ptraynor@bbnccv.UUCP (Patrick Traynor) (10/07/85)
Does any one out there use the new Look pedals? These are the ones that operate like a ski binding(nothing on top). A friend of mine won a pair in a race and is unsure about using them for racing. He seems to think that they might hit when cornering because the bottoms are lower(its de- bateable). To use them he must remove his present cleat and repace it with theirs buy drilling holes in his shoe. Needless to say he doesn't want to do all this just to test the pedals. Any info will help, [raig MacFarlane cmacfarlane@bbnccj PS. Please don't reply to this(patrick Traynor) address as it isn't mine. Post to net.bicycle or my arpanet address.
marc@hpltca.UUCP (marc) (10/08/85)
I have looked at and tried some of the new Look pedals and shoes/bindings while at the Coors Classic race recently in Boulder. I have several comments: 1) The idea of not being able to blow out of your clips, no matter what, by pulling upwards or backwards is a very big deal. I can tighten my straps on my Shimano 600EX pedals and Detto Pietro 74's until my toes turn white, and can still blow out of my pedal at will. The Look bindings (sorry, I'm a skier and considering these contraptions to be anything else is difficult) will not let you pull up or out. They consist of a plate on the shoe's base which locks into a set of grips on the pedal. 2) The idea of being able to pull your foot out of the pedal anytime you want by rotating your foot (i.e., pushing your heal out away from your frame) is really nice. The Look reps. at the Boulder race were saying that Hinnault (sp?) uses Looks because it has allowed him to avoid some crashes by being able to free a foot when he needed to, and to avoid some injuries because when he crashed his feet tore (rotated) free. Both Hinnault and LeMond (again, sp?) are featured front and center in the Look advertisements. As for myself, I commute to work wearing cleats, and have nearly been forced to crash after making an emergency stop to avoid some bone-headed (or blind) motorist. Being able to simply rotate my foot out of my pedal sounds wonderful. When I tried the Looks on a trainer, getting out of the bindings was no strain whatsoever when I wanted to, and yet I did not find the rotational motion to approximate anything I would do during the course of normal or high-powered riding. The pedals are adjustable for the amount of force required to rotate out of them. 3) The bindings don't require the use of your hands to get into or out of. The pedal (binding) itself is balanced so that it hangs in the ready position when your foot is not engaged rather than upside down as regular pedals do. All you do is shove your foot forward and hook the shoe plate under the front lip of the binding, then push forward to latch the plate into the binding. No trying to catch that frustrating little tab on the back of your regular pedal to flip the bloody thing over. No reaching down to adjust your strap (ever -- there are no straps!). The bad news is that you will probably destroy any normal pair of riding shoes if you attach Look plates on the bottom and ