My friend and former coworker, Steven Specht, is embarking on an amazing attempt to ride across the US this year. I'll be occasionally referencing his experiences here.
I've recently returned from my deployment to Afghanistan and I'm thinking of doing some biking in conjunction with training for triathloning. One of my goals this year is to complete a half-Ironman and I'd like to start riding my bike to work. I loaned my bike to a friend while I was gone and he told me that one of the pedals of my bike fell apart and that he had temporarily replaced it with his old pedals. I've been into minimalist and barefoot running for several years now and my goal is to complete the tri barefoot. When I talked to my friend (that had borrowed the bike) about jury-rigging the pedals with a barefoot strap, he recommended I try clip-less pedals that I could leave the shoes on the pedals easily enough and just strap my bare feet into the shoes. I don't really have any experience in this area. Do any of you? Any advice?
I've looked into it some and it seems like there are some serious advantages to using the stiff shoed clip-less pedals. According to what I've read there's a mechanical advantage to having a stiff shoe while riding, but I'm not really worried about being fast or competitive so the mechanical advantage isn't really all that important to me. I'm also budget conscious and I really don't want to spend hundreds of dollars for fancy pedals. Regardless of how it ends up, I'm looking forward to reading about my friend Steven's adventures and doing my own training.
I've recently returned from my deployment to Afghanistan and I'm thinking of doing some biking in conjunction with training for triathloning. One of my goals this year is to complete a half-Ironman and I'd like to start riding my bike to work. I loaned my bike to a friend while I was gone and he told me that one of the pedals of my bike fell apart and that he had temporarily replaced it with his old pedals. I've been into minimalist and barefoot running for several years now and my goal is to complete the tri barefoot. When I talked to my friend (that had borrowed the bike) about jury-rigging the pedals with a barefoot strap, he recommended I try clip-less pedals that I could leave the shoes on the pedals easily enough and just strap my bare feet into the shoes. I don't really have any experience in this area. Do any of you? Any advice?
I've looked into it some and it seems like there are some serious advantages to using the stiff shoed clip-less pedals. According to what I've read there's a mechanical advantage to having a stiff shoe while riding, but I'm not really worried about being fast or competitive so the mechanical advantage isn't really all that important to me. I'm also budget conscious and I really don't want to spend hundreds of dollars for fancy pedals. Regardless of how it ends up, I'm looking forward to reading about my friend Steven's adventures and doing my own training.
 |
| Not Exactly My Bike (close) *Credit: Bikesdirect.com |
