Sprinters' track pedals

Sam Armour

Anyone know what pedals sprinters using at the moment? I've heard (and have seen a couple of pics) that they're using standard road spds and soldering a loop on the back to pass a toe strap through - is this correct? Anyone know what kind of spd? Can you tighten the tension of these spds?

Cheers,
Sam.

Sam Armour

To answer my own question....

someone on another forum posted this great link for modifying spd-sls:

http://www.badbean.com/cyclingstuff/spd_straps.htm

how cool is that?! Exactly what I was looking for.

DCWD

Newbe question: why? I mean, I'd hate to get really wound and come unhinged, so to speak, but does this really help?

Jack-o

Oh my yes!

I've seen several people pull their feet from standard clipless pedals, mainly when doing standing starts for track time trials. Pulling your foot is not considered to be a mechanical failure so, generally speaking, the commasaires (judges) will not allow you to have a re-start.

My own pedals are old (Look) style Shimano Dura Ace clipless pedals with a single laminated leather toe strap pop-rivited on to each one. This involves drilling a couple of small holes in the body of the pedal, but it works very well.

Sam Armour

And if you're doing standing start sprints, explosively yanking your foot out of your pedals can mean going from 0mph to face plant. I'm less worried about not being able to rerun...

sv650s

You can also go for MKS EXA Pedals with toe clips and straps. These pedals have a lock on the pack as well as having a toes starp for extra saftety.

Alex Simmons

It is a race specific thing. It is more common to see clipless pedals in enduro racing than in sprint/TT races. In the latter events the security of straps is necessary, especially for standing starts where highest forces are applied to the pedals. The strap keeps the whole foot tight on the pedal, in clipless, you are relying on the shoe only to hold your foot down.

Don't forget that on a fixed gear, under high loads, a pulled foot means disaster (often tossed A over apex from the bike - believe me I know what that's like) as the cranks don't stop turning even though you want to, unlike a free-wheel bike where it is usually nothing more than a shin hit and/or crunching your nuts on the top tube (al la Lance in le Tour the year of the handbag incident).

I still use straps even though I ride enduro. I will probably go back to clipless, mainly for the aero advantage in pursuiting.

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DCWD

Right now, I'm riding with Look's Keo "sprint" pedals. But, they're not cinched down to the full 15 or 18nm of tension, what ever it is. I never even considered pulling out of the pedal.

Since I commute on my track bike, I get plenty of time pulling up on the pedals. ...hills, for instance, or jumping at lights in traffic. ...or, like one of my workouts where I do 200m sprints from a track-stand/slow-rolling start back and forth over an overpass.

...now I'm going to start thinking about it. I wonder how it'll affect the intensity of each launch!

pixelmill

I have look sprints on my fixie - but I smapped a look cleat about 3 weeks ago [pulling my foot out of the cleat quickly] so it's possible....

Speedplay have a new "track" pedal - and they DON'T pull out unless you pull the heel sideways.

ECURB

I use LOOK Keos with a strap. Used to use SPDrs but cant find any shoes now a days

Zach-dk

I use Keos too. How do you fix the strap to the pedal?

jock.c

Usually with a screw or two.

I've found using straps on Look style pedals totally useless. If you pull you foot there absolutely no way that you can get it back into the pedal seat because the strap locks your foot into a position that jams the cleat out of the slot.

If you want straps use decent pedals, proper slotted cleats and double leather straps if you can find some.

ECURB

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13119530@N06/

strip of metal top and bottom with another strip folded to create loop. All held in place with a small bolt.

Works great. Ive been using this set for over a year and had no problems. Look KEOs are much lighter than the SPDrs too!