Quote Originally Posted by notsportygirl
And this may seem stupid, but I'm not sure what the whole "clip/clipless" thing is. I'm assuming that the "clip" ones have spikes that clip into special shoes. Are clipless just regular petals, or is there something else? Sorry if that's already on here somewhere...
This is *not* a stupid question - as many people have told me both inside of my career and in my hobbies - the only stupid question is one you don't ask. I haven't seen anyone here biting yet

This is especially confusing since the pedals seem like they should be named the other way around to me. Clipless means you have a cleat on your shoe that attaches to the pedal (spd, look, speedplay, etc). Clip pedals are what it sounds like you have are the boxes on top of flat pedals. You can usually take those off by removing the straps and undoing a couple of screws. It won't hurt the bike. Do whatever you're comfortable with - I find that since I'm used to clipless pedals I have to have some way of attaching my shoe to the pedal, otherwise it's likely to slip off as I push (and I don't even ride a recumbent). However, I also remember a time when I wasn't comfortable with any foot restraint...

Most of all, get your position on the bike comfortable! You don't want squishing for 35 miles - Ouch!!

Carrrie Annne