4 ms·

I strongly encourage you to actually test this yourself. Having personally done so myself, all I can say is that you will be surprised. Time yourself on a max-

I strongly encourage you to actually test this yourself. Having personally done so myself, all I can say is that you will be surprised. Time yourself on a max-effort sprint in a high gear from a standstill. Don’t pull up on half your efforts. Pull up on half your efforts. The effect isn’t subtle. I’m not particularly convinced by power meters not showing much here. The biggest reason being that pulling up has the effect of allowing you to push even harder down. Without pulling on the handlebars or pulling up on the rear pedal, the maximum force you can exert on the pedal is a function limited by your weight. By pulling up on those three points, your ability to push down harder is significantly greater. Another simple counterexample is hills. There exist hills in my city that are physically impossible to climb without clipless pedals. You can stand on the pedal all you want, but your body weight is not enough to overcome the downward pull from the slope. On clipless pedals, while pulling up, you can climb the hill.

hinkley 3y ago
The summaries of these studies don’t seem to mention sprinters. Or climbers. I’m thinking the wrong people did these studies (people who didn’t actually “test it themselves”). I would also say that as a former cyclist and bike mechanic, there were thresholds of pedal adjustment where your foot would stay on the pedal if you only applied downforce, but not sufficient for any other force. It was a common enough problem that there were articles written about it. Early Look models had this problem, but not as substantially as most of their copycats. There’s a reason they had little competition for most of a decade. I think the Shimano MTB pedals (with the little countersunk cleats) sometime around 2nd Gen, were the first time Look got properly nervous. There were some people for whom you had to dial the tension to the edge of “annoying” for clipping in in order to keep them from accidentally clipping out at speed or on hills, both if which can be dangerous. Even when I had mine dialed in “right”, I ended up pulling one shoe vertically out of the pedal when I came to a stop without disengaging first. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug.
- LargoLasskhyfv 3y ago
  Never got used to clips. Got 2 hyperbikes recently and had real trouble to get something like these https://www.indoorcycling.org/welgo-spd-kombipedale-mit-koerbchen.html https://www.indoorcycling.org/welgo-spd-kombipedale-mit-koer... , https://www.permanent-fahrrad.de/Retro-Fahrrad-Pedale-mit-Pedalhaken https://www.permanent-fahrrad.de/Retro-Fahrrad-Pedale-mit-Pe... attached to them, or get them at all. Because I'm used to them. I know them as 'Tretkorb'. How do you call them, toe clips? After about 20 years pause, only using an antique 'citybike' with three-spead gear hub and coaster brake. It feels like I can fly again! :-)

hinkley 3y ago

The summaries of these studies don’t seem to mention sprinters. Or climbers. I’m thinking the wrong people did these studies (people who didn’t actually “test it themselves”). I would also say that as a former cyclist and bike mechanic, there were thresholds of pedal adjustment where your foot would stay on the pedal if you only applied downforce, but not sufficient for any other force. It was a common enough problem that there were articles written about it. Early Look models had this problem, but not as substantially as most of their copycats. There’s a reason they had little competition for most of a decade. I think the Shimano MTB pedals (with the little countersunk cleats) sometime around 2nd Gen, were the first time Look got properly nervous. There were some people for whom you had to dial the tension to the edge of “annoying” for clipping in in order to keep them from accidentally clipping out at speed or on hills, both if which can be dangerous. Even when I had mine dialed in “right”, I ended up pulling one shoe vertically out of the pedal when I came to a stop without disengaging first. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug.

LargoLasskhyfv 3y ago
Never got used to clips. Got 2 hyperbikes recently and had real trouble to get something like these https://www.indoorcycling.org/welgo-spd-kombipedale-mit-koerbchen.html https://www.indoorcycling.org/welgo-spd-kombipedale-mit-koer... , https://www.permanent-fahrrad.de/Retro-Fahrrad-Pedale-mit-Pedalhaken https://www.permanent-fahrrad.de/Retro-Fahrrad-Pedale-mit-Pe... attached to them, or get them at all. Because I'm used to them. I know them as 'Tretkorb'. How do you call them, toe clips? After about 20 years pause, only using an antique 'citybike' with three-spead gear hub and coaster brake. It feels like I can fly again! :-)