Clipless Question

[ny biker]

For me it depends on what shoes I'm wearing. My road shoes slip off the pedal if they're not clipped in. With mountain bike shoes it's not a problem.

[alpinerabbit]

easy pedaling works. you can emphasize the foot that remains clipped. I have thought of gluing some rubber onto the sole behind my cleat to help. but I haven't gotten around to it.

[SouthernBelle]

You can ride unclipped with almost any pedal using your toe or arch, if necessary. Some are more friendly than others. Most of us have done it when starting through a busy intersection with our unclipped foot.

[BeeLady]

Remember, with one foot clipped in you can still pedal the full circle as your foot that is clipped in will pull the pedal up. So you can even "dangle" one foot if you need to and still make progress for awhile. Not very pretty, and I find it quite tiring, but it can be done.

Shimano has pedals that have clips on one side and platform pedal on the other. So you can ride in tennis shoes if you want.

My hubby has the Crank Bro pedals, and they don't look like they could be used without being clipped in to me.

[KnottedYet]

I pedal on my Speedplay Frogs often without clipping in.

There are times when I want to have my foot ready to put down, or when I'm taking off from a red light and just want to go in a hurry, and it's just easier to pedal with my arch of my foot for a bit. No problem.

[aicabsolut]

As the ladies have said, it's very possible. I do it all the time getting started through intersections, especially with my new Keo Grip cleats that require an annoying level of accuracy to engage (with the older style, so long as the pedal was right side up, I was ok). Just don't put all of your weight on the unclipped side, because you won't be stable. Focus on doing most of the pedaling with the other leg.

When I was new to clipless I did the unclip and rest on top approach to a lot of traffic lights. If it turns green, stomp back down and clip back in. If not, then you don't have to worry about unclipping. Something to think about that may be a little bit more common with super easy to engage pedal systems like Speedplays -- If you do this, be sure you don't inadvertently clip back in. That happens sometimes and then you don't double check that you're still disengaged before you stop and topple over.

[Possegal]

A few weeks ago I was sort of following my niece around as she ran the Frederick marathon. At one point I was letting her run on while I rode across the street to a bit of a grassy patch where a friend of ours and two unknown to me people were standing cheering her on. I unclipped my one foot and then road up onto the grass which looked pretty smooth. Well the jarring of hitting the grass clipped me back in and then my bike came to a stop. I yelled out something like "SAVE ME" and luckily, unbeknownst to me, the two other people were cyclists and knew exactly what had happened. Both reached out and grabbed the handlebars and one said - the rough terrain clipped you back in, didn't it?

Moral is = in that instance, don't hover the foot over the pedal, you may find yourself clipped back in by something other than your own power.