Is fixed bad for your knees if you dont skid / ride high gear?

Theopapa...i think at natureboy is referring to 'time' pedal system rather than 'spd'. Time system allows some movement and as a result there is no adjusting pedal tightness. Can make fit tighter by turning the cleats around...Free float also means you are less liekly to unclip accidently...

thanks artful dodger

I unclipped accidentally this morning at 25mph going round Shepherds Bush Green in front of 3-4 lanes of traffic.
Wish I'd been a bystander at that point, cos then I'd know what a bloke on a bike at speed with one leg desperately flailing about in the air and the other one going round and round and round looked like...

natureboy use a low gear (say 73 in or less) and spin!

MEDIUM gear timetrials allow 72" max. Surely LOW gears are those in the bike polo to singlespeed mtb range, or possibly as high as the low 60s as advocated by winter fixers of yore for developing souplesse without freezing your tits off (sort of low-med)?

Sorry to be Mr Pedantic-Semantic.

haha..

Artful Dodger Theopapa...i think at natureboy is referring to 'time' pedal system rather than 'spd'. Time system allows some movement and as a result there is no adjusting pedal tightness. Can make fit tighter by turning the cleats around...Free float also means you are less liekly to unclip accidently...

Float is the ability for your heel to move left or right. SPDs have float but they work differently to Time's float.
"Free float" I'm taking as meaning "doesn't auto-centre" like SPDs do. There is a small resistance with SPD pedals that straightens your feet.
"Small" resistance. I can't see it being the reason for knee issues but I'm an SPDer. THey were the cheapest option at the time I went clipless and I've no reason to change (cept racing with SPD-SL). Time might have more float - can't be arsed checking, SPD is about 6 degree L&R. I'd love to try the ATACs though to see what the fuss is about. PITA though. I read they need more heel movement to unclip which is going to be both good (stopping accidental unclip) and bad (moving from spd you have to twist your foot further to unclip). Blurgh! Someone loan me some ATACs and shoes to suit - 47/48 wide. Ta! :)

shoes? I think you need a small pair of rafts..

i dont know if dyslexic im but unxetas i always read as untexas

yup, I get that a lot..

hippy (moving from spd you have to twist your foot further to unclip)

I noticed it for the first few rides (having made the same switch from SPD), but then you get used to it, and the unclip feels just as instantaneous.

I think the clip IN is a bit easier on ATACS, and don't get occasional failed unclips like I did with SPDs. This was when I sort of half decided to unclip, and the mechanism jammed somehow round the cleat.

With ATACs, they either unclip easily (very fast heel out motion), or they resist firmly if you move your heel out slowly. I've never unclipped accidentally, despite having them on the narrow release angle setting.

yup, I noticed that with the atacs, I'll sometimes try to unclip slowly and smoothly and it'll do everything it can to keep me clipped! It always seems to unclip quite easily when I'm in panic mode though.

nor_feest
p.s I don't live anywhere near London, am I still alowed on the site.

No.

hippy
I'd love to try the ATACs though to see what the fuss is about. PITA though. I read they need more heel movement to unclip which is going to be both good (stopping accidental unclip) and bad (moving from spd you have to twist your foot further to unclip). Blurgh! Someone loan me some ATACs and shoes to suit - 47/48 wide. Ta! :)

I wouldn't switch if I was you. Guaranteed to cause some sort pain, possibly chronic. When I switched to the speedplay roads, my right knee went spacco for months.

Hope that doesn't scare you too much.

so mean Bill.

god really fucked up with the knee didn't he. Sorry, that should be God i guess.

Spacco. :O

kipsy god really fucked up with the knee didn't he. Sorry, that should be God i guess.

You've lower-cased yourself in supplication before the deity.

its a medical term i think.

fuck, AND I'm posting out of sequence!

I love my knees - considering how much use they have had, they are a brilliant bit of engineering. But I am a bit hypochondriac when it comes to aches and pains in the patellar region.

someday, I'll have a knee made out of titanium.. precision cnc'd and all that. With phil wood grease.

kipsy its a medical term i think.

Like 'scoper'.

Buffalo Bill the patellar region.

Is that in the south of France?

Theopapa Natureboy

What do you mean pedals that have free float?
Does this kind of pedal have a particular technical name?
How do i ask for them in a store?

Thanks

it just means that when you are clipped in, you can twist your feet a little bit left or right without any springs pushing back against you. I use speedplay frogs. never tried the time pedals.

BringMeMyFix [quote]natureboy use a low gear (say 73 in or less) and spin!

MEDIUM gear timetrials allow 72" max. Surely LOW gears are those in the bike polo to singlespeed mtb range, or possibly as high as the low 60s as advocated by winter fixers of yore for developing souplesse without freezing your tits off (sort of low-med)?

Sorry to be Mr Pedantic-Semantic.[/quote]
yeah yeah... :)

i tried developing souplesse for a while but I find a bowl of minestrone in the morning really gets the motor running.

Buffalo Bill [quote]hippy
I'd love to try the ATACs though to see what the fuss is about. PITA though. I read they need more heel movement to unclip which is going to be both good (stopping accidental unclip) and bad (moving from spd you have to twist your foot further to unclip). Blurgh! Someone loan me some ATACs and shoes to suit - 47/48 wide. Ta! :)

I wouldn't switch if I was you. Guaranteed to cause some sort pain, possibly chronic. When I switched to the speedplay roads, my right knee went spacco for months.

Hope that doesn't scare you too much.[/quote]

the speedplay roads are quite different from the frogs - they take a lot more force to get in and out.
Bill, do they improve with age? the springs seem really stiff when new.