Toe Clips

These are the toe clips I picked up today at Thick bikes, which is without a doubt my favorite bike shop. The price for these bad boys was really good to, about 23 bucks installed (Bazinga!!) Still I had a feeling that these clips would be trouble.

I remember my last foray into something similar Shimano Clipless Pedals and road shoes. Yeah I was riding with geek warp factor of 10+ (at least in my own mind) as this was before I got to know the great people that make up the cycling community here in Pittsburgh. I also remember how after a month of "Getting Used" to the clipless pedals and trying to learn to walk in those freaky shoes, I still managed to fall over at stop signs about once every two days.

Not Pretty

So it was with great foreboding I tried out these pedals. I found that things weren't as bad as I thought they would be. I ended up taking the straps off for now as I am wearing my giant leather shoes to keep the cold out and they kept catching on the strap. without the strap they worked just as I hoped they would and I found that I was able to slip my boat like feet (size 13 wide) in and out with only a little trouble.  I am sure it will get better with practice.

One thing I noticed almost at once was the difference having my feet even nominally attached to the pedals made. Even now as I sit and type this I feel a tightness in the backs of my thighs that I do not normally get from riding my bike. I take this to mean that I am also pulling on the up stroke now as well.

All in all my first impression of these pedals is a good one. I give them a solid BUY if you are looking to move from platform pedals to something a little more functional and either don't want to go all in and go Clipless or like myself you simply lack some interior wiring that allows you to use clipless pedals with comfort.