Strapless toe-clips

"gusmeister" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:QA0Ic.55445
[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Does anyone have any experience with strapless toe-clips? How do they
compare to regular toe-clips (with straps)?

There are mini toe clips, which are just half-length toe clips. They are
better than nothing, but not as good as using regular toe clips. If you
don't like the straps, regular toe clips with the straps removed are still
better than mini toe clips.

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

Quoted message said:

Does anyone have any experience with strapless toe-clips? How do they
compare to regular toe-clips (with straps)?

I got a set from Nashbar for my Gary Fisher hybrid. They work OK, but being
strapless they are "tighter" than clips with straps. I have size 11
sneakers that I use to ride with (which is good since I have size 11 feet)
and the first time I tried to wedge them in I thought I was going to break
the clips, but they stretch more than they look like they would. They work
fairly well on smoother terrain to improve your efficiency, but on bumpy
areas your feet will tend to come out of them (but they will come out of
strap-type clips too if the straps aren't real tight). They're cheap enough
where I'd say give them a try and if you don't like them, you're not out
very much.

gusmeister said:

Does anyone have any experience with strapless toe-clips? How do they
compare to regular toe-clips (with straps)?

Yes, I do.
I ride with either mtn bike toe clips less straps, or (my fave) Mt.
Zefal toe cups.
I use the toe clip straps as very handy parking brakes on the front
brake lever. Keeps your bike stable while you load the rack or panniers.
Strapless toe clips or good toe cups like Mt Zefal's are far better than
plain pedals. They cost dirt: $7.95 CAD at most, fit most pedals, give
your toe a place to get positioned quickly, improve power pedaling, and
make you a better hill climber.
I've had lots of controversy with riders on this newsgroup who are
committed and booked on their clip in pedal/shoe combinations. I guess
I am a more casual kind of rider, and want to mount up in whatever
clothes/shoes I am wearing and be set to go.
Toe cups and toe clips work for me. Also, note: I do not like to use
straps. They freak me out. I feel much better knowing I can bail
easily from my strapless clips or cups. Each one to his own taste. I
don't know why more riders don't use these methods. Especially commuters.

For about $8.00, I say try it.
Best regards, Bernie

Ken said:

"gusmeister" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:QA0Ic.55445
[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Does anyone have any experience with strapless toe-clips? How do they
compare to regular toe-clips (with straps)?

There are mini toe clips, which are just half-length toe clips. They are
better than nothing, but not as good as using regular toe clips. If you
don't like the straps, regular toe clips with the straps removed are still
better than mini toe clips.

In my experience you statement is not true. Toe cups work great. I use
them every day on my road bike.
Bernie

Fred Hall said:

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

Quoted message said:

Does anyone have any experience with strapless toe-clips? How do they
compare to regular toe-clips (with straps)?

I got a set from Nashbar for my Gary Fisher hybrid. They work OK, but being
strapless they are "tighter" than clips with straps. I have size 11
sneakers that I use to ride with (which is good since I have size 11 feet)
and the first time I tried to wedge them in I thought I was going to break
the clips, but they stretch more than they look like they would. They work
fairly well on smoother terrain to improve your efficiency, but on bumpy
areas your feet will tend to come out of them (but they will come out of
strap-type clips too if the straps aren't real tight). They're cheap enough
where I'd say give them a try and if you don't like them, you're not out
very much.

Fred,
Mebbe you got a small set. What brand were they? You should be able to
get toe cups to fit your not so huge feet. I wear 10's or 11's shoes ,
depending on country of origin.
My Mt Zefal's are marked "L" so I guess they are large.
OTOH, when I bought my Fuji Touring this spring, the shop gave me a pair
of toe clips because I did not like the ulta light toe clips they
provided as stock items.

I tossed the store's toe clips and bought a pair of Mt. Z's in about 2
days, as the flimsy things they gave me were [censored]. Believe it or not, I
do not work for Mt Zefal!!!

Bernie

They are Nashbar "Mini Toe Clips"
http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=&subcategory=&brand=&sku=8044&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=

According to the description they have "Plenty of room for larger shoes."...
but they were only $4.95, and for that price they work well enough.

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

Quoted message said:

Fred Hall said:

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

Quoted message said:

Does anyone have any experience with strapless toe-clips? How do they
compare to regular toe-clips (with straps)?

