is there a standard to these? will any shoe/cleat fit any pedal? what should i aim to get for an active recreational biker?
clipless pedals on a mtn bike
- Thread starter Pex
- Start date
No, there is no standard. There are several different designs out there. Time has their ATAC series, & Shimano has some as well (SPD).
I have ATACs on my i-Drive.
When you buy pedals they should come with cleats, you then bolt those to a shoe of your choice.
Word of advice, if you've never used clipless pedals before practice on soft ground (grass).
Viper GTS
I have ATACs on my i-Drive.
When you buy pedals they should come with cleats, you then bolt those to a shoe of your choice.
Word of advice, if you've never used clipless pedals before practice on soft ground (grass).
Viper GTS
JulesMaximus
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There are a few different types. SPD is the most common, this is what I have on my mountain bike and my road bike. The shoes come without the cleats and have holes ready to mount the cleats (cleats come with the pedals).
True what everyone has said.
Another tip. Until you get used to them, back off the tensioners so you can un clip easier. There will be two small allen head bolts, one on each side of the pedal, back them out and you will be able to BAIL without much effort!
Another tip. Until you get used to them, back off the tensioners so you can un clip easier. There will be two small allen head bolts, one on each side of the pedal, back them out and you will be able to BAIL without much effort!
JulesMaximus
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Hehehe, after I put clipless pedals on my road bike I was using it to commute to and from work a few times a month and I got pretty good at getting in and out of them at stoplights. One time after riding home I pulled up in my driveway and came to a stop, tried to twist my foot out of the pedal but couldn't...I went right over. It must have looked pretty funny. Fortunately, there was nobody around and I haven't had the misfortune to do this at a traffic light.
It will happen to you. It happens to everyone at least once.
Don Vito Corleone
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IMO clipless pedals are even more essential on a MTB than on a road bike, for safety reasons. Once you get accustomed to them, they are much safer and easier to get into and out of than toe clips, and provide great leverage for climbing steep pitches and getting over obstacles. I use older Shimano M747s, and prefer SPDs to Times - I could never get used to the lateral play in Times.
Very true.
Usually in front of some hot girl you're trying to impress.
Another advantage with clipless pedals is you can pull up with one foot while pushing down with the other. = Better torque for climbing.
You are talking about "clipless" pedals but you are talking about clipping them and unclipping them. What's the deal?
Anubis
No Lifer
its all basically been said, shimano and time make 2 diff kinds, and then their are egg beaters and other odd ones, i have some SPDs cause they are bullet proof, man have they taken some crap, also have some Sun flatt peddles i use when im downhilling
FelixDeCat
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That would be a pain the neck (especially when I fall). I like flat pedals w/no shoe holders, thank you. Or am I just misunderstanding this whole thing?
Anubis
No Lifer
you miss understand, you can clip out really eaisily and you can adjust the force required to do so, i have only fallen once and didnt clip out in time and it wasent really that bad, if you eat it hard your feet will come out. also with clipless pedals you have much more power in your pedal stroke because your attached
Once you're used to them (doesn't take long, & doesn't hurt if you're on dirt) there are no real disadvantages to clipless, & have many advantages.
Viper GTS
JulesMaximus
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They hold the shoe to the pedal via a cleat on the bottom of the shoe, not with a metal cage and straps like the old style pedals. To get your foot out of them you simply twist your heel away from the bike to release your foot. It gives you an advantage because you can pull on the upstroke when you need to and it also ensures you maintain your foot in the proper position on the pedal.
I wouldn't have a bike without them.
I'm not a fan of the Look style pedals either. I had them on my road bike for a while but it was more of a pain to get your foot properly clipped in than the SPD style. Also, the cleat is much larger and makes walking in your bike shoes more difficult. I have a nice pair of Shimano shoes which have a rubber sole with tread and recessed cleat, they are very comfortable and you can do a limited amount of walking in them without sliding all over the place.
Ues there are several standards.
I like the SPD's for mountain biking and Look for road cycling.
That questions does not make any sense. How is extra cleats going to help? More then one set of pedals might.
Agreed. I use M747's on my road bike, and I used to use them on my mountain bike back when I had one. I really need to get some money so I can start mountain biking again.
Rob
JulesMaximus
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Originally posted by: Entity
Agreed. I use M747's on my road bike, and I used to use them on my mountain bike back when I had one. I really need to get some money so I can start mountain biking again.
Rob
I have SPD pedals on my mtn bike and my road bike. I also have two different pairs of shoes I can use with either bike.
"Cleats" are the bits of metal that bolt onto your shoes. If you have more than one bike, just make sure you use pedals that are compatible with the same cleats & you can use one pair of shoes for both bikes.
Viper GTS
I've used SPDs for years.....used many brands but keep coming back to Shimano....they're just too smooth and easy to use, the cleats are recessed into your shoes so walking is fairly normal, and replacement cleats are everywhere. I've got a set of 535s that just refuse to die no matter how badly I treat them. I use them on my road bike when commuting in town but prefer Looks for distance riding. SPDs just give me a hot spot from the small cleat when traveling over 50 miles.
Best way I've found for learning the click-in, click-out move without hurting yourself too much is practice at first in the hallway of your house. Easy to hold yourself up.....the walls are close together so you don't fall over. Practice a bit until you become somewhat comfortable with the "move" needed to clip in and out.......and the "move" will become natural quickly, so don't worry. And like other's mentioned, you will forget to unclip at least once, but take heart...it'll probably be at a very low speed and you'll just fall over.
If you crash hard enough, like another mentioned, you're shoes should just unclip by themselves, unless you've adjusted the pedals too tightly.
Best way I've found for learning the click-in, click-out move without hurting yourself too much is practice at first in the hallway of your house. Easy to hold yourself up.....the walls are close together so you don't fall over. Practice a bit until you become somewhat comfortable with the "move" needed to clip in and out.......and the "move" will become natural quickly, so don't worry. And like other's mentioned, you will forget to unclip at least once, but take heart...it'll probably be at a very low speed and you'll just fall over.
If you crash hard enough, like another mentioned, you're shoes should just unclip by themselves, unless you've adjusted the pedals too tightly.
Don Vito Corleone
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Originally posted by: Brutuskend
I think the next set I get will be Egg beaters.
Pro = four sided.
Con = none that I know of.
I would be curious to hear actual user feedback on these. The design is elegant and featherlight, but I have to wonder whether they would work well for technical sections where you might want to be unclipped or partially clipped in (I know the latter sounds odd, but I intuitively do this when remounting on a technical climb sometimes). The initial reviews were very favorable, but users of weird pedals (like, say Coombe road pedals, or Aerolights back in the day) tend to be a little cultish in my experience, and I was a little skeptical of the way the big retailers ended up blowing out the Eggbeaters a year or so after they came out.
You will find that changing cleats out can be a HUGE pain in the ass. They allen heads fill up with dirt and small rocks and it can SUCK getting them out! You are better off just buying several pairs of shoes.
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