If you’ve ever sold bikes for a living, (or even just ridden them), you’ll know that the biggest fear of the newbie, or the moderately experienced cyclist is clipping in. It can strike the Fear of Merckx into the brawniest of men and reduce them to a quivering mess, saying things like “I don’t want to fall over”, “how will I get out if I need to walk up a hill” (hopefully only uttered by mountain bikers) or “I’ll look like a dick if I fall over at the traffic lights.” But as most of you here will attest, it’s happened to the best of us. It’s all part of the learning curve, a curve so shallow and rapidly transient that it’s probably best described as a slightly bent line. The mere act of clipping in quickly becomes second nature, as instinctive as flicking an Ergo, STI or DoubleTap lever to change gear, or reaching down to grab a bottle without taking your gaze from the road ahead.
My own initiation into the world of clipless was in 1991, a year or so after I started mountain biking. Up until then it had been a world of toe clips and straps, which while not exactly easy to get into or out of, was still a better alternative than muddy sneakers slipping off the pedals and gouging six-inch trenches of skin from your shins. Shimano had just released their first attempt at the SPD system (the M737?), and seeing local trend-setter Burgo rocking them with the sweet matching shoes was like witnessing the moon landing; it was right there in front of you, but you didn’t quite know if such a marvel of technology was possible. But it was, and soon a spate of ‘clip-ins’ were appearing from several other brands, including the now long-defunct Onza. Their HO pedal was smaller and lighter than Shimano’s, so it got my vote on those counts alone. It used two elastomer bumpers (similar to those being used in the suspension forks of the day) instead of steel springs for their retention force. You want more retention? Rebuild them with harder durometer bumpers. They were universally considered a pain in the ass to set up, and even more so to get in and out of as I quickly found out.
The Onzas were ditched after maybe a year or less of service, and the only way to go (according to the magazine reviews, and more importantly, advertising) was the Time ATAC. They were lauded as the easiest entry/ release, cleared mud better than Shimano due to their open body design, and were being ridden to victory in just about every World Cup race by the likes of Little Mig Martinez and a young Cuddles. They were a revelation in my clipless experience, and now on my third pair I won’t be changing anytine soon. I still have those original grey ATACs kicking around on my commuter bike, and apart from a tiny amount of bearing slop and some cosmetic gouging from the cleats, are still working flawlessly.
When I bought my first ‘real’ road bike, a steel Gipiemme, the shop set me up with some basic Look pedals, but with Time shoes. Both sucked. It wasn’t long before I’d replaced both, the Looks with a set of alloy-bodied Time Impacts, and the shoes with Sidis. (Still got both, although I’m buggered if I can find the pedals.) A set of RSX Carbons kept the Time-line going, more to reduce weight than for any operational advanatge. The only problem I’ve had has been the left cleat wearing prematurely (from putting the foot down and straddling the top tube Casually Deliberatley at lights) which can make entry a tad frustrating if you don’t get it right the first attempt. And at about $70 a set, replacing them regularly becomes not only a chore but a drain on a poor bike-shop guy’s wallet. Pulling away from a coffee stop on a ride, flailing left foot struggling to engage, slipping off and making a bloodied gouge in my knee warmer was all I needed to convince me to check out Time’s latest system, the iClic.
Now, it seems if you want to make a product sound hip and cool, just take the name of said product and stick an “i” in front of it. So no kudos to Time’s marketing team there, but I guess they took the easy option and one that’s easy to remember because of it’s genericity. All that aside, the promise of piece-of-piss-easy entry was too hard to resist, and when a customer wanted a set ordered, I thought I’d give them a try too. Dan at Sola Sports was singing their praises too, and hooked me up with a set of Carbons at the Velominati Special Deal rate. Cheers Dan!
It took, oh, about ten seconds to declare these the easiest pedals ever to get into. It was like my foot had been magically or magnetically drawn to the exact position for the cleat to engage, the pedal falling at the optimum angle, and the most satisfying ‘clic’ that I’d heard since those very first ATACs converted me for life. If you don’t know how the iClics work, think about ski boots/bindings. (I have never ski’ed, so if it all sounds like bullshit then it probably is.) The secret is in the Carbo-Flex plate under the pedal’s platform, which holds the retention mechanism open when you twist the shoe out. When it’s time to clip back in, the spring is in open position, allowing the cleat to locate with minimum resistance.
And as the Gestapo would tell you, resistance is futile.
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
@Oli Brooke-White
Great story and nicely retold. I'm with you on the last part; explains my 2 week old I guess......
Before I rode bikes I climbed mountains and skied the backcountry. I joined the elite ranks of sliders who knew the addictive rush of the telemark turn. We were different from the masses. We lived for the perfect run and carved out our art with great pride in the knowledge that our heels were free. We mocked the alpine sliders with their bondage gear - feet inexorably bound to the boards.
I started mountain biking as a commuter and to keep the legs in shape for winter. I rode flats pedals and rarely got off the fire roads. My brother changed the course of my life when he gave me his old ironman bike - a softride solo with downtube shifters and look clipless pedals.