I got a set from Nashbar for my Gary Fisher hybrid. They work OK, but

being

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

strapless they are "tighter" than clips with straps. I have size 11
sneakers that I use to ride with (which is good since I have size 11

feet)

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

and the first time I tried to wedge them in I thought I was going to

break

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

the clips, but they stretch more than they look like they would. They

work

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

fairly well on smoother terrain to improve your efficiency, but on bumpy
areas your feet will tend to come out of them (but they will come out of
strap-type clips too if the straps aren't real tight). They're cheap

enough

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

where I'd say give them a try and if you don't like them, you're not out
very much.

Fred,
Mebbe you got a small set. What brand were they? You should be able to
get toe cups to fit your not so huge feet. I wear 10's or 11's shoes ,
depending on country of origin.
My Mt Zefal's are marked "L" so I guess they are large.
OTOH, when I bought my Fuji Touring this spring, the shop gave me a pair
of toe clips because I did not like the ulta light toe clips they
provided as stock items.

I tossed the store's toe clips and bought a pair of Mt. Z's in about 2
days, as the flimsy things they gave me were [censored]. Believe it or not, I
do not work for Mt Zefal!!!

Bernie

Fred Hall said:

They are Nashbar "Mini Toe Clips"
http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=&subcategory=&brand=&sku=8044&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=

According to the description they have "Plenty of room for larger shoes."...
but they were only $4.95, and for that price they work well enough.

Those look like mine. Simple and durable. Easy to get in n out of
them, and a vast improvement over bare pedals.
USD price is comparable to CAD $7.95 or so too.
They can be fitted sidewise a little too, to guide your foot inboard or
outboard, as required.
Have a great ride!
Bernie

On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 10:32:27 -0700, Bernie <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Fred Hall said:

They are Nashbar "Mini Toe Clips"
http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=&subcategory=&brand=&sku=8044&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=

According to the description they have "Plenty of room for larger shoes."...
but they were only $4.95, and for that price they work well enough.

Those look like mine. Simple and durable. Easy to get in n out of
them, and a vast improvement over bare pedals.
USD price is comparable to CAD $7.95 or so too.
They can be fitted sidewise a little too, to guide your foot inboard or
outboard, as required.
Have a great ride!
Bernie

Interesting. How do they line up your ball of foot and pedal fore and
aft? Is the placement good for a shoe size 9 1/2?

My toe clips are standard Trek med frame size, and is a pretty good
line up of the foot and pedal and I wear size 11s. ( I'm thinking of
the utility of the clips for my brother who is a 9 1/2, and not quite
ready to get toe clips - he rides a hard tail no suspension MTB style
Ross from the 80s (cromoly).

-B

-B

Badger_South said:

On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 10:32:27 -0700, Bernie <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Fred Hall said:

They are Nashbar "Mini Toe Clips"
http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=&subcategory=&brand=&sku=8044&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=

According to the description they have "Plenty of room for larger shoes."...
but they were only $4.95, and for that price they work well enough.

Those look like mine. Simple and durable. Easy to get in n out of
them, and a vast improvement over bare pedals.
USD price is comparable to CAD $7.95 or so too.
They can be fitted sidewise a little too, to guide your foot inboard or
outboard, as required.
Have a great ride!
Bernie

Interesting. How do they line up your ball of foot and pedal fore and
aft? Is the placement good for a shoe size 9 1/2?

They do nothing fore and aft except I think you can order sizes. I base
this assumption only on the fact that mine have the letter "L" on them.
The only adjustments I have done is moving inboard or outbard. Not
fore and aft. I wear about a US 10n a half and they work for me.

Quoted message said:

My toe clips are standard Trek med frame size, and is a pretty good
line up of the foot and pedal and I wear size 11s. ( I'm thinking of
the utility of the clips for my brother who is a 9 1/2, and not quite
ready to get toe clips - he rides a hard tail no suspension MTB style
Ross from the 80s (cromoly).

-B

My mtn bike is like that too, steel frame , no suspension, 26 inch
wheels. A great utility bike. I lament their passing from the scene.
I ride mine with plastic or maybe rubber? toe clips less the straps. I
use the straps as previously mentioned, as parking brakes. My guess is
he will get into toe clips without straps with a short learning curve.
I don't know about sizing these things, but for the small layout, they
are worth the try.
My personal preference is for toe cups not clips as stated afore. A no
brainer in mho.

Please post how you made out with your own experiments.
Bernie

On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 22:50:08 -0700, Bernie <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

My mtn bike is like that too, steel frame , no suspension, 26 inch
wheels. A great utility bike. I lament their passing from the scene.
I ride mine with plastic or maybe rubber? toe clips less the straps. I
use the straps as previously mentioned, as parking brakes. My guess is
he will get into toe clips without straps with a short learning curve.
I don't know about sizing these things, but for the small layout, they
are worth the try.

