considered toe clips ?

General
1

It may sound radical, but the best way to keep your feet on the pedals is with toe clips. Before you dismiss this as something that would never work, consider the steps to make this possible. I have ridden with toe clips for over 20 years, on everything from a 24" to a giraffe to my new Coker D.

You can get toe clips at your local bike shop if you don’t have an old pair lying around. Begin by putting the toe clips on your uni pedals without the straps. You can even put a clip on only one pedal to begin with. Your feet will still come off the pedal if you fall off, but the clip will make you a little more sure-footed. Try this for several rides, and once you feel comfortable with them you can add straps. I leave the straps very loose unless I am jumping steps.

The term toe clip should not be confused with clipless pedals found on a mountain or road b***. Your feet don’t “clip” to the pedal with a toe clip, they just slide in. You may want to try toe clips with a smooth pedal, since a pedal with pins would hold your foot tighter. Many pedals have flat edges (sides) that will allow a toe clip to be secured to it with a couple of bolts. I got my last set of pedals, toe clips, & nylon straps from www.performancebike.com, but again, your local shop should have them in stock.

Again, it may sound dangerous, but so did wheel-walking or one-foot riding until you spent some time on it. Let me know if you have any questions.

Mike
unicyclist@earthlink.net

2

Re: considered toe clips ?

Wheel walking and one-footed riding did indeed sound dangerous before I tried them. Toe clips on a Coker, however, sounds lethal.

3

I suppose it just depends on what you’re used to. The first time I tried to ride a Coker in Atlanta I was very unstable. Once I had my clips & pedals on mine though, I was right at home. I wear a Specialized mountain bike shoe without the cleat, and leave the straps pretty loose. I’ve never had a UPD when my feet didn’t come right out of the toe clip.

Mike

4

Cool! You live in central Tennessee! I’ll tell you what: post some video demo’ing toe clips while doing the Captial steps in Nashville. It’s a sweet ride down to the fountains…

On your Coker UPD’s, 'you falling forward? How fast are you pushing it? With clips keeping your feet on the pedals, I’d imagin you could pump a good deal more energy into the wheel. Is it your experience that the clips have not inhindered running out, say, a 17mph UPD?

Please post pics of your clips- it would be nice to see the style. What the heck- when you tape riding, throw in a couple 'U’PD’s.

:wink:

-Christopher

5

I’ve used half-toe clips on many unicycles mostly for on road.
No straps to worry about and you can still put extra power through the pedals.

Off-road they’re a pain to free-mount into.

I’ve never got 'round to putting them on my coker though!

See the ones on the right in the picture…

Zefal I think http://www.zefal.com/anglais/indexanglais.html

Leo White

zefp401.jpg

6

duct tape

The cheap way: Theres always duct tape!:stuck_out_tongue: :wink:

7

The only problem about duck tape is is sticky,unless you use it inside out.Thats what my dad wold do though.

8

“Duct Tape solves ALL of life’s little problems.”

Phil, just me

9

toe clips come up around here every once in awile,and they always says things like “i have’nt had any problems yet” and then we never hear from them again…

10

Funny how that works isnt it?

11

APPARENTLY DUCT TAPE DOESNT SOLVE EVERYTHING!
:stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue:

12

I had toeclips on my 24" Schwinn for its final 3 years (after experimenting with clipless – ouch!). I had the same experience: no UPDs worse than without clips. There was also marked feeling of having more control.

Having power on the upstroke is liberating, especially on a uni! It might make 125mm cranks on a 36" reasonable for hills…

-Joel

13

Yep, I tried clipless pedals too. About 8 years ago I thought I’d see if my mountain bike pedals on the uni would be better than toe clips. One major UPD on pavement was enough to convince me otherwise. I went back to toe clips & left the Shimano clipless pedals for my 2-wheelers.

Mike

14

Wow, 20 years with toe clips and you’re still around and kickin’. You are a rare fish indeed. Your statement above says to me that you are serious about it, have tried other things, and have actually retured to the toe clips, which means they clearly work for you.

Most people try “foot attachment methods” at one point or another, but I hardly know anybody who has stuck with them for the long term. Toe clips, clipless, tape, sticky stuff on the shoes, and even velcro have been used. I wondered about the velcro, but the people who used it don’t seem to any more.

So you must have figured something out for successful toe clip riding. I think for this to work, you must have well-developed reflexes for removing your feet from the clips in a dismount. Most of us, if we’re falling to the front, take our feet off to the front. We need to, and don’t seem to have any time to do anything else. Can we? From a moving Coker, for example?

