marcus.e.helman@gm.com wrote:
> Grant Petersen argues for no cleats, no cycling shoes, no toeclips. Just
> Grant and his faux-Crocs on platform pedas. Interesting, although to me,
> unconvincing. I did try taking the toeclips off a bike, and felt like my
> foot was all over the place. Despite what Grant says, there are times on
> every ride when I am consciously pulling up, which requires toeclips at
> least
>
> http://www.rivbike.com/
Alas, I can't agree with Grant's analysis. I find riding any distance more than a few miles on ordinary (on topic) pedals causes a lot of foot pain, burning, etc. that I do not get when using appropriate cycling shoes. I can use street shoes with platform pedals, though I don't usually ride long distances on that bike (7 mile commute to work).
And regarding his assertion that "top riders" do not pull up on their upstroke -- one of the problems riders encountered when trying to adapt regular (slotted cleat) all leather shoes to clipless pedals at the beginning of the off-topic era was that these shoes tended to stretch on top from pulling up on the upstroke, eventually ruining them. Shoemakers responded by reinforcing the uppers with e.g. Velcro straps or nylon mesh uppers instead of perforated leather &etc. Now you would be hard-pressed to find an all leather cycling shoe that wasn't manufactured 20 some years ago.
--
-John Thompson (john@os2.dhs.org)
Appleton WI USA