rpenmanparker 

When someone says they are riding with platform pedals and toe clips, would you assume they have the corresponding slotted cleats installed in their shoes as we did in the old days? Or are they just riding with flat soles? I wouldn't even know where to get cleats like that anymore or how to attach them. We used to nail them into the leather soles.

The reason I ask is because I often see someone posting that they need clipless pedals and shoes to ride properly in a group or the keep up or compete. While clipless pedals are sweet and all I use these days, toe clips, straps, and shoes with the slotted cleats were just as functional for keeping the foot firmly attached to the pedal and for going fast. They were more of a bother to get into and out of for sure, but they weren't deficient as a tool for hard riding.

Just wondering whether this idea that you can't ride hard with toe clips comes from not also using the slotted cleats with them.

Sullalto

I had no idea there were cleats and slots for platform pedals.

rpenmanparker 

The cleat nails onto the shoe sole. The slot in the cleat (crosswise to the shoe) fits over the rear plate of the pedal. Then, when you tighten the toe strap, you are locked in.

chasm54

Almost nobody rides with them any more, and as you've just discovered, younger riders have no idea what you're talking about.

The trackies ride with cleats and straps, but even then I think it's clipless and straps these days. Maybe someone can correct me on that.

RollCNY

Just anecdotally:
I loiter often at my LBS, and check out most of the new bikes that they assemble. Frequently, they will mount platform pedals with plastic toe clips. These pedals are not the metal pedals designed for a cleat, and would be unusable with a cleated shoe. I think their intention is more toward a commuter in flat soled shoes trying to get some retention in any style shoe. I saw a guy in Timberland boots test ride in the toe clips.

Pedals are still made in the old metal variety, with the tall entrance ridge and the narrow nose of yesteryear. Since those pedals are made, I would wager the shoes are as well. But I believe them to be more track targeted than road.

I remember well my old Vittoria shoes with the wooden cleat. They were great at the time, but I wouldn't go back to that. Once secured, they were extremely secure, but required more planning and skill to stop. As I am short on both of those, it is a piece of nostalgia with no longing attached.

rpenmanparker 

Exactly so on all counts. I was just wondering whether the folks who say they need to get clipless pedals for the group ride were really using toe clip as they were intended to be. I am getting the feeling that the answer is no. Also I wouldn't know where or how to fasten that kind of cleat on a three bolt modern shoe. I guess slotted cleats could be made with a wide base and the three holes to bolt on.

Funny.

rpenmanparker 

I'll be damned. Here is one of several links to just the type of thing I was proposing: https://www.google.com/search?q=slotted+bicycle+shoe+cleat&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-Address&rlz=1I7WQIB_enUS540&tbm=isch&imgil=Wvd0ffk98HAmxM%253A%253BHW-zXtJ5wP-9tM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.yellowjersey.org%25252Ftocleat.html&source=iu&pf=m&fir=Wvd0ffk9 8HAmxM%253A%252CHW-zXtJ5wP-9tM%252C_&usg=__aGG4MtH71OI5M_jglvS9tPGdVLA%3D&biw=1536&bih=702&ved=0CD4Qyjc&ei=gk4UVODrI-iF8gHM2YH4CQ#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=Wvd0ffk98HAmxM%253A%3BHW-zXtJ5wP-9tM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.yellowjersey.org%252FCLEAT86.JPG%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.yellowjersey. org%252Ftocleat.html%3B900%3B844

Sullalto

So you have to reach down and unclip a shoe every time you want to take a foot off the pedal?

chasm54

Yep. That's how it used to be. Surprisingly, it wasn't much of a problem, it became second nature after a while. Sean Kelly (you may be too young to know that he was the top-ranked road cyclist in the world, back in the day) didn't adopt clipless for quite a while because he didn't see that they made any difference. Of course, Sean didn't stop all that much...

Sullalto

That sounds terrible.

rpenmanparker 

Yes, I suppose it does. But things are seldom as awful as they sound.

The purpose of starting this thread was not to recommend everyone return to slotted cleats and toe clips. Far from it. I was just wondering why folks who were using toe clips (like a recent poster in another current thread) didn't regard them as a secure method of attachment to the bike. The answer appears to be that toe clip users these days are not also using cleats.

gdhillard

I used these from 1974 until 1978, and rode Ft. Collins to Boulder and back often with this set up on an old Cilo. Worst moment was track standing at a red light, in front of a truck, and finally falling over. Out of sight from the truck driver, who forgot I had ever been there. The light turned green, and I just barely managed to flip myself and the bike out of his path as he motored on by. I kept the straps looser in traffic after that.

LesterOfPuppets

Even with a nice pair of trail running shoes you can get locked in to something like this pretty well.



If you're rockin' yer Topsiders, they'll never lock in and you will certainly feel that pedal cage digging into your foot!

mcours2006

I used the slotted cleats years ago when I was started cycling. Then after a few decade hiatus I came back and was using the same cleated shoes for a few months. They still worked fine for me. It was only quite recently that I converted to clipless. It wasn't difficult to reach down to unclip, but now having gotten used to the clipless variety I don't want to go back.

mprelaw

I also suspect that they're either not using straps, or if they are, not tightening them down.

LesterOfPuppets

I usually assume they're not even using pedals that would work with cleats, to tell the truth.

justkeepedaling

I commuted for years on Suntour Superbe Pro pedals. Never used cleats for it, but never felt like I had a loose retention, either.

woodcraft

I rode last week with a guy in cleated shoes/toe clips. He got along fine.

It depends on how tight you make the strap- there's a middle ground where you can pull up, & pedal circles, but get your foot out w/out reaching down if you have to.

Leinster

Did there used to be different depths of cleats, or is my memory making that up?

I rode with clips and runners for several years in my teens, and briefly, for maybe a year or 2, rode with toe clips and cleats, just at about the time Sean Kelly was the only remaining holdout in the peloton. When I got my first set of Looks for my birthday, there was no going back.

Reaching down to tighten/loosen the straps on the go was no different then to adjusting the ratchet/velcro strap on your shoe as you go now. You'd keep your strap loose when still in town at the start of a ride, going through traffic lights etc, but once out in the country you could tighten up and not loosen again til you got to your lunch stop. Some people would loosen up for a downhill and tighten up for a climb. It was no more inconvenient than reaching down to your downtube to shift gear.