Or do you ride very conservatively? I’m guessing that you do for the most part. But still, toe clips have worked well enough for you that you haven’t given them up.

I think it would help a unicyclist be successful with toe clips if they came from a toe clip bicycling background. I use regular toe clips on my bike, which I occasionally ride to work. But I’m not good at getting out of them quick. The other thing that would probably help, is using toe clips from one’s earliest stages of riding. Then you develop the right reflexes, and presumably don’t have to unlearn the wrong ones.

As for me, I’ve been riding 20+ years, taking my feet off to the front of the pedals, and sometimes barely catching myself. But it’s the reflex that would be hard to overcome, not the motion. I have found I get enough grip with a good combination of shoes and pedals. This has been proven for myself in a history of unicycle racing records. I imagine performance can be improved by some form of clips, but for myself, I have not been willing to take the risk.

Stay on top,
John Foss

15

Re: considered toe clips ?

I didn’t ride with toe-clips for 20 years but I did for almost 10. Does
that qualify me as a slightly-rare fish?

For me what made them reasonably safe was my conservative riding style.
Only recently as I’ve begun to try and break through the lackluster ability
that I’ve been stuck in for years have I abandoned the clips. At the higher
cadences required for any kind of speed I think they are a far greater
liability than they are an asset. Initially I used half-clips without
straps on my Coker. They didn’t last long though. The first forward UPD
took out the left one. Then last fall I had another, relatively high-speed,
UPD that took out the other. I find that concentrating on good spinning
technique has improved my ability far more than the clips ever did.

Incidentally, I never had a UPD with toeclips that ended with me completely
on the ground. I did, however, have a few where I was hopping along on one
foot trying to stop while the other foot was tangled in the clip/strap.
Further evidence that I wasn’t really “pushing the envelope” at the time.

-mg

“johnfoss” <johnfoss.cxr51@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in message
news:johnfoss.cxr51@timelimit.unicyclist.com…
>
> entertainer wrote:
> > Yep, I tried clipless pedals too. About 8 years ago I thought I’d
> > see if my mountain bike pedals on the uni would be better than toe
> > clips. One major UPD on pavement was enough to convince me
> > otherwise.
> Wow, 20 years with toe clips and you’re still around and kickin’. You
> are a rare fish indeed. Your statement above says to me that you are
> serious about it, have tried other things, and have actually retured to
> the toe clips, which means they clearly work for you.
>
> Most people try “foot attachment methods” at one point or another, but I
> hardly know anybody who has stuck with them for the long term. Toe
> clips, clipless, tape, sticky stuff on the shoes, and even velcro have
> been used. I wondered about the velcro, but the people who used it don’t
> seem to any more.
>
> So you must have figured something out for successful toe clip riding. I
> think for this to work, you must have well-developed reflexes for
> removing your feet from the clips in a dismount. Most of us, if we’re
> falling to the front, take our feet off to the front. We need to, and
> don’t seem to have any time to do anything else. Can we? From a moving
> Coker, for example?
>
> Or do you ride very conservatively? I’m guessing that you do for the
> most part. But still, toe clips have worked well enough for you that you
> haven’t given them up.
>
> I think it would help a unicyclist be successful with toe clips if they
> came from a toe clip bicycling background. I use regular toe clips on my
> bike, which I occasionally ride to work. But I’m not good at getting
> out of them quick. The other thing that would probably help, is using
> toe clips from one’s earliest stages of riding. Then you develop the
> right reflexes, and presumably don’t have to unlearn the wrong ones.
>
> As for me, I’ve been riding 20+ years, taking my feet off to the front
> of the pedals, and sometimes barely catching myself. But it’s the reflex
> that would be hard to overcome, not the motion. I have found I get
> enough grip with a good combination of shoes and pedals. This has been
> proven for myself in a history of unicycle racing records. I imagine
> performance can be improved by some form of clips, but for myself, I
> have not been willing to take the risk.
>
> Stay on top,
> John Foss
>
>
> –
> johnfoss
>
> John Foss
> the Uni-Cyclone
> jfoss@unicycling.com
> www.unicycling.com
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> johnfoss’s Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/832
> View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/21121
>

16

I used toe clips on my road & mountain bikes for many years, and switched to clipless pedals in the mid 80’s. I remember stopping at a traffic light or two while riding my road bike downtown with the new Time pedals, only to fall over in slow motion like the guy on the tricycle in the old Laugh-In show.

The reflex to kick out of toe clips is second nature to me, and I’ve been fortunate the UPD’s are unplanned yet fairly safe. As one person mentioned, the plastic toe clips used without the straps is a mostly safe way to gain some more grip without the clips being locked on.

Mike