On 4/24/2021 10:46 AM, Roger Merriman wrote:
Tom Kunich wrote:

One of our club riders mentioned that most falls on bicycles stems from
people not getting their feet out of clips rapidly enough. So he reverted
to flat pedals. Now he cannot keep up on any climbs. And people with
training can get out of pedals just as fast as he can step off of a flat
pedal since they are ready to clip out when the conditions warrant care.

Can’t say I have found any performance difference at all, I used clipless
for a few years on my first road bike, was fine, never struggled to clip in
or out or had a clip less moment but I never loved them.

I've never used clipless, but long ago I sometimes used classic cleats
with toe clips and straps for time trials. I can't say they made a
noticeable difference compared to flat touring shoes with clips and
straps. And when our kid was riding a lot with us, she changed to
clipless. There was no notable change in her power.

I know a lot of people claim their power output increased tremendously
with foot retention schemes. But I think it's impossible to avoid a
placebo effect with something so obvious.


Few years back bought a CX bike for hacking about the woods plus road and
put some MTB flats on, and used my MTB flat shoes, ie pedals with pins in,
plus shoes with soft tacky tread.

In short with proper flats you can’t slide the shoe but have to lift to
reposition, unlike the road flats which are frankly terrifying slippy.

I’ve done 100+ miles on them, climbed up big mountains, tackled seriously
steep climbs etc.

I’ve seen opinions dressed as science with huge gains for clipless but
proper stuff the gains is marginal, apparently. Which certainly echoes my
experience.

Interesting the pulling up, gain is very difficult to prove.

I've seen studies measuring pedal force during crank rotation. I've
never seen one confirm an upward force on the rear pedal. If it happens,
it must be very rare or temporary, like perhaps pulling hard from a
standing stop.


--
- Frank Krygowski