Clip and Strap recommendation
 

My youngest son wants to start riding my backup fixed gear bike to school, but doesn't want to wear cleated cycling shoes.

I haven't ridden clips and straps since the 1980's.

I don't want to burn a lot of brain cells on this, so I'd appreciate a recommendation of "better" to "best" clip and strap pedals, as well as a discussion of single or double straps.

Thanks.

double straps from best to decent: toshi, exhaustar/wabi or all city, soma/origin8, blicksblocks setup
single straps: mks, pake/soma, no name laminated

leather/nylon straps and plastic/steel clips are personal preference, i prefer leather straps to metal clips

I have several old bikes that I ride with regular shoes on ratrap pedals with clips and straps. I just use plastic clips with a double yoke and stiff single leather straps. I leave the ends of the straps out of the buckle and have these plastic button thingies to make it easy to grab them to pull the straps tight. It also makes it easy to loosen the straps.

Unless your son is going to skid alot or depend very much on the straps, singles will be fine.

I've been rocking MKS clips + Christophe synthetic leather single straps on my MKS Gr-9 pedals on all the bikes I had.

I have some MKS steel clips with no-name leather straps on MKS Gr-9s as well. Very comfy for street shoes, but the pedals are narrower than other track pedals, which would be something to take into consideration.

I use dura ace 7400 pedals with fujita straps. been riding them for a year and haven;t failed me yet.

I'd tell you my set up but it sucks. I honestly never had problems with nylon straps and plastic clips(double gate). But that takes a lot of reaching down and tightening/loosening. I feel like a leather double set up with a metal double gate would work best for set and forget.

I'm of the opinion he should never learn to use straps. Get him clipped in and make him learn a nice round stroke.

If that is NOT going to happen then get him to try some that he feels comfortable with HIS shoes. He's going to be really fussy about his shoes so make sure he's cool with how they feel and how it will mark up his shoes. LBS is where you need to head. A good one though, no BS shops.

Clipless pedals are not always the answer, commuters (like your son) wont ever need most of the added benifits of clipless systems, and the disadvantages will be highly magnified.

My favorite combination for comfort and durability is the All City double straps with the soma 4 gate cages. While the redundancy of the double straps and 4 gates may not be necessary for his style of riding, it will be much more comfortable than a single strap 1 gate system.