Steve wrote (and Patrick more added some interesting comments): Let's face it: those who like "flat pedals" - pedals without retention devices - aren't after "performance" gains that can be measured objectively. They're after comfort and convenience. Some riders can make them work quite effectively, and are happy to accept whatever objective performance deficits they may have.
I have flat BMX pedals (albeit, without pins) on my shopper. I would never ride long distances on such a pedal: my feet slip off, and they often sit crooked on the pedals and I end up stepping on the crank arm or the chain stay. I'm very happy to have a pedal retention system take care of positioning my feet, while allowing me to lift my foot without worrying about it losing its place on the pedal or coming off entirely. I doubt the lifting of my feet substantially adds to power, as die hard advocates proclaim, but that's not the only reason to do it. I'm surprised this discussion has had so much staying power. It's a relatively trivial issue, as far as I'm concerned. ................... I don´t know your respective bicycling history but methinks this is to a high degree a brain thing. When learning a new thing the brain grows new synapses to cope. This takes time. At age 46 I became obsessed with dancing; quick-step, tango, slowfox, rumba, chacha, that sort of thing, also lindy hop. Trained maybe 8-10 hours per week for some years. I´m not without talent but it took some three years before I could call myself a good dancer, the synapses had to grew first. The same with cycling. I started to ride intensively at age 5 and have never stopped (now 72). Didn´t meet retention until over 30. I´m a natural spinner and rides both roads and trails. On flat rubber pedals, never got enamoured by retention. This comes very natural and effortless. Can´t remember when a foot slipped. May it be that your brain over time grews connections to cope effectively with the system you´re using and that changing system can feel strange and inefficient for a long time, maybe years, until the new system literally grows on you? Olof Stroh Uppsala Sweden where it doesn´t get dark at night this time of the year -- 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 post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.