Big benefits of going clipless?

[gabriellesca]

You guys ROCK! Thank you so much!

I think it helps to hear your experiences and why its so much better. Also helps to hear that I shouldn't bow down to the pressure of what everyone else is doing.

My ROM in my ankle is horrible up and down - I am negative with dorsi flexion - but I can move it side to side without too much trouble.

I've never had the problem of sliding off my pedals with the toe cages. I wear my running sneakers and its never happened. I also don't tighten the straps when I ride - my right foot is a bit tighter than my left - but the left cage is VERY lose so I can easily pull in and out - yet when I'm climbing a hill standing or just riding they never slip and I don't feel unstable at all. The biggest problem I have is the pain in my feet at the end of a ride. And, as I mentioned, I've tried wearing bike shoes with the cages and it just didn't work - I think because my left foot points down when I ride - meaning I can't keep it flat because I lack the dorsi flexion - I always point it down. So with bike shoes in the cage that was a problem.

I would love more power and be able to up my speed a bit. So I think its something I would like to do. I'm just being a big scaredy cat. I've seen a new to clipless fall into a car once because she couldn't clip out fast enough at a stop and it terrified me. So I think I'm letting that experience get to me.

[MartianDestiny]

My ROM in my ankle is horrible up and down - I am negative with dorsi flexion - but I can move it side to side without too much trouble.

Good news for you! "Out" is almost always a sideways movement in most (all?) pedal systems (because that's what's natural and you want to be able to pull on your pedals and not come out).

I still, to this day, pop my planting foot out well before I "have" to stop when given the fair warning, like when I start coasting towards a red light. I'm minimizing that time now, as I'm very comfortable with my pedals (especially on the road), but as a newbie it really helped give me the confidence that it was one less thing I had to worry about and reduced my clipless falls (still none on the road) to "emergency" situations where I had to slam on the brakes. Now though, my reaction times for grabbing fist-fulls of brake and unclipping are basically the same and it has become one fluid, subconscious movement whenever I feel something is going wrong.

O, and when/if you "just eat it" your pedals typically auto release. I had a pretty impressive semi-hydroplane incident a few years ago. Two loud "POP" noises and the bike was free before the pedal hit the ground (freaked my riding buddies (most of whom didn't ride clipless) out; I think they thought the noise was my collarbone!!!)