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Cycling for Noobs

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Totriornottotri Apr 2020 12:46pm, 29 Apr 2020 275 posts	Quote Pin Totriornottotri 1) Great question! quora.com 2) The thread into the crank is universal but I've never used the silly small MTN Bike pedals. 3) 25-30 pounds for cheapest pedal plus about 40 pound for a shoe and 10 pound for a cleat? 4) A few times. Not too many and doesn't hurt too much. You tend to be stopped and unable to unclip. 5) I think the up stroke thing has been debunked an nice circles is the zeitgeist marginal gain. No you won't get more tired - it's easier because your foot is properly secured. You can get pedals with 'float' to wiggle a bit. A real cyclist will come along with proper answers!
Totriornottotri Apr 2020 12:47pm, 29 Apr 2020 276 posts	Quote Pin Totriornottotri From Quora but what I'd heard: If we go back before clipless pedals were invented there were three main types of pedals. Platforms, caged pedals and toe clips (added to a caged pedal). So you either rode a platform (invented for BMX in the late 70s) or caged pedal without a toe clip or you rode with a caged pedal that had a strap on it that you would insert your foot into called a toe clip. The toe clip was used so riders could gain more power by being able to pull up on the backside of the pedaling stroke. Road and track cyclists mainly used them. In the 80’s mountain biking started to get popular and most original mountain bikes used BMX pedals that didn’t use toe clips. But it wasn’t long before mountain bikers wanted toe clips to help them climb hills and have more power. The problem is that mountain biking often required riders to dismount or put their foot down and toe clips were difficult to get back into once you took your foot out, at least quickly. If a rider had to put a foot down during a climb and then try to get their foot back into the toe clip while still in the climb, it was very difficult to do. Around the late 80’s Shimano designed and came out with the SPD clipless pedal. It wasn’t the first of it’s kind, but it was by far the most successful attempt and became instantly popular. So why was it called a clipless pedal? Because it didn’t have a toe clip, thus is was clipless. This is where terminology gets all messed up in the cycling world. So because these pedals didn’t have toe clips, we called them clipless pedals. The term stuck. What was funny was when we engaged our shoes with the cleat on the bottom into the clipless pedal we called it “clipping in”. Yeah, we did……LOL. The SPD clipless pedal allowed us to lock our shoes into the pedal much faster than trying to flip a pedal around so we could slip our toe into the toe strap. It wasn’t long before other brands became available. Because the term clipless stuck at the very beginning, it just never went away. It’s sort of why we call off-road cycling “mountain biking” when a mountain is rarely used to ride a bicycle off-road (usually on a dirt trail called singletrack). In the late 80’s the term mountain biking was already commonplace because that style of bicycle was invented in the mountains on the West Coast of the U.S. The bicycle industry tried to recoin the term and call them ATBs (All-Terrain Bicycles) and that never stuck with cyclists. So today we still call them Mountain Bikes. Basically, once a term is coined it is very hard to change it, even if it doesn’t make any sense. Clipless pedals are not clipless, but we still call them clipless pedals and probably always will.
larkim Apr 2020 12:50pm, 29 Apr 2020 10,924 posts	Quote Pin larkim btw, the shoes / pedals / cleats I've used are the "silly small mtb" ones, mainly as at the time I was expecting to put them on my MTB most of the time, and road bike some of the time. The big pro for me for the MTB cleats/pedals/shoes was that they are easier to walk around in when not on the bike.
Old Croc Apr 2020 12:57pm, 29 Apr 2020 31,053 posts	Quote Pin Old Croc A quick addition is that the road clipless pedal was developed for racing - by Bernard Hainault and ski manufacturer Look in the 80s (or thereabouts) . This was because sprinters were crashing and were effectively tied to their bikes in the crash. The idea was that, like in ski crashes, the rider and bike would separate easily in event of a crash at speed
fetcheveryone Apr 2020 1:00pm, 29 Apr 2020 23,894 posts	Quote Pin fetcheveryone So much to take in Thank you all Totriornottotri - can you explain this please: "I think the up stroke thing has been debunked an nice circles is the zeitgeist marginal gain." And I have another question... is there a WAVA equivalent for cycling? If not, I might build one - I've got enough data
mushroom Apr 2020 1:01pm, 29 Apr 2020 1,117 posts	Quote Pin mushroom Good idea for a thread! My question is about brake cables when they are in need of tightening. I've used the 'twisty screw' - that screw that connects the cable to the brake lever, but it's close to its maximum. I've also looked at pulling the cable tighter at the point of the grip / clamps nearest the brakes, but it's always harder to make this tighter - it slips back to its previous position or worse. - Are there any tips for tightening cables? - What options do I have to tighten the cable further? Thanks in advance. Think I'll go and put a small plank on a couple of bricks in my street and run a few jumps..!
Old Croc Apr 2020 1:14pm, 29 Apr 2020 31,056 posts	Quote Pin Old Croc there is a time trialling equivalent of WAVA - a veterans standard time - known as your time on standard - not a clue how it works to be fair but it a bit like golf handicap with a +X minutes for age over each distance
EvilPixie Apr 2020 1:25pm, 29 Apr 2020 17,323 posts	Quote Pin EvilPixie i use the SPD mountain bike shoes as they give you the benefits of clipped in shoes but you can walk in them too (for when I give up on hills!) DHB from wiggle are reasonably priced cycling kit
GordonG Apr 2020 1:27pm, 29 Apr 2020 8,117 posts	Quote Pin GordonG Fetch, i may be wrong but i think the 'up stroke' comment may (?) be in relation to the notion that some people think having clip / click ons means you push down and pull up on each stroke, when in fact you have to think more in terms of circles. I believe there is an optimum point to put the most effort in as the pedal is coming up on one side and down on t'other.
halfpint Apr 2020 1:55pm, 29 Apr 2020 30,871 posts	Quote Pin halfpint Great thread. I’ve never gone clipless. Flat pedals work fine enough for me for thrashing about the trails. Biking has been minimal for the last few years but keen to get back to it. I can’t answer any questions but will lurk. mushroom I find the park tools videos on YouTube helpful for frttling questions.