performance improvement with cleats

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From: "winnard"

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I've been riding alone, sometimes with my wife.

Bravo on the rides with your spouse. Me and mine have a few really memorable
bike moments. Beating the men on the Shiner Ride, priceless.

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I cannot lie, I am
addicted to cycling, and it came about in a hurry. I've met a couple of
good riders that I ride with every once in >awhile.

Are there any regular group rides in your area? You might find something
agreeable for you and your wife. For instance, there's a large local club
(Austin Cycling Ass'n) that organizes regular rides of varying distance and
difficulty, suitable for a wide variation in "ability" (i.e. speed, mostly).
Several couples "meet back at the car"; your wife would find "girls-only" (or
mostly) groups to ride with. The routes are very well-known, maps are
available, and so forth (lots of support, IOW).

Your routine of riding a short route, lots of intense laps, is quite useful but
there is a lot more out there for the well-adjusted bicycle riding addict.
Riding in groups makes the miles go faster, plus you will meet experienced
riders whom you can learn from, and faster than discovering and/or figuring it
out by yourself.

If you didn't ride a Century on your hybrid, there is nothing like the first
one, a big, big accomplishment. --TP

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On Fri, 16 Jul 2004 21:51:02 -0500, "winnard" <[email hidden]>

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Most serious cyclists use cleats these days to improve performance.
About how many minutes would you save over a 20 mile flat course
cycling with cleats VS cycling the same distance with sneakers and rat
trap pedals?

I don't post here often, but I'm glad you asked.
First off, I need to say I've been riding seriously for *only* 5 weeks.

I

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bought a Cannondale 5 weeks ago, and I have 475 miles on it already. I

rode

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a hybrid for two years, and lost 58 lbs with a proper diet. I still have

a

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lot to learn about cycling.
I ride on a 9.5 mile course, and twice around (19 miles) I have been

riding

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in 68 minutes on regular pedals and Nike sneakers. Three weeks ago, I
bought Shimano shoes and Ultegra pedals. The first time out, after a

few

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short rides to get the feel of the spinning, I rode the 19 miles in

59:59.

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The pedals/ shoes made an incredible difference.

winnard

That sounds like a pretty steep fine to pay for not using SPD pedals.
As other posters have mentioned, for sprinting, hill climbing, or any
situation where your feet are in danger of coming off the pedals SPD's
look like the way to go. Did you notice that you were using any new
muscles from pulling up on the pedals?

I noticed my thighs were burning in a good way! When I was 12, I got a
nasty triple scar on my shin, from a 'rat trap' pedal because my shoe
slipped off. I still show that scar off. On my hybrid, my feet have
slipped off when the chain jumped gears, it's scary.

winnard

Quoted message said:

Most serious cyclists use cleats these days to improve performance.
About how many minutes would you save over a 20 mile flat course
cycling with cleats VS cycling the same distance with sneakers and rat
trap pedals?

Regular shoes and pedals with toe clips and straps will give most of the
performance benefit you can get. The "sweet spot" bang for the buck for
me was touring shoes and toeclips. Easier to get in and out of the toe
clips, but also more secure than regular shoes. I still ride like that
on my tandem- Mountain bike cycling shoes, clips and straps. The shoes
can be used with SPD cleats, but they aren't installed.

Clipless pedals (the kind that snap to the shoes) aren't faster, but
they are more comfortable and safer under race conditions where you want
to be very securely attached to your pedals. I use these on my road
single. A bit more adjustable for position, more repeatable position,
and the shoe is rigid, and slightly more comfortable on a long ride. I
don't know if I'd bother if I didn't already have them, but it's easier
to keep them than it is to find extra large toe clips.

Ken said:

David Damerell <[email hidden]> wrote in news:8Yk*

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Ken said:

When climbing, cleats help you pull all the around the pedalling
circle, giving you better efficiency and more power for the same wattage
output.

More power for the same wattage, eh? That _is_ a neat trick.

Power multiplied by efficiency gives you more output, right?

You've now used "output" to mean two different things.
--
David Damerell <[email hidden]> Kill the tomato!

Peter Cole said:

All I said is that
pulling up doesn't make you faster, sustained power is an aerobic function.
You can't have biked much if you haven't figured that out yet.

Many inexperienced riders have the habit of pushing down on the rising
pedal, in effect using some of their energy to fight their own effort.
Clipless pedals might help such a rider to refrain from this wasted
effort because he no longer fears losing his footing.

Since I fell out of "fighting trim", I have noticed no benefit from
clipless pedals except to keep me from getting kicked off my fixie.
When my fixie retired, so did my silly shoes and pedals.

Chalo Colina

"Chalo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Peter Cole said:

All I said is that
pulling up doesn't make you faster, sustained power is an aerobic

function.

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You can't have biked much if you haven't figured that out yet.

Many inexperienced riders have the habit of pushing down on the rising
pedal, in effect using some of their energy to fight their own effort.
Clipless pedals might help such a rider to refrain from this wasted
effort because he no longer fears losing his footing.

Agreed, and I have to admit this could be called a source of efficiency
improvement, you don't have to waste any effort spent simply keeping your foot
on the pedal. Not a lot of effort in practice, but some.

Chalo said:

Peter Cole said:

All I said is that
pulling up doesn't make you faster, sustained power is an aerobic function.
You can't have biked much if you haven't figured that out yet.

Many inexperienced riders have the habit of pushing down on the rising
pedal, in effect using some of their energy to fight their own effort.
Clipless pedals might help such a rider to refrain from this wasted
effort because he no longer fears losing his footing....

I believe that this is one of the selling points for "PowerCranks".

--
Tom Sherman – Quad City Area