leveling up on the cycle

[headlouse]

So after the lapse of winter, I've been riding my bicycle a lot again: everyday to and from work and sometimes to various events around town. I even found a new an nicer route thanks too this awesome googlemaps mashup bike route planner for SFNow that I'm getting back in shape I want to do some longer rides again. I picked up a nice biking map of

Comments

[jovino]

I've ridden in strapped-in petals with a cleat before, and also Look pedals.

The straps were a pain in the ass and took a long time to get into. They were also difficult to get out of and I fell a lot of times in them because I could not get out in time.

Looks were kinda cool because you could ride with normal shoes, but the cleats sucked to walk in. It's all hard plastic against the ground, and I have fallen while walking.

Now I have some SPD pedals. Little ones with no platforms. I have a basic pair of riding shoes and I can walk in them. I love them.

I think if I had SPD-compatible platform pedals, that would rocxxors. I've even seen shoes that looked like Fluevog that had a cleat on the sole. Talk about cool!

[headlouse]

Yeah, I've rode with toe straps a couple times, long long time ago, and I hated it. Didn't fall but came close and never really thought about attaching my feet to the pedals again.

I'd like walkable shoes too. In fact I needed new shoe for biking which was kinda the reason I starting thinking about clipless pedals. I'm not about to try toe straps again, they won't work for my needs anyway. My needs being:

90% riding to work or somewhere where I'll just toss on biking shoes
10% riding to a club/party with frankenstien-sized New Rock Boots

At the moment, I'm leaning towards the Crank Brothers Mallets, rather than SPDs. However, my plan is to find a bike with any of the petals I listed above in my post and try riding them in New Rocks.

[headlouse]

After doing more research and talking with some people at bike stores, I think I am gonna go for SPDs, namely the Shimano M424 or M545.

The Mallets are pretty, but supposedly the eggbeater style cleats (brass) wear out fast. Also, looking at them in person, I don't think the eggbeater spindles really could hold up to being mashed too often by New Rocks.

[charack]

When I would mountain bike with Troy I was always using the powergrip straps or this other one that was like a toe cup system. They worked just fine with my boots, although getting out of the powergrips was sometimes difficult.