I used SPD's when I raced XC, but never enjoyed them. I ride reasonably long distances (50 to 130 miles) and while I'm sure I'm losing a little bit of oomph on the climbs, my knees are much happier when I can move my foot around at will. I prefer flats for riding on slippery or sketchy stuff, which I tend to do just about every ride, and really appreciate being able to wear any shoe - most of my riding pals are struggling to keep their toes warm over winter, limited by their cycling shoes, though there are some good winter shoes out there these days.
I've thought about giving them a try again, but I've realized there's just no reason to for me - I don't care about the marginal gains and I would feel limited with how I like to ride On Monday 25 December 2023 at 12:08:57 UTC-8 Patrick Moore wrote: > Thinking out loud: if I ever get a replacement frame for the Monocog, > which I use for most of time when I run the dog, I may well try Urbans or > the wonderful value-for-money GR-1s, plus MKS X-deep clips and loose straps > (with toe clip buttons and strap pads, of course, just for style). I like > the GR-1s so much that some years ago I tried Urbans and then went back to > the GR-1s because I liked their flip-tab better. > > To make the inevitably rough GR-1s buttery (or at least relatively) > smooth: upend in vise, dribble in plenty of Phil Tenacious oil, leave for > 24 hours, wipe down, install, and ride them a lot. I *think* I've > actually overhauled the wee bearings but at $35 on Amazon there's almost no > point, and they'll outlast my use. > > On Mon, Dec 25, 2023 at 1:02 PM Patrick Moore <bert...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> If I ever build a dedicated shopping bike I think I'll try no-retention >> again, but this time without pinned pedals; it was the pins that annoyed me >> when I tried platforms a couple of years ago because they were always >> holding the shoe (and I bought a nice pair of platform cycling shoes) in >> the wrong places and made it hard to shift the soles to the right places. >> But something like MKS Urbans, perhaps with half clips, sounds very likely. >> >> I tend to mash gears, which means I often will pull back or up -- briefly >> -- on inclines or when turning into winds; retention has obvious advantages >> here and, in fact, the reason I went back to SPDs after a couple of years >> commuting with clips and straps but no cleats on my rubber soled >> Timberlands and Basses and so on was that I was always pulling the shoes >> out of the straps or, if the straps were tight, pulling my feet out of the >> shoes. >> >> But I agree, for convenience there's nothing like a comfortable, sturdy >> street shoe with sufficiently stiff or thick sole and sufficiently wide and >> flat pedal for all-round convenience. I do find that SPDs, even on my road >> bike, allow me the next best thing, since I can walk pretty easily in my >> several pairs of mtb SPD shoes. Since I follow the Chinese custom >> (inherited from Chin/Am ex-wife) of not wearing shoes indoors (ick!!) it's >> almost as easy to slip into SPDs as into street shoes when I go out for a >> ride. >> >> -- Speaking of which, recall the time 3-4 years ago when I had to hike >> home ~5 miles in my SPD shoes after a sharp stick poked a big hole in y >> rear tubless tire (and all my plugs just disappeared into the cavity; later >> got some *big* plugs). I made it, but man, decent civvie shoes would >> have been more comfortable. >> > > > -- > > Patrick Moore > Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing > services > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > *When thou didst not, savage, k**now thine own meaning,* > > *But wouldst gabble like a** thing most brutish,* > > *I endowed thy purposes w**ith words that made them known.* > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/5c291e6a-c41c-42d4-aeca-1455c4c09489n%40googlegroups.com.
