The Rise and Fall of the Clipless Pedal

Roche goes traditional with toe clips

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.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

Oli says:

Aug 22 2012 at 4:45 am

Now I can sleep...zzzzzzzz...
sthilzy says:

Aug 22 2012 at 4:46 am

@Oli Been looking for start list of the 87 TdF Panasonic team. I dug up the finish list from the red 87 Inside Cycling mag, 6th mag counting from top, left to right....

Yeah - trying to fing the 9th rider! Of that 87 Tour, there were 207 starters and 135 finishers.
sthilzy says:

Aug 22 2012 at 4:59 am

@sthilzy

Looked in mag again and found the Team Roster page;

PANASONIC-ISOSTAR
151. Phil Anderson
152. Erik Breukink
153. Theo De Rooy
154. Henk Lubberding
155. Robert Millar
156. Guy Nulens
157. Allan Peiper
158. Eric Van Lancker
159. Teun Van Vliet

Allan Peiper abandoned on stage 21 Bourg D'Oisans - La Plagne, where Laurent Fignon won on clipless pedals!
sthilzy says:

Aug 22 2012 at 5:07 am

Stage 21 was the one when Roche needed a oxygen mask to revive him after collapsing on the line.

Or he couldn't undo his straps quick enough??????
unversio says:

Aug 22 2012 at 7:10 am

@Oli You are correct sir! Theo!
brianc says:

Aug 22 2012 at 7:10 am

@frank

@brianc

Wanna get over a bad breakup? Buy yourself something nice. And thus I went clipless the summer of 1996 - albeit on my MTB. The guys at the shop said to screw the cleat in lightly, ride around until you got the thing where you wanted, and then tighten up. Tooled around my neighborhood until I thought I got it right, wheeled into my garage, twisted my foot out and...nothing happened. With my speed approaching zero and any balance fading, I realized the awful truth - with the cleat barely screwed in, there was no torque being applied to clip out. And then I crashed directly onto my hip. Even had the fun of untying my shoes from my feet (whilst still attached to the pedals) to extricate myself. Learned the feel of unclipping and made the mistakes while on the MTB - thus never having to learn those same lessons on my road bike - say in front of a car full of people at a stoplight. My wife on the other hand...

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?

oui
Nate says:

Aug 22 2012 at 9:19 am

@sthilzy

Stage 21 was the one when Roche needed a oxygen mask to revive him after collapsing on the line.

Or he couldn't undo his straps quick enough??????

And most famously when asked if he was ok replied "Oui, mais pas de femme toute de suite."
DavidI says:

Aug 22 2012 at 3:43 pm

@Marcus

@DavidI the Yanks were also (legally) blooddoping in LAweren't they?

I was referring to the same thing happening in Atlanta to Shane Kelly in the kilo - when he was the shortest of favorites. He had clipless pedals and straps...

Blood doping, yes, they admitted it later (pretty much the whole team were doing it) but it wasn't illegal at that time.

I recall the Kelly incident, he was at unbackable odds before the event. And being a true sportsman he didn't deliberately fall over to get a rerun, as he would have been entitled to......

Picture appear to show regular toeclips and double straps - I believe next time around he bolted his shoes to the pedals instead (perfectly legal and also done by Vinnicombe and O'Bree, among others)
Marcus says:

Aug 22 2012 at 4:15 pm

@Nate I think that given the circumstances, that was possibly the best line in sports history...
graham d.m. says:

Aug 22 2012 at 5:05 pm

@Marcus right on! Although if the woman option is on the table then I haven't met many physical injuries that preclude me...from....well you get the idea.... nonetheless circumstantially awesome, awesome line