyway,
that's what most folks use and it's good enough... but it's
a bit like buying into the monopoly... then again, it's also
can be done cheap and works Just Fine. <URL:
shimano.comshimano.comOpen ↗
