On Mon, 17 May 2004 00:52:59 -0400, Steve Freides wrote:
Is there an comparison of the various types of pedal systems out there
suitable for the casual cyclotourist?

I'm no expert, but a friend of mine asked me about clipless pedals about a
year ago and I wrote him an email with my own personal analysis.

It's probably neither complete nor fully accurate, but it's a comparison
and it's for a casual rider.

I'm sure folks all over are going to jump on me for things I wrote, but
I'll post it anyway, just for fun.

[By the way, I personally just switched from a pair of cheap SPD pedals
(PD-M515) to a wonderful, amazing, beautiful, fantastic pair of pedals
(PD-M959). The difference is night and day. I found my pair brand new at
a local co-op for $100. If you are willing to spend the money (they
retail for a fair bit more than that, but see what you can find), they are
worth every penny. Not only do they clip in and out as smoothly as you
could ever want, they turn like butter and are just a goddamn JOY to ride.
I put them on my fixie and I swear it felt like I dropped my gear ratio.
I'm just in love with them and won't hesitate to spend the bucks on great
pedals.]

Here goes (I'll attempt to read it and edit it right now, but remember I
wrote it a year ago for somebody else whom I know well):

Clipless systems consist of pedals and cleats that interlock and give you
the ability to apply force to the cranks at every point in the stroke
(even the back stroke at the bottom, which a clip will never give you).
They're a little bit daunting because you actually have to consciously
unclip your foot before taking it off the pedal and the truth is that you
WILL fall down within the first few times you try to ride with these
things. The cleats require special shoes, but mostly these days they've
standardized enough that most cleats fit most shoes.

There are many types of clipless pedal systems and they're all proprietary
to some extent (though there is some licensing). They break down into
walkable and unwalkable categories and have relative strengths.

I just went online looking for a good comparison, but there wasn't
anything apparent to me. Mostly, folks like what they have or what they
used first and can only compare in one direction.

Really, there are only four practical walkable types: Eggbeaters, Frogs,
ATACs, and SPDs.

Eggbeaters (from Crank Bros.) have a pedal that looks like an eggbeater
with four blades. The cool thing about them is that they are mechanically
super simple and essentially have four "sides" for connecting to the
cleat, whereas most have two. The drawback is that they're a bit less
common and expensive and I don't know anybody that actually uses them to
attest to their walkability, though they have "road" and "MTB" (mountain
bike) cleats which might say something about walkability. They do now
have a platform petal which makes NOT clipping in sometimes workable.
(Mike has these, but he's not really happy with them.)
URL: http://www.crankbros.com/

Frogs by Speedplay are an attempt to adapt a popular fancy road pedal to
more practical wet/dry, walkable pedals. There's only two models from one
manufacturer. The cleats are more expensive if you have more than one
pair of shoes, but only one set of pedals. Some people really like them
because they're light and they look cool. The other Speedplay pedals look
better, to my eyes, but they're not really walkable. There's a new cleat
for the Frog line that's supposedly totally compatible with standard
(we'll see in a moment what that means) shoes.
URL: http://www.speedplay.com/

ATACs from Time are considered the sort of "high performance"
multi-purpose system. They're a bit more expensive, but they're lighter
and they don't come in a non-durable low-end. As with all the others, the
cleats fit just fine in standard shoes. They're not as adjustable as some
others, but they claim they don't have to be. My friend Michael Wolfe
(who rode his recumbent from Portland to Boston, as I've said a billion
times) swore by them, but now he rides eggbeaters.
URL: http://www.timesportusa.com/

SPDs from Shimano are the most common type of pedal. Shimano is the
leading maker of bicycle components and equipment, so this shouldn't be a
surprise. As with everything is the industry, "standard" means the way
Shimano does it (except in cases where Shimano stupidly patented something
that could easily be done another way). So you'll find that shoes made
for ANY walkable cleat will be called "SPD shoes", regardless of which
system you use. There are two SPD systems. There's the regular SPD
that's general use (like I use -- sometimes called MTB) and there's SPD-R
for road racing and track and stuff. The second isn't really walkable and
you'll see the difference immediately. Nothing confusing about it,
really, except the name. SPDs are recessed enough in the shoe that you
can actually make a shoe where the cleat never touches the ground...
granted, such a shoe might not be compatible with some of the more
hybrid-type pedals without a little cutting away of sole. There's a kind
of staggering variety of pedals available for SPDs. I've heard bad things
about the knock-offs and have always had good luck with the Shimano brand
(three pair, so far... all different). Cleats are essentially the same
way: stick with the brand name. They license somewhat promiscuously.
Anyway, that's what most folks use and it's good enough... but it's a bit
like buying into the monopoly... then again, it's also can be done cheap
and works Just Fine.
URL: http://www.shimano.com/