Toe Clips

I'm an old guy (65) who rode with toe clips (and cleats) in the old days - training and racing in and around Los Angeles. The thing some of the folks posting don't seem to understand is that unless your foot is attached to the pedal in some way you will never be using a good deal of the power in your legs - which is kind of the point of actual bicycle cycling.

Toe clips are used with cleats - otherwise they are just a way of keep you foot from sliding off the front of the pedal, in which case straps are irrelevant. The straps held the cleat in place which effectively locked you into the pedal - exactly the same as the modern clip less pedal.

To me, clipless pedals were a revelation - probably the best advance in cycling I'd seen. With a small amount of practice getting in and out the pedals is just as automatic as removing your foot from a toe clip without a cleat.

When I'm climbing a steep hill out of the saddle, the clip less pedal is worth its weight in gold.

Overall, having my feet come off the pedals accidentally has caused me considerably more pain than not being able to unclip at a critical moment.
But I suppose that doesn't count, being "anecdotal" evidence.
The only times I feel that clips might actually add risk is when traversing a steep slope on a narrow path, or some sort of comparable situation. Toppling outward there, still clipped in, would be bad news.
In traffic, never.
But sure, just like it's possible to "design" a scenario where using a seat belt in a car will add risk - driving across frozen water,going through the ice, vehicle catching fire etc etc, it's equally possible to imagine someone taking a silly topple into the way of approaching traffic, and failure to disengage will prevent him from scrabbling to safety before being run over.
But that's not a sensible approach, just like ignoring the seat belt on the off chance of being suspended upside down in a burning vehicle isn't a sensible approach.
We do the things that brings most overall good, even if it means that once every blue moon, someone will get hurt more by it.

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by RobbieK
I know this is an old thread, but.......

It goes without saying that this is a massive overreaction (banning clipless pedals? Come on!), and you've generalized from your own experiences and a few anecdotes. Someone could just as "logically" draw the same conclusion about cycling all together: "it should be banned because it's dangerous; people crash, injure themselves, and some even die."

As Dabac more or less suggested, you could find plenty of anecdotes of people crashing because their foot slipped unexpectedly slipped off the pedal because it wasn't restrained

Unclipping your foot becomes second nature after a short while, and clip tension can be set so loose that the foot can be released with barely a flick of the heel. I sometimes carry the alen tool to adjust the tension, coz I like it tight for races and some training rides, and loose for riding in heavy traffic.

My first experience with clipless pedals was also bad, and it turned me off them for at least five years. The particular pedals I had (red Looks, from around 1992) had super slippery float, then my foot became totally stuck coz I got mud in the cleat, causing me to topple over. Years later, when I had the cash for new good shoes and several sets of pedals (I had 6 bikes at the time :-) ), I got some Shimano SPD-SL clipless, then kicked myself for not getting them sooner -- I foolishly made my mind up about all clipless pedals from one experience with one model pedal.

Being clipped in has another key advantage: your foot goes exactly on the same spot on the pedal all the time.

I didn't reply so far since I didn't think he or she was serious about banning clip-less pedals. Ski binding should also be banned and I will just use some animal skins or maybe a bungee cord.