The day I finally swapped my stock pedals for clipless ones on my commuter bike

I rode with flat pedals on my old Norco for nearly two years, thinking clipless was just for racers. Then last month I borrowed a friend's hybrid with SPDs for a week. The difference in my hill climbs was like night and day, I could actually pull up on the stroke instead of just mashing down. My commute dropped by about 4 minutes each way on a 20 minute ride. But the real shocker was how much less my knees ached after three days of using them. Now I'm eyeing a set of Shimano M520s for my own bike, the ones that run about 60 bucks at MEC. Has anyone else made this switch late in the game and regretted it or loved it?

2 comments

2 Comments

ruby_murphy7d ago

Four minutes is a lot on a 20 minute ride, I wonder how much of that is just placebo effect from buying new gear (you know, like when new sneakers make you run faster).

the_emery7d ago

Have you actually tried them yet, or are you still just thinking about it? @ruby_murphy might have a point about placebo, but for me the real test was putting in a full week of commuting after the switch. I rode flats for years too and the knee relief was instant for me, way less strain on the front of my knee from pushing down all day. The four minute drop sounds about right if you're carrying any kind of load or dealing with hills, you get way more power on the upstroke without just flailing your leg around.