When I first clipped in I was transformed. No longer was I a person sitting on a bike. We bonded. I loved the bondage. The softride and I were one. I never felt trapped or locked down. We each gave ourselves up to the other. For me the act of clipping in is a glorious, sublime moment. Often there's a period of phaffing about beforehand - the pre ride ritual - car, pump, kit, stuffing pockets, shoes, helmet, gloves...and then you throw a leg over, give a little push and CLICK! That snapping of a spring is like a door opening into another world...The start of the road to nowhere, the road to everywhere.
At the other end of the spectrum, going clipless on the MTB was rough! My first outing on technical uphill singletrack was a humiliating ordeal of blood, cuts and bruised hips. The emergency clip out is an essential skill if you want to avoid the instant rock massage.
There is a brilliant comedic appeal to falling over at 0kph. Its not a crash really is it. Unclipping left and leaning right is a favourite of mine. You know right away you've blown it but time slows down - sometimes enough for you to think "I'm OK here" before gravity slaps you over like one of the stooges...
Yup, love my speedplay zeros. Unmistakably pro. Sadly, I can't use the Ti version because of the total weight limit.
I have a pair of the Time shoes and pedals Tomac's using. They weigh a ton and the shoes are now (fortunately) too small. Does anyone else remember Adidas's pedal/shoe combo in the late 80s? If I remember it was a big, flat, black plastic (or resin) platform and was kinda like the Cinelli in that you had to reach down and flip a lever to disengage. You also had to buy Adidas shoes as it was a groove system along the side of the actual shoe that engaged it with the pedal. My boss at the bike shop had a pair. I can't remember anyone else using them. As Look was coming out at the same time and were much more flexible in terms of pairing with shoes, the Adidas system was DOA.
Hah, sounds like an inferiority complex to me! It's funny you hate something so much that you've never tried and don't use.
Maybe you're secretly jealous of our bulging, over-sized, lubed cleats? Or the fact that we can clip in from BOTH sides?
You know what they say, don't knock it until you've tried it.
@Karolinka
John Leiswyn used to write very interesting cyclingnews articles when it was quite novel to hear a "pro" insight. Sounded like he probably could have done more in Europe if he had some luck?
@Marcus
@mcsqueak
Hehe, thanks for the concern, I did try to indicate there was little to no rationality involved in my dislike of speedplay. Tons of people use them and love them. But I can't do it: somewhere along the line my aesthetic appreciation for the bike developed into including pedals with an appreciable platform, and speedplays don't fit my narrow world view of how things should be. Its a flaw I'm aware of and quite happy to live with.
Though Mcsqueak, you may be onto something,
<a href="#comment-21472" style="text-decoration: none; color:
Hah, sounds like an inferiority complex to me! It's funny you hate something so much that you've never tried and don't use.
Maybe you're secretly jealous of our bulging, over-sized, lubed cleats?
funnily enough I never thought I was jealous before, but now...
John Lieswyn lives here in New Zealand now. I believe he owns a bike shop in one of our provicial centres, Palmerston North. Great guy, by all accounts.
Being the semi-old dude, my bike shop days and riding "real" bikes started in the early '80s. Toe straps were the norm. I remember my first race shoes with the slotted cleat that slid into the rear of the pedal cage. Crank down the toe straps and you're in there for good. Coming to a stop required reaching down to loosen the straps. Bit of a lost art for kids nowadays. Rode mountain bikes for years with straps as well (no slotted race shoes) - got damn good at flipping pedals over and sliding feet into the straps.
A little too damn good actually, since years of muscle memory made moving to clipless a hassle for me. I started riding clipless during the '90s - when the mountain bike SPD was released. Used 'em on the road first, no problems at all. Off-road however, I swapped between SPD and straps up until 2000 or so. Yeah, I'm weird. I couldn't seem to pull off technical stuff with SPDs - we're talking mild observed trials kinda stuff here, not general dirt riding - so I'd get hacked and put the straps back on. Like I said, I'm weird. Finally, said screw it - put the SPDs on for good and got over it. Been 10+ years now.
Breaking some Velominati rules, I wear Sidi mountain bike shoes and run Shimano mountain bike SPD pedals on all my bikes. It's just easier and you can walk like a human off the bike. The extra few ounces of plastic sole don't seem to slow me down on the road...
I've gotten to relive the whole clipless experience recently, via my 11 year old son. He just converted to clipless from running platform pedals. Being a kid, adjusted to all it pretty damn quick. He now has a few rides and races under his clipless belt. He digs' em.
http://yoeddy.blogspot.com/2011/04/welcome-to-clipless-town.html
Oli - great story! The one that got away. She sounded like a vixen for sure!
Pretty amusing how many of us have had the 0 kph tip over. I'm glad I'm not the only one to do the clipped in beetle, or turtle, or bug dance on the ground while trying to get a foot out.