The modern cyclist, as they enter the sport, will find themselves purchasing a set of shoes which contain a cleat that clips into the pedals on their bike. It should come as no surprise, then, that the term we use for the action of engaging shoe to pedal is “clip in”. Obviously, this style of pedals is thusly called the “clipless pedal”. Such a seemingly counter-intuitive name owes itself to the history of the pedals which preceded it.
The name “Clipless Pedal” comes from 1984, when ski binding manufacturer Look invented a style of pedal from which you could release your foot with a sideways twisting motion. Before the Look pedal, riders rode with metal toe clips which were secured to the pedal platform, and lashed their feet to the contraption using a leather strap, named the “toe clip strap”. (Apparently, the same guy who named the toe clip strap wasn’t available when Look was divining the name for the clipless pedal). Since the toe clips were screwed to the pedals, the rider was similarly screwed should they need to disengage from said pedal unexpectedly; Jesper Skibby might have a note or two relating to their safety in the event of a crash on, say, the Koppenberg with cars whipping by.
But somewhere in there lies the secret to the name of these pedals; when Look’s pedals appeared in the peloton on the bikes belonging to Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond, they were missing the distinct metal toe clips – they were indeed clipless pedals.
Some rides were quick to adopt them. I’m guessing Skibby was among this group, but I’m not sure and finding out would require work. Others were more reluctant; Sean Kelly was the most stubborn of these riders, though I’m guessing that lashing your feet the pedals is more critical when you’re able to scare the cranks off your bike by dispatching an icy stare.
Nevertheless, it raises the question of when the tide turned and the new style of pedal became mainstream. Either the last Grand Tour or last World Championship to be won aboard the predecessor is as good a measure as any, so that brings us to 1987 when Stephen Roche dispatched both the Giro and the Tour – in addition to the World Championships – with the sunlight glinting off his toe clips as he crossed the finish line with arms aloft. In fact, he was also the last rider to take the treble of the Giro, the Tour, and the World Road Race all in one season. Coincidence? There are no coincidences. By 1988, the clipless pedal had risen.
You can get a fairly good gauge of how long a rider has been involved in the sport by their comfort – or, indeed understanding of – the term, which upon contemplation is quite conflicting. With the clipless pedal having fallen into ubiquity, riders who have begun cycling anywhere in the last 15 or so years could be forgiven for calling them “clip-ins” or “clip pedals”. But for those of us who lived through the change, there will always be some part of us which is ever aware of the lack of metal and leather lashing us to the bike. For us, the pedals we ride today will forever be the clipless pedal.
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
.jpeg){kind=link}
View Comments
@ten B
And the sweat sponge at the top really soaked up the sweat to the point where it went over capacity and just douched you in a torrent of salty goo. Felt great on the eyes.
My helmet does that right now; the front pads fill up and then if I look up with my eyes, the change in my forehead squeezes the pads and sends their payload down my face. Loverly.
@jimmy Thanx. I had to know who that was -- for no apparent reason. Thanx again.
@TBONE
Yeah, basically, I use it mean, "make it up".
That, right there, is what Mountain Biking was always supposed to be about. I loved the big, plastic doube toe straps that came on my first mountain bike. Man, those things were tits.
@sthilzy
Oh, man! You guys are KILLING me! You KEPT YOURS???? I wish I'd have done the same...
That Classics Special with Van Hooydonck on the cover was my favorite edition ever. All the pages were sticky by the time I was done with it...In his Flandrian Best, no less.
@brianc
But the therapy did its trick, right? After laying in the oil puddle in the garage (oh, wait, what? You don't own a land rover? Oh, no oil puddle then...) untying your shoes, your breakup was a ways off in your consciousness, n'est pas?
@Gianni
Not allan pieper...not Uncle Phil. Also not Breukink - he wore blue Sidi's in '87. It must be some domestique of no fame whatsoever if none of us have divined the name by now.
@jimmy
@jimmy
I don't think its Rooks either...the hair is much too light and his upper body too burly...He was a skinny little fucker. But I agree its also not Vanderarden as he would have been ditched long ago with the climbs...
@frank
Eddy Planckaert?
@frank
Yup - I have now taken to actually wearing my helmet it the shower to get the sweat properly wrung out - if I don't my scalp breaks out - mmmm.
If I recall the foam strip in the Pilots was a thing you put in after you'd bought them - I had better results without the foam pad.
@the Engine
In fact wasn't there a version with holes punched out along the top of the lens?