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In article ,
Bop wrote:

OK, not really a noob. I used to ride heavily some 10+ years before,
mostly commuting stuff. Not really much of a specs guy, but I did know all
my gearings and such. Had two accidents under my belt, one minor and one
not so minor. Anyway, just looked at my 15+ yr old bike in storage this
weekend, and on an impulse decided to clean off the cobwebs and take it out
for a spin. It was nice. But it was hard, too. Some questions about
current bike stuff:

My beater is a Team Fuji road bike, with pretty much old tech: friction
shifters, clips & straps, etc. These are fine--I'm used to them and they
still work great. But when I get on the Nashbar site to look for some
shoes & cleats replacements, I'm kinda shocked not to find any standard
cleats, but only those for the clipless kinds. Are they there and I just
need to get some glasses, or has the clipless revolution taken over?

_ IMHO, clipless pedals are the one new change to bikes vs 15-20
years ago that's really a drastic improvement. The only place to
buy old cleats anymore is Ebay and I don't know where you'd get
any shoes you could put them on.


I've nothing against clipless, just that I know nothing about them (other
than that they don't require a cage). Should I stick with my present
setup, or should I buy a cheap clipless replacement? I see common clipless
types like SPD and SPDR and whatever else. Can someone give me a quick
rundown on their differences, or point me to a FAQ somewhere?

_ The market has settled out into two basic styles for attaching
cleats SPD and Look. Look is for smooth soled road shoes and SPD
started with mountain bikes and is now used for both. The cleats
vary great according to exactly which pedal you buy, but at least
the bolts for attaching them have roughly standardardized.

_ Here's a FAQ that you might find useful

http://draco.acs.uci.edu/rbfaq/FAQ


I used to have a pair of touring shoes which have "ridges" instead of
cleats, and a steel shank embedded in the sole to keep them stiff. These
obviously don't work as well as cleated ones, which I also have a pair, but
they allow me to walk around. I don't want to have to commute with an
extra pair of shoes, so I'm looking for something like this. But on
Nashbar and other bike sites, all they have are road & MTB shoes, no
touring stuff. Any tips on where I can look?

_ Shimano makes shoes like this, try looking for Shimano MO-38 on
google. Most cheaper SPD mountain shoes are at least flexible enough for
short walks. You can even get SPD sandals. On mountain bike shoes
the lugs on the sole extend far enough that you can walk without
the cleat touching the ground.

_ Booker C. Bense

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