One alternative, if the problem is you want to be attached but also want to walk around for errands, etc. is what a lot of the tour guides use and recommend for bike tours --- so you can ride and than walk around doing the tourist thing --and that is to use mountain bike shoes with clipless pedals like Shimano SPD's or similar where the bottom of the shoe is flat with an indent for the cleat. I am sure cross racers use something similar. That way you can have your cake and walk on it too. I hope I am not repeating something that has already been said. Edward Albert Chappaqua, NY, USA
Edward Albert, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Sociology
>>> "Kurt Sperry" <haxixe@gmail.com> 01/07/07 5:26 PM >>>
I hadn't ridden sans clips & straps since I was a little kid, but this
spring in Italy the only bike I had handy was an old Peugeot with
double-sided Lyotards without them so that's what I rode. What
surprised
me, once I got over the feeling that my feet were going to slip off the
pedals at the exquisitely wrong moment like a pothole on a steep
downhill, I
began to actually enjoy the feeling. I'd been trained in the '70s that
only
"Freds" rode without clips & straps and preferably with Italian cleated
cycling shoes, so there was no way I was going to be a Fred! I was
using
minimal adidas Darogas and the pattern on the outsole actually "hooked
into"
the ratcage Lyotards pretty nicely and after a dozen or so miles- oops
20km-
I was at complete ease with it. Did I lose a little pedalling
efficiency?
Maybe, I'm not sure really. It didn't FEEL any less efficient just
tooling
around town or even hopping between little towns. I'm now seriously
considering fitting my Bartali which gets mostly used as a town bike
with
naked doublesided MKS Sylvans. I do love not having to wear cycling
shoes.
Without them the bike feels to me like a real honest to goodness
practical transportation device as opposed to merely a piece of
dedicated
fitness equipment. If you actually use your bike as real transport to
go
the store and run errands, cycling specific shoes with cleats are a real
pain in the ass, even if they are better suited to pure cycling
pursuits.
Kurt Sperry Bellingham WA USA
On 1/7/07, Tom Sanders <tsan7759142@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> I have been talking with a few other folks who have serious doubts
that
> any
> but a racer actually pulls up on the rearward pedal. I have heard
enough
> tales of a racer accidentally pulling out of a pedal to think that
they
> probably do. However, does the casual rider really need toe clips or
> cleats
> or clipless pedals?