I Like Strapless Toe Clips

from Rookie’s keyboard,

Hello, friends

Today I will talk about my absolute favorite foot retention system – strapless toe clips.


Old School Toe Clips and Pedals

The goal of foot retention is to keep the feet in an optimal position on the pedals (the ball of the foot should be the part contacting the pedal) so that you can pedal efficiently and with minimal joint stress.

Foot retention systems (FTS) eliminate the possibility of pedal slippage when exerting a lot of effort.

If the foot slips, the rider can be thrown off balance and may also get hit in the shins by the pedal.


The truth, however, is that toe clips and straps are super inconvenient in urban settings for the following reasons:

Annoying Set-up

To tighten and untighten the straps, you have to remove one hand from the handlebars for every side. This makes the process cumbersome, especially when riding in a dynamic environment.

In different, when you are riding strapless, you can keep both hands on the bars at all times. You don’t even have to look at the pedals.

Compromised Safety

A tightened strap makes it difficult to get out of the clips. In some cases, you may remain attached to the bike even during a fall.

You may also end up in a situation when it would be beneficial to quickly put one or both feet on the ground but fail to do so due to the tight straps.

Foot Restriction

Straps restrict the movement of the foot. While this is beneficial for optimal pedaling, the constant position results in trigger spots and joint stress.

Constantly tightening and untightening the strap is extremely annoying. Honetly, just one session will be enough to drive you insane, at least it was for me.


So, what did I do?

I removed the straps and never looked back. Since then this has been my go-to retention mechanism.

Clean Look

Another bonus of ditching the straps is the streamlined look and reduced cleaning duties.

The straps are usually made of leather or nylon. Both materials get easily soaked and contaminated.

Compatible with more shoes

In some cases, the straps may get caught in the laces/tightening system of a shoe. Without them, it’s much easier to use a greater variety of footwear.


Additional Observations/Notes

I’ve been riding my road bike with just toe clips for many years now and have nothing negative to say about this system.

The toe clips provide a surprising amount of foot retention (you can still pull the pedal) and keep the feet at the same overall location at all times. It’s also very easy to get in and out of the clips.

Below are some tips that you may find helpful:

  • Cut the hook end

If you don’t plan on adding straps, there is no need to use full clips. The extra hook through which the strap is supposed to pass can interfere with the process.

If you have steel toe clips, you cut them with a great number of tools (hacksaw, angle grinder, rotary tool…etc.) You can also break it off with a set of pliers.

There are also “half clips” sold separately which have the same idea in mind. That said, for many people, it may be cheaper to get a set of old-school clips and just cut the hook.

  • Stick to steel toe clips if possible

I prefer steel toe clips because they keep their shape very well. The plastic ones always bend more than needed and make it more difficult to get in and out of them.

The flexier the toe clips, the more frequently they change their shape. This result in non-consistent feedback and inefficiency.

  • Get Cage Pedals With a Flip Lever

Cage pedals have a little “spike”/lever on one end. The lever makes it easier to bring the pedal and consequently the cage to a horizontal position.

If the pedal and the footwear work well together, you can just rest the sole of your shoe on the spike/lever and then flip the pedal to horizontal in a split second. Once the pedal is horizontal to the ground, it’s a lot easier to slide in the clip.

If your particular pedals do not have that part, it’s much more difficult to rotate the pedals as needed.

Luckily, you can easily make your own.

DIY pedals with half-toe clips and a flip lever

In the image above, you see my current pedals. When I first got them, I wasn’t even planning on using toe clips. Hence I didn’t care that they had neither holes for the cages nor a flip lever.

The pedals were quite comfortable on their own, but I wanted the reference that toe clips offer.

To fix the issue, I drilled 2 holes at the front so that I could install the cage as well as 2 holes at the back.

I slid a spoke through the second set of holes and made my own flip lever. The final pedal isn’t the most attractive, primarily because I am not the most artistic person and didn’t produce a nice shape out of the spoke, but functionally, the pedals work very well.

I used plastic toe clips because my steel ones failed due to fatigue. That said, I plan on switching to steel ones once I can find a good pair.

  • Racing Pedals Are The Worst

Unfortunately, many cage pedals, especially those designed for racing, are quite uncomfortable when combined with regular shoes. The problem comes from the absence of a wide platform. The walls of the pedals are the only element in contact with the foot. Consequently, trigger spots occur quickly.

Those types of pedals were designed specifically for old-school cycling shoes which had a very thick sole.

Also, some cage pedals have a metal lip meant to attach to a metal bracket on the sole. That metal lip will dig into your feet when used with ordinary footwear.

(The lip can, of course, be ground down.)

The lip on the closer side makes the pedal very uncomfortable when used with regular shoes.

This is one of the reasons why I switched to the pedals described earlier. I also have two pairs of racing cage pedals, but they simply didn’t pair well with the sneakers that I use for cycling.

Until next time,

Rookie


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Comments

One response to “I Like Strapless Toe Clips”

  1. Dan K Avatar
    Dan K

    Brother I thought I was the only one in the world who did this! Even online you only see discussions of flats vs clipless and occasionally someone chimes in with toeclips and straps. Seems like nobody knows about this.

    I actually first started using this method when I was getting back into cycling after losing one of my feet. I couldn’t use regular flats since my prosthetic side would always fly off after 2 minutes. I tried with the straps but it seemed too dangerous. This was the system I hit upon and I’ve been using it ever since. I honestly don’t think the straps add much more retention, just a tiny bit.

    I am going to try the modern clipless system soon as well but that will be for pure leisure rides where I won’t be walking.

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