Thx BM, to get the toe clips w/ or w/o straps, as you know requires a
pedal retrofit, which is not expensive, typically around $15 for the
pedals and the same for the toeclips (I've seen $10), IIRC. I presume
the toe cups fit a standard MTB pedal with some accomp. hardware?

I've wondered about riding the toe clips w/o straps, but isn't that a
bit flimsy, since there's little supporting the 'C' of the clips, but
thinking about it, I'm riding mine with the straps loose, and (duh)
that's really the same as no straps. Since I'm riding a different kind
of terrain for a few weeks on vacation, I've tightened up the toe
clips just a little (more street, flat, straightaway, low/no traffic).

He isn't convinced how different the pedalling is with just the clips
(over a regular pedal). He's mashing mostly now, with a bit of the
"scrape off mud" emphasis that Lemond touted, but I reminded him that
being 'attached' to the pedal gave the 'motor' a lot more efficiency,
less slippage, and a well-defined placement of the foot. For me it was
like the difference between night&day to pedal with clips vs mashing a
plain pedal in tennis shoes. I tried to explain the solidarity of the
platform and how the next step would be cyclng shoes with rigid foot
support, then clips and cleats, each a step up in efficiency and
soforth (the big one being no clips to clips), but he's skeptical.

I said, well you can either ride my bike around the block, or go
withme to the LBS and test ride a couple bikes that are fitted to you
that use toe clips, and when you've experienced it you'll be kicking
yourself for not doing it sooner. It added a big boost to my riding
and speed immediately. going to rigid sole shoes, and clips and cleats
is another significant step up, but not as huge a difference from
straight pedal mashing.

Tried to explain it in terms of rigidity and slippage reduction and
regularity of pedal stroke etc, but some have to experience it to
realize, heh.
Best,
-B

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

Quoted message said:

On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 22:50:08 -0700, Bernie <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

My mtn bike is like that too, steel frame , no suspension, 26 inch
wheels. A great utility bike. I lament their passing from the scene.
I ride mine with plastic or maybe rubber? toe clips less the straps. I
use the straps as previously mentioned, as parking brakes. My guess is
he will get into toe clips without straps with a short learning curve.
I don't know about sizing these things, but for the small layout, they
are worth the try.

Thx BM, to get the toe clips w/ or w/o straps, as you know requires a
pedal retrofit, which is not expensive, typically around $15 for the
pedals and the same for the toeclips (I've seen $10), IIRC. I presume
the toe cups fit a standard MTB pedal with some accomp. hardware?

I've wondered about riding the toe clips w/o straps, but isn't that a
bit flimsy, since there's little supporting the 'C' of the clips, but
thinking about it, I'm riding mine with the straps loose, and (duh)
that's really the same as no straps. Since I'm riding a different kind
of terrain for a few weeks on vacation, I've tightened up the toe
clips just a little (more street, flat, straightaway, low/no traffic).

He isn't convinced how different the pedalling is with just the clips
(over a regular pedal). He's mashing mostly now, with a bit of the
"scrape off mud" emphasis that Lemond touted, but I reminded him that
being 'attached' to the pedal gave the 'motor' a lot more efficiency,
less slippage, and a well-defined placement of the foot. For me it was
like the difference between night&day to pedal with clips vs mashing a
plain pedal in tennis shoes. I tried to explain the solidarity of the
platform and how the next step would be cyclng shoes with rigid foot
support, then clips and cleats, each a step up in efficiency and
soforth (the big one being no clips to clips), but he's skeptical.

I said, well you can either ride my bike around the block, or go
withme to the LBS and test ride a couple bikes that are fitted to you
that use toe clips, and when you've experienced it you'll be kicking
yourself for not doing it sooner. It added a big boost to my riding
and speed immediately. going to rigid sole shoes, and clips and cleats
is another significant step up, but not as huge a difference from
straight pedal mashing.

Tried to explain it in terms of rigidity and slippage reduction and
regularity of pedal stroke etc, but some have to experience it to
realize, heh.
Best,
-B

As Bernie said in answer to your previous question, they just kind of line
up the ball of your foot over the pedal...at least for my size 11's it's a
pretty good fit. If you had size 14 or size 7 feet, not sure how good it
would be. As far as mounting to the pedals, the platform pedals on my
hybrid had screw holes where reflectors were mounted on both sides of the
pedals, so I removed the reflector on one side and put the toe clips in its
place (had to buy some longer screws at the hardware store than were
provided with the clips though. The clips also include a metal plate you
can use to add some offset and rigidity, depending on your pedal structure I
guess (there were no instructions with the clip kit, so I'm guessing what
the metal plates were for).

