Giving up on SPDs

[laura*]

What kind of mountain biking are you doing that involves carving high speed turns on roads?

99% of my riding is on pavement. I ride a MTB because of the monstrously steep grades - and because the occasional offroad connection avoids traffic and/or a long detour.

Even though I live in what some would consider a mountain biking mecca, there are very few off road areas* that allow bikes.

Standing on your little SPDs? Yes, that would give anyone problems.

They're combination pedals - SPD on one side, and a platform on the other.

it sounds like you don't really want to do anything different.

I don't like toe clips, but clipless has been a disaster so far. I'd love to find something clipless from which I can unclip as easily as from toe clips. That probably means being able to move my foot in one continuous motion with no resistance from the pedal to the ground. I'd also have to be able to clip in instantly 99.9% of the time.

* Offroad (non)possibilities:

• State park half a mile away. One 2 mile paved MUP with serious grades. One 1 mile dirt trail that requires fording a river and the end of which is essentially a dead end for bikes. Two trails that allow bikes but which are impassable because of too much sand.
• State park 1.5 miles away - no bikes allowed.
• County park 2 miles away - closed 2 out of every 3 years and no bikes anyway.
• City park 5 miles away - no bikes except for a half mile connecting trail.
• Railroad tracks with a path alongside - NO TRESPASSING under threat of federal prosecution.
• State university 1 mile but an hour of strenuous riding away - maybe 4 miles of flat wide gravel fire roads - gotta get there first.
• State park also 1 mile and 1 hour away, or 10 miles by car - plenty of bike trails but the local microclimate is perpetually freezing.
• Forest - No trespassing, logging area.
• Forest - No trespassing, quarry area.
• Forest - No trespassing, watershed area.
• Forest - No trespassing, pot growing area.