Originally Posted by
Rewillia
Great sticky, threads and advice.
Anyone have wisdom to share as regard the use of clip style pedals for those of us 50+ who may be re-entering the cycling world and have no prior history of using them?
That's me and while taking in all the good advice from the commentary provided here in this sticky, to having my newly acquired high-end used road bike check-out and tuned by my LBS along with my scheduled frame-set fitting the day after tomorrow - the only concern I feel I have at this time is not having a foundation of awareness of how to properly and safely use clip style pedals. As such, I would appreciate some insight and knowledge as regard;
- knowing how to properly engage or disengage the shoes/clips with the pedals, such as when commencing to take off or coming to full stop (what to do and how to do it safely and in what order)?
- knowing how and what steps to take to safely release from the pedals in the event of an emergency or in part with a mishap, ie. unexpected fall....(what precautions)
- any other tidbits of advice, i.e. tension adjustment, left foot vs. right foot first, kicking out, etc, etc.
First of all, I am NOT an expert by any stretch of the imagination. I had Time pedals and shoes 20+ years ago when I rode, so I was used to them, and it came back to me when I recently got Shimano pedals on the mountain bike (one side are "clipless" and the other are remotely similar to a regular pedal) and Look pedals on the old road bike. The LBS adjusted the Look pedals to make it easier to get in initially, but the other LBS did not do that for the Shimano pedals (to be fair it was late and after their normal closing time). I had a very difficult time forcing my foot into the Shimano pedals, and I couldn't find an alan wrench to try to adjust the springs myself. (I finally got my left foot in after about 30 minutes, sweating like a pig, and almost taking a few "Artie Johnson" slow speed falls. The right pedal went in relatively easily.) I didn't really think about the adjustment of the pedals before having the problem getting into them...my advice is to initially lean against something and have the LBS adjust the pedals so you can get into them. Once you are comfortable I would think they could be tightened if needed. When I recently fell, I had no problem getting my feet out of the pedals...kind of like ski bindings they just came out during the fall. I went down so quickly that I had no time to pull my feet from the bindings before I hit the ground, and I doubt it would have helped. Otherwise, you just have to practice and get used to rotating your heels outwards to pop the shoes out of the pedals. I will say, however, that once you are used to them I think you will love them. One last thing, I had thought about getting the same type of "clipless" pedal system for both of my bikes, and using the same shoes. However, I decided to get a stiffer (and more expensive) shoe for the road bike, and a little bit more walkable shoe for the mountain bike (but I wouldn't attempt to hike in them).