Cleats?

My Speedplay Frogs

So far I've been riding on regular pedals and wearing my running shoes. I'm still resisting that whole cyclist look. Mainly because I don't really look like one and so far, I don't even come close to riding like one.

I'm told (by real cyclists) I really should be using clipless pedals. I thought great, because my regular pedals definitely don't have cleats. Turns out that clipless pedals really mean that you have to clip in to them. Go figure. It's like pressing the "start" key to close Microsoft Windows.

My wife's cousin Eldon, who was a pro racer back in the day told me that I'm not getting the best experience riding my bike because I'm wan't using clipless pedals. With pedals that you can cleat into, you can pull as well as push on your pedals, with a goal of a smooth circular pedal stroke. The general idea is that you can generate twice the power as a push down only stroke. So I finally succumbed to the pressure and started looking for clipless pedals.

I have an unreasonable fear of getting my foot stuck on the things and falling over. Too embarrassing, never mind the possible injury. I really didn't think I wanted clipless pedals, but I respected Eldon's opinion and I started doing a bunch of research on clipless pedals.

There are a bunch of clipless pedal systems out there. There are specific ones for mountain biking, which are designed mostly so that you can walk on your shoes with some ease, and also not to collect at lot of dirt. Dirt prevents easy clip-in (see what I mean? clipless, but you need to clip-in). They're also used for general touring on a bike. For road biking, the requirement for easy walking and not picking up a lot of dirt doesn't seem to be as important. I guess I can understand not picking up a lot of dirt, but it would still be nice to be able to walk easily... I guess I'll understand better once I become a true cyclist.

I'm still in the "I'm kinda embarrassed to look like a road cyclist in spandex" mode, so I decided on mountain bike cleats. This of course meant mountain biking or touring shoes where the smaller mountain bike cleats are recessed into the shoe's sole for easy walking. So off I went... In the process, I learned about float. Float is the amount of side-to-side motion that the pedal system allows so your foot can swivel on the cleat. Float is desired by many riders because it can be easier on the knees. Cleat systems can have as little as no float, or 0 degrees, up to about 20 degrees of float. There is also free float versus centering float to worry about. How much you need is pretty much a personal choice. I decided I needed a lot of float. Don't really know why, but I figured my knees would thank me later.

Ease of clipping out was also a big concern. I think it is for most new riders. Who wants to ride up to a group ride, get stuck in your cleats and falling over in front of all those waiting athletes? Embarrassing. Also, they should be easy to clip into.

Shimano SPD cleats

The most common cleat system out there for mountain bikes and touring is the SPD system. It's also used in a lot of gyms on their stationary bikes for those new spinning classes. You can get SPD pedal systems with as much as 4 to 6 degrees of float. Prices range from as little as $40 to $50 for the system and up. As the cleat system gets pricier, they generally get lighter and have a few more little bells and whistles. I should mention that the SPD system was developed by Shimano and they also call their road pedal systems SPD.

There are other systems out there, such as Crank Brothers, Time, Look etc. I didn't really check those out because they're not as readily available here in San Diego. You kinda have to hunt for them. But it would pay to check them out if you're looking for mountain biking or touring cleats.

Speedplay Frog - Stainless

After trying out the SPD cleats, which were pretty good I thought, I ended up buying Speedplay Frogs. They're super easy to get in and out of, as the pedal is two sided. They've got a ton (20 degrees) of free float, which I'm sure I need and they're relatively easy to clip out of. So far I love them and I don't really care about some of the "why is he wearing mountain bike/touring bike shoes on his road bike" looks. Being able to pull as well as push was a revelation. I now have twice as much power to drag my big body around.

The one thing I found out about the Frogs, as much as I like them is that the little nib on the cleat (the part attached to you shoe) breaks off easily when you weigh 270 pounds. Replacement cleats are about $20-$30. The pedals themselves seem pretty indestructible. The systems run from about $100 for the chrome-moly steel version to $250 for the titanium ones. I got the middle of the road stainless steel version.

There's a good buyer's guide to clipless pedals on wheelworld.com with lots of useful information that can give you a good idea of what you need for the type of cycling you do. There's also a good section on clipless vs. clip-in and float.