|   Are mini-clips any good at all? What about PowerGrips? | Huey
Dec 10, 2001 9:40 AM | | How come, when people here talk about which pedals to use, it always seems to be divided into clipless versus bare platforms? I was using miniclips all summer on my mtb and clips with straps on my road bike, and I liked 'em. I'm sticking with bare platforms just for the winter because I need to be nimble when I slip on ice, but I think old fashioned clips are great, especially if you have wide feet like me and it's hard to find shoes that fit. Why should my shoe selection be further restricted by a need for spd cleats or something?
Am I wrong to think that miniclips benefit me? Am I just imagining things? They keep the foot positioned, and allow you to use ankle-power to take some strain off your knees, and if you have a good tread on your sneaker you can even pull up on the pedals just like clipless. Am I just dreaming all this?
And what about PowerGrips? I've never tried 'em but they ought to be part of these discussions too. Has anybody used PowerGrips? |
| re: Are mini-clips any good at all? What about PowerGrips? | Nat
Dec 10, 2001 10:26 AM | | Hey Huey, if you like what you're using then who cares what we think? Before I tried clipless pedals I used Power Grips. I liked them alot. Once you get the strap set up for your shoe, then they're very easy to get in and out of, and are fairly secure. I do like clipless better though.
Sidi makes a wide shoe if you need a wider shoe and want to go clipless. They have the "Mega" designation.
What's a miniclip? |
| Toe clips, PowerGrips, Clipless Pedals and Pedaling in Circles | Demon Blues
Dec 10, 2001 11:32 AM | | Toe clips have a special place in my heart. They look so cool on bikes like the Rivendells and old Raleighs.
Power grips are wonderfully simple. When dialed in, you can really pull (upstroke) on the pedals. I have a pair on my commuter and they don't scuff my dress shoes too badly.
When I am riding at a higher degree of intensity however, I really like my clipless pedals - Look PP396 on my road bike, Frog Speedplays on my mtb, Time Aliums for mtb races and cyclocross.
Picture if you will, pedaling in squares (4 punctuated pedal movements) to achieve pedaling in circles: (1) Downstroke; (2) "Scraping mud off your soles" backwards; (3) Upstroke; (4) "Scraping mud off your soles" forwards.
You can achieve (1), (3), and (4), using toe-clips and Powergrips. However, you can only achieve (2) while using clipless pedals.
If you want to go fast (or simply want to ride efficiently), learn how to pedal in circles. |
| all All I use offroad is PowerGrips, and I'm no beginner | club
Dec 10, 2001 1:43 PM | | I've tried virtually every brand of clipless pedals, and have multiple pairs of SPDs and others here. They're on my cross bikes and fixers. For singletrack, all I use is PowerGrips. They make me a better rider because they give me the confidence to go for the sick moves, knowing that I will definitely be able to get a foot out and down to avoid an ugly SPD fall if I don't clean the move. Even if you can get out of clipless pedals reliably 99.9 percent of the time, that last one-tenth of a percent comes up pretty often if you ride a lot, as I do -- I get in about 3 hours of rough Colorado singletrack a day, almost every day. I've ridden with Famous Pro Racers who have fallen over because they got stuck in their clipless pedals, I won't name names, but you'd know them all. One of them fell over in my driveway trying to do a trackstand.
Keys to using and loving PowerGrips: Set them snug, but not uncomfortably tight. If they're snug, you can pull back, bunnyhop, etc. just fine, yet when you cock your ankle outboard, they loosen and you get out of them in a nanosecond. Another key is to not use shoes with huge aggressive lugged soles. File or grind down all the forefoot lugs until you can slide in and out without catching. I use a wire brush wheel on a drill, takes the lugs down in seconds. Another key is to use PowerGrips in conjunction with WTB Toe Flips. They're way better than any pedals' built-in flip tabs; I can get in my pedals first try, every time, and don't even have to think about it, it just happens. Contact WTB, they probably still have some around, though they don't promote them anymore. I run my PowerGrips on SunTour XC Pro and XC Compe pedals, and on Grafton clipless MTB and cross pedals, with all the clipless hardware removed. Hey, they're what, like $15 a pair? Get a pair and try them, use the above tips, and give them a fair shake before investing in expensive, sometimes dangerous clipless technology. |
| Like the Power Grips on my commuter | Cory
Dec 10, 2001 11:49 AM | | I've never used miniclips (my wife has a pair, but she's a very occasional rider), but I've had power grips on two bikes--a mountain bike several years ago and now on my commuter--and they work really well. You can pull up, and they hold your feet securely. Only complaint I have is that they have to be adjusted more or less to fit a specific pair of shoes. There's some slack in there, but if you have them set up for, say, mountain bike shoes without cleats, you can't just hop on and ride in the snow in your Sorels.
FWIW, in the winter I usually put great big plastic toe clips with loose straps on one bike. Then when it's nice, you can ride in regular bike shoes, but if it's cold or snowy, boots will work. |
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