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
@wiscot
I've been planning an article on Chuck Flop for as long as this site's been around, and just haven't found a way to put it to words. He is, as you say, the epitome of 80's cool. He was an inspiration to me; just as I rode with one hand on the tops, on on the hoods for a summer, I spent a whole summer flopping my upper body like him. (Hence the nickname, Chuck Flop.)
I find toe clip straps to be the most indispensable item in my tool kit. I use them to strap anything to anything.
@Giles
I think they were a little later, actually, but the point that they were tightly timed certainly stands. So, I guess the eighties would be considered "innovation-neutral" in that context!
@Xyverz
I've never seen that fan video before. I can't remember the year of that incident (easy enough to find out, I suppose) but someone had their thinking cap on to bring a video camera to a race in that era.
@american psycho
Wow, I've never heard that! Awesome.
I had those shimano pedals, and I loved them and the shoes equally. I wore the shoes around school as my everyday's. I was not a cool kid in school.
clipless it is...
i think the counter-intuitive term is actually kinda useful - it gives an indication of how long someone's been in the game, or at least if they're paying attention...
my first pair were on my hardtail MTB, and were those elastomer Onza things - what a horrible disaster those were! at least they cleared mud well... but, I could never tell if i was clipped in or not, i needed the hardest elastomer available to provide even a hint of reliability, and release was unpredictable at best - the predictability was usually inversely correlated to the urgency with which I needed to escape...
i have a vivid memory of tumbling sideways downhill through cactus and yucca with the bike still attached - even frikkin toe clips woulda come off before i finally channeled Houdini and escaped from the Onza death grip...
Little known Velominati fact: Frank sends all articles to me for fact-checking and proofing, but since I'm still a pedalwan I return all articles back to him marked as "100% accurate and correct".
System has worked pretty well so far I think...
Furthermore, if you're an oldie, you'll remember how cool it was when they finally made alloy toe clips. WAY lighter than steel and didn't rust. Also back in the day shoes didn't have pre-drilled holes either: you rode a few miles without a cleat, let the pedal mark the leather sole of your shoe, then you used that as a guide to NAIL your cleat in place.
One of the best quality straps where those named after Alfredo Binda. Here's a classic set-up in every way: Binda straps, Campagnolo clips and pedal, strap threaded through the back plate. Leather straps were the dog's bollocks; the webbed nylon ones were crap.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/john_n_lee/5912929103/
@Xyverz
Yes
@San Tonio
That sounds terrible. If you're not overpaying for something, you're not doing it right.
@frank
The Saracen MTB I bought in early 1986 had Biopace chain rings - indeed it still does as it's in the shed (not the Man Cave with the carbone and current mtb) in the condition it came off its last race with a broken rear axle in around 1988. It was also the last bike I had with toe straps - which are shit on an mtb as I discovered in my last race but at least they took your mind of fthe Biopace rings.
My Look Carbon pedals were acquired in 1988 and, until the Speedplays arrived in April this year were my only pedals. Nearly a quarter of a century and they still work as designed. My first Speedplay cleats disintegrated in less than 24 weeks,