Going clipless....

[michelem]

mimitabby,

This is the suggestion I got from the bike fit (on the fit bike) I had done recently:

"Consider road shoe with aline footbeds and larger 3-bolt cleat (instead of spd mtb style) to minimize Q-angle and foot rock."

Q-angle is the angle between the quadriceps muscle (primarily the rectus femoris) and the patellar tendon and affects the knee. I may consider this after I get more proficient at riding clipless and get myself a road bike, but for now I like my Pearl Izumi Vagabonds that I got for $29! I walk my bike through scary traffic crossings and they are easy to walk in even though they have very stiff soles.

[teigyr]

I can only speak for myself but I prefer LOOK pedals. I have never been able to find mtn bike shoes that will accept LOOK cleats. I suppose even if I found them, the cleats would still be difficult to walk in

I don't know if there is a better pedal/cleat combo out there. What I like about what I have is that it just seems so solid and there is more pedal space than my spd's had.

My bike shoes (Specialized Torch) have built-up rubber parts on the heel and toe so I can walk in them ok. My spin class shoes (Diadora with SPDs but they are road shoes) are scary slippery.

[gnat23]

Unless you are on a track for racing, why would you buy these shoes?

I had a road bike, assumed I needed road bike pedals and shoes, and I didn't know any better. They sure do look sleek and nice, and all the sales pitch about being grams and grams lighter snagged me.

I kept hearing about everyone who LOOOVED their clipless stuff, and I felt bad because I hated it! I hated the shoes (even though they were the perfect shade of pink), I hated the pedals (some Shimano racing type, like the grade just under what Lance used), and hated the fact that I had to use every single Superman bandaid I owned on my shins because I couldn't start on an uphill as my cleat wouldn't catch, the rest was too slippery, and I'd make contact with some part of my bike that had teeth.

I have learned the error of my ways. Road bike, road shorts, MOUNTAIN shoes!

-- gnat!

[KnottedYet]

I'm right there with you!

Love my Speedplay Frogs and Specialized Taho MOUNTAIN shoes! I was really lucky in that I was hanging around some women with various types of clipless/cleated pedals and road and mountain shoes. After seeing someone demo her Speedplay Frogs (no moving parts! nothing to adjust! no little bits to jam or break!) I was hooked. Another women had feet like mine and loved her Tahos.

It was so helpful to see equipment and shoes being used in real life, and not just a salesman showing them to me in an LBS.

[Zen]

Knot, you may have just sold me a pair of Frogs I've been having an awful time with the pedals I have lately, sometimes finding it difficult to clip in and it's really been slowing me down on group rides.

Are the easy to get in and out of?

[KnottedYet]

Knot, you may have just sold me a pair of Frogs I've been having an awful time with the pedals I have lately, sometimes finding it difficult to clip in and it's really been slowing me down on group rides.

Are the easy to get in and out of?

VERY easy! The woman who showed me hers said they are like the lid to a jar. The cleat is the lid, the pedal is the jar. The way they are designed, you can "click in" to them straight on just like other cleated pedals. Getting out of them you just turn your heel outward and they "unscrew". If you start to fall to the side your heel heads outward toward the ground and your cleat unscrews, so your foot comes free without you thinking about it.

There is no tension holding your foot in place, so you are pigeon-toed or have a bit sloppy leg positioning on the bike you might unclip accidentally a few times. I did that at first, but the cool thing was that the Frogs trained me to have better self control and posture in a hurry! On my flat pedals on my utility bike now I notice that my knees and hips don't bug me like they used to. I think it's because I trained myself into better body mechanics with the Frogs on my road bike.

Oh, and the pedal is nice a big, so if you miss the cleat and need to pedal like mad when the light turns green, it works just fine.

[withm]

Frogs for me.

I too had a road bike, so thought I had to have road shoes and pedals. Besides, I didn't want to junk up my expensive bike with MOUNTAIN pedals. Or so I thought.

Fast forward 2 months of road pedals and shoes - they were impossible to clip in and out and I put a few hundred miles on working with them. They were very tempermental, and the slightest bit of mud, grass, sand would make them nearly impossible to clip in, or worse, clip out. Hence my experience witn road rash if you are following Mr. Silver's thread...

Changed to Frogs - oh what a difference! So much easier for clipping in and out, and you can actually WALK in the shoes and don't have to be so careful about not getting crud in the cleats. They are actually self cleaning - the action of inserting your foot onto the pedal forces most debris out of the cleat. Sometimes I do give a little squirt of water to the cleats if I've been traisping in a messy area, but that's more an effort to be fastidious than anything else.

[Zen]

Sold!

[KnottedYet]

Elegant simplicity:
http://www.speedplay.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.frog

[emily_in_nc]

I also love Frogs! Like Knotted mentions, I have occasionally clipped out accidentally when doing something tricky (I have them on my mountain bike), but they are SUPER easy to clip into, which I love. I changed to them from Eggbeaters, which I always had problems clipping into with my second foot. Once clipped in, I was very happy with Eggbeaters, but not being able to clip in on a rooty trail is a problem! So, Frogs have solved that problem, I love them immensely. When I replace the road pedals on my road bike, they will be Frogs as well!

Emily

[Zen]

Because they have a wider area to clip in, a minor power transfer advantage. Minor to me anyway. And because they're stiffer I think it is supposed to give you better form in the pedal stroke.

Knot sold me on the Speedplay Frogs, I'm putting the cleats on right now!

[KnottedYet]

Today, Frogs... tomorrow, Brooks saddle!

Congrats on the Frogs! I hope you like them!

[Zen]

Today, Frogs... tomorrow, Brooks saddle!

I DO need a new saddle. The stock Bontrager is a piece of .... work

[BikeDutchess]

OK, you sold me on the Frogs! I also found a great deal on some '06 model Sidi MTB shoes the shop was trying to get rid off, so I'm now officially clipless. Went for a short ride out to dinner tonight, and it wasn't nearly as scary as I had imagined. Getting out of them is no problem at all, and getting in is not bad either.

I like that there is no spring tension, and that my leg is not locked into a certain position (the non-centering float). Still fiddling with the cleat position, I felt like the ball of my foot was too far forward compared to where I was when I used my toe clips, so I keep moving the cleat forward just a bit. We'll have to see how I do on my longer ride tomorrow.

Thanks for sharing your experiences, TE'rs, it really helped me make the jump!

[KnottedYet]

That's the beauty of Frogs. I just love the elegance of NO moving parts! Maybe I should've been an engineer....

I used to be deeply devoted to my "old fashioned" toe clips (I'm talking about the actual clips that have straps), but I like Frogs *much* better! They are so much safer!