When I ordered my Catrike Expedition this summer I decided to give clipless pedals and shoes a try. Although I’ve been cycling off and on for most of my life, I’d never used them. I have a personal resistance to specialized cycling gear (clothing, specifically) in general, as I’ve discussed here a time or two before. Still, you really cannot judge a thing until you’ve tried it, so I ordered up some Shimano SPD sandals and decided to give it a go.
This weekend finds the end of that experiment, at least for now.
I ordered a second Terratrike Comfort Pedal Conversion Kit for the Expedition (I already have them on on my Pocket) a few weeks ago in anticipation of the change in season.
I ride year round and, although my feet absolutely run hot, I knew there would be a time in the not-too-distant future where even committing the fashion crime of wearing socks with the sandals would not be enough. Part of that personal resistance to specialized gear is that, were I to continue to use the SPD side of the pedals, I’d need to buy at least one, and probably two additional pair of cycling shoes to get through late autumn and the winter. That can get spendy in a hurry and, frankly, I’m somewhat skeptical that I’d be able to find winter cycling boots that would be sufficiently warm for riding on the open prairie.
I’m also finding that I’m getting knee and ankle pain with the SPD setup, which is not an issue I’ve ever had before. I’ve tried some adjustments in the length of the boom to alleviate this, but without success. I suspect that the static position of the foot is part of the issue there for me. We’ll see if that resolves with the switch back.
I’ve found that, for whatever reason, every time I’ve looked for the heel slings on the TerraTrike site they are out of stock. When I purchased them for the Pocket I got them from Bicycle Man, and went to do so this time, but they also did not have them in stock (they are in stock there as of today, however, if you are looking). So I looked and was somewhat surprised to find that they are also available on Amazon.
I described in detail the process of installing them on the standard Catrike pedals back when I put them on the Pocket. The biggest part of it is realizing that you will not be able to use the little backing plate that comes with them - it does not fit on the Catrike pedals. You can get nuts to replace that plate however, and then it works fine. Being aware of that this time made putting them on a lot faster (and a lot less frustrating). I also sorted out a way to do it without removing and leaving off the inside Allen screw on the pedals. I was able to block off the nuts sufficiently with a screwdriver blade to hold them still while I tightened them.
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The TerraTrike heel slings are designed to be used alone, but I push and pull on pedals when I ride, and the design doesn’t support that. On the Pocket I used inexpensive Velcro tie wraps, and I’ve found them to work quite nicely for that purpose. This was my plan this time as well (the Velcro tie wraps come in big spools - I’ve got a lot of them), but when I was looking up the slings on Amazon, one of the related products was a basic toe clip - the Evo Double Quick Strapless Toe Clip (I’m not sure what quality is supposed to make it "double quick"...). They were less then $10 bucks for the pair, so I figured they were worth a try.
The reviews for the toe clips on Amazon suggest that some people struggled to install them on their pedals for different reasons - sizing of the clips, or length of the hardware. I did not find any of those difficulties applied for the Catrike pedals. In fact, the only challenge was the same one you get with the heel slings - the otherwise very cool double-sided pedals give you a tiny space to work in when it comes to putting nuts on to bolts inside the pedal space.
My trick for this included a couple of things:
- I put the heel slings on first, which meant that the weight of them kept the pedal upright while putting on the toe clips. I’d like to say that I made this choice because I am a brilliant strategist, but it was just simple serendipity. But being upright held the pedal in the perfect position for installing these.
- I put the nut in the box end of a hand wrench, which was small enough to hold it in position while I got the screw started. I say held in position - I didn’t turn with the wrench - there’s not enough space for that. And only to get it started - if you screw it all the way in you won’t be able to pull the wrench out.
- I did the same trick with the screwdriver blade inserted between the nut and the side of the pedal to hold the nut still while I screwed it in the rest of the way. I really wish this had occurred to me back when I was working on the pedals for the Pocket...
The end result is here:
The design is a little less elegant, perhaps, than using clipless pedals and shoes, but now I have a foot retention setup that will work with just about any pair of kicks. They are easier to get the foot into than the setup using the Velcro cross straps because I can rotate my foot into the clips sideways. The cross straps require you to reach forward and put them on by hand. An initial test ride - about a quarter mile down the road and back - suggested they work more or less like you’d expect, including supporting pulling back on the pedals in addition to pushing.
I was a little concerned that the clips might not allow enough room in the toe area for my big winter boots, but that was a question easily tested:
The clips stretch a bit with the boot in them, but the give allows them to fit. Probably the only remaining question will be whether that give still works when it is very cold out - plastic can get brittle in winter. I always have a spool of the Velcro tie wraps in the pannier bags on the trike (they are useful for so many things!), so I’ll have a backup if they break.
I’ll be trying this setup out over the next several weeks to see how I like them, with the maiden voyage likely to occur a little later today. Details to come in the future.
Now it’s time to ride...