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.
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Yep, clip less for me. I remember being told they'd never catch on because of the stress they put on the knees. And so that was clearly the moment they took over the cycling world.
Didn't they come in about the same time as Shimano's Biopace rings?
Further questions for the old-timers who rode pedals with clips and straps:
Did you thread the strap straight through the sides or (if possible) through the back plate, thus providing a tighter hold on your foot?
Did you twist the strap as it went through the pedal?
Did you leave the strap "bare" or attach a wee plastic button so you had something to grab a hold of to tighten up?
Did you trim the straps or leave them as bought?
Did you color coordinate the straps to the bike frame color?
Did you use an old strap to hold your spare tubular or spare inner tube under the saddle?
And on a further note related to the main picture, how cool is Charley Mottet? Those shades and those red and white Rivat shoes. The epitome of 80s cool.
'Look was divining the name'
Shouldn't that read 'defining'?
Holy crap. Watching that race director run over Jesper Skibby's bike in that clip was ... just simply, shocking.
they're know in Colorado by all the roadies and MTBers I know (I'm 46, used to race my old Colnago with Diadoras & toe clips) as 'clicker', not 'clipless'.
the first MTB version from Shimano, the SPDs, were know as the Shimano Pedal Disaster, dubbed this after watching many friends upside down in sage, cactus, and pine shrubs with their bikes clipped firmly to their new shoes.
I still call them clipless pedals... Does that make me an old fart?
@Xyverz
Heh, when I first started cycling I was sort of confused why the pedal systems were called "clipless" when you clearly clip INTO them, until I learned that the old-style toe straps were called clips.
Just reading Slaying the Badger. The La Vie Claire team owner, Bernard Tapie, apparently owned Look so naturally his team used the pedals. As part of his contract LeMelvis was to receive a percentage of the North American sales. He says he never saw a cent of it.
@wiscot
Old toe straps remain useful for this purpose. When I was a wee pedalwan I was very proud of my first bike that came equipped with toe clips and DT shifters. This differentiated it from my prior Schwinn ten speed whcih was not a real bike because the shifters were stem-mounted and I had to bolt plastic toe clips onto the platform pedals.
@TBONE
No, divining.
@David
If you see - or think you see - an error you'd like to point out, please do. If you don't want to take the time to help point out the mistake and make it better, then please keep your comment to yourself, as it's basically useless.
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Very timely article here.
At the risk of sounding like a newbie I just bought my first pair of shoes and pedals this past weekend at FrankenBike, here in San Antonio. I had been wondering about how the name came about considering that you're obviously clipping the cleat into "clipless" pedals.
BTW got the Garneau shoes for 10 and the Bontranger pedals and cleats for 5 bucks and a saddle trade.
Some great deals a the FrankenBike swap meet if you are lucky enough to have one in your town.