The shop I bought my bike at has a philosophy about pedals. The owner/designer thinks Converse sneakers and platform pedals are the way to go. He says that doing the same ride on the same bike, he has only a few seconds of variance in his time. He does the ride I did yesterday about 30 minutes faster than I did. (I did cut off about ten minutes from our tandem time though!) And with platform pedals you can wear whatever shoes you want.

I decided when I bought Fluffy I'd give their philosophy a try. Actually the climb up Diablo was kind of a test for the pedals. To be honest I really didn't notice my feet at all. Like I said the last bit is fairly steep (18%) and that's where I figured I may have problems. But they were fine. I'm riding the bike to work also and it's nice to not have to worry about bringing shoes along. Although when I got ready to ride yesterday, out of habit I put on my bike shoes to begin with. I may try different shoes for some of my longer rides, but I think I'm going to stick with the platform pedals.

The funniest part is when I miss I shift - the pedals go flying! That's what I get for riding a tandem for so long I suppose.

Veronica