Clipless pedals vs traditional clips and straps; the ~1800 mile review
I’ve put clipless pedals on all three of my bikes, so I’ve been riding with only clipless for two months now. I’m starting to get some feel for the advantages and disadvantages of both.
On the plus side, clipless pedals have
- easy to attach to (provided the cleats aren’t worn.)
- don’t go scrape scrape when I start up after a stop and am trying to get my right foot into the pedal.
- don’t have as much toe overlap on the mlcm.
- don’t seem to cause any foot cramps when I’m running a fast 200 or 400.
On the minus side, they have
- you need to wear shoes with cleats to take advantage of them (and it makes riding a bit less comfortable if you try to ride with regular shoes, though this might be more of an artifact of me using Eggbeaters.)
- The cleats wear out really fast (1800 miles wore down my first set to the point where they weren’t latching well and were sliding all over the place and making wierd clicking. Plus my feet started cramping like the devil,) though, once again, this might be an artifact of using Eggbeaters (other pedals, like the Shimano ones, use steel cleats.)
- they can be really noisy, particularly after they’ve worn in a bit.
If I had infinite money, I’d get three pairs of MKS gr-9s and three pairs of Shimano mountain pedals, then play the exciting game of running fast brevets with GR-9s vs clipless. But as it stands I’m on my second pair of Crank Bros cleats and I’m going to see if I can get more than 6000 miles under my butt before the third pair wears out.