Encounters with Stupidity

Each week I ride from my house out to Sabino Canyon. Sabino is a deep gash in the south-southwest face of the Santa Catalina mountains. From the parking lot, a paved road continues 3.7 miles up the canyon into the heart of the mountains. Cyclers turn around here for the fast ride back down to the parking lot. Last week I rode out by myself into a cold sustained headwind. Five miles into the ride, my right knee started to hurt. I realized I was fighting my SPDs, trying to bring my heel in more than the pedals allow. Mine have about six degrees of float -- not enough. Or maybe enough if I could adjust the cleat angle, but that's not possible. I think six degrees is fairly standard. By the time I got to Sabino my knee was killing me, and I thought I could actually see some bruising on it. On the way home I swore I'd look into some full-float pedals. An email to my brother and a search on the web pointed me toward Speedplay. But their two lines of road pedals (the lollipops) require standard road shoes with a 7- or 8-bolt pattern (I can't remember). Speedplay's Frog off-road shoe fits standard 2-hole (SPD-style) shoes. They have "unlimited float", but that's not really true. On the bike, your heel cannot rotate inward more than a degree or two. It can rotate out 20 degrees before releasing. There is no spring, and nothing prevents your cleats from releasing except your muscles holding your heel in line with the bike (within 20 degrees). When I first figured out how they work (sitting on my couch playing with the pedals) I was surprised -- they aren't really "clipless" pedals at all. They're a different animal... a cross between a platform pedal and true clipless, like SPDs, where you are actually attached to the bike, with spring tension preventing your cleats from releasing. I was disappointed. $130 for what are really just platforms? The packaging suggests 2-3 weeks to get used to the pedals. I installed them and went for my Sabino ride. It took me about 2-3 minutes to get used the pedals, and I actually like them. It's very easy to "clip in" -- just put your foot down. Also easy to clip out -- no spring tension holding you in. Just swing your heel out. No sound. It just releases. It's clever, but it makes me wonder if I need clips at all. Rivendell generally thinks no, they're silly. Rhino likes them. I like them. With clipless, I don't have to worry about where to place my foot on the pedal fore/aft or side to side. Just plop. Otherwise I'd be moving my foot around all the time, being rather flippant.