Badger_South said:

Thx BM, to get the toe clips w/ or w/o straps, as you know requires a
pedal retrofit, which is not expensive, typically around $15 for the
pedals and the same for the toeclips (I've seen $10), IIRC. I presume
the toe cups fit a standard MTB pedal with some accomp. hardware?

Toe clips or toe cups fit most pedals. You often have to remove a
little plastic reflector...

Quoted message said:

I've wondered about riding the toe clips w/o straps, but isn't that a
bit flimsy, since there's little supporting the 'C' of the clips, but
thinking about it, I'm riding mine with the straps loose, and (duh)
that's really the same as no straps.

Yup, that's about it....

Quoted message said:

Tried to explain it in terms of rigidity and slippage reduction and
regularity of pedal stroke etc, but some have to experience it to
realize, heh.

Absolutely. The proof of the pudding is in the tasting.
From the feedback I get in this newsgroup, you either are for it or
agin it.
Regards, Bernie

On Mon, 12 Jul 2004 21:49:41 GMT, "Fred Hall" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Tried to explain it in terms of rigidity and slippage reduction and
regularity of pedal stroke etc, but some have to experience it to
realize, heh.
Best,
-B

As Bernie said in answer to your previous question, they just kind of line
up the ball of your foot over the pedal...at least for my size 11's it's a
pretty good fit. If you had size 14 or size 7 feet, not sure how good it
would be. As far as mounting to the pedals, the platform pedals on my
hybrid had screw holes where reflectors were mounted on both sides of the
pedals, so I removed the reflector on one side and put the toe clips in its
place (had to buy some longer screws at the hardware store than were
provided with the clips though. The clips also include a metal plate you
can use to add some offset and rigidity, depending on your pedal structure I
guess (there were no instructions with the clip kit, so I'm guessing what
the metal plates were for).

Cool. I'm still hoping to get him into toe clips by insisting or
kidnapping him (heh) and going to the LBS and riding a couple road or
hybrids so equipped. Why a simple testimonial won't work, I don't
know, but he's a stubborn argumentative, (all in good humor) type.

So if that works, maybe the problem will be solved.

I tried to get him to practice some drafting techniques with me last
night, on the final 1 mile straight to one training ride. He's like
'why'?

I said, man you have literally no bike handling skills, and if we're
riding this event together in Oct, we need to build up some skillz as
a two man biking team. He kept being a butthead about it and finally I
said, 'fine, I'll just wheel suck on you - just keep it in a straight
line'. Quibble, quibble, quibble - he goes on and on - my bike chain
feels too loose, your're faster than me, I've never done it before.
Sheesh and crimanie! ;-D

-Badger

On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 20:10:53 -0700, Bernie <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Toe cups and toe clips work for me. Also, note: I do not like to use
straps. They freak me out. I feel much better knowing I can bail
easily from my strapless clips or cups. Each one to his own taste. I
don't know why more riders don't use these methods. Especially commuters.

For about $8.00, I say try it.
Best regards, Bernie

I can see myself using both strategies. Thx for the heads up. No need
to apologize, at least in this thread.

In my case I started loose and now have narrowed the circle a bit but
still primarily loose. I can pull out easily, but get a -leetle- more
secure feeling as to slippage and stuff, plus, the wedged in toe gives
me the better anchorage.

I suspect I'm going to stay here for a few months and then reassess.
Still have some flexibility issues on the left hip injury preventing
me from reaching the pull strap anyway - that's been improving.

-Badger

Badger_South said:

On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 20:10:53 -0700, Bernie <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Toe cups and toe clips work for me. Also, note: I do not like to use
straps. They freak me out. I feel much better knowing I can bail
easily from my strapless clips or cups. Each one to his own taste. I
don't know why more riders don't use these methods. Especially commuters.

For about $8.00, I say try it.
Best regards, Bernie

I can see myself using both strategies. Thx for the heads up. No need
to apologize, at least in this thread.

I'm not apologetic on this issue. I'll just do what I like.

Quoted message said:

In my case I started loose and now have narrowed the circle a bit but
still primarily loose. I can pull out easily, but get a -leetle- more
secure feeling as to slippage and stuff, plus, the wedged in toe gives
me the better anchorage.

Thick soled, stiffish sneakers work well with these products. The soles
are grippy on the metal pedal and the toes jam nicely, but not too tight
into the ends.

Quoted message said:

I suspect I'm going to stay here for a few months and then reassess.
Still have some flexibility issues on the left hip injury preventing
me from reaching the pull strap anyway - that's been improving.

-Badger

Just keep flying your bike.
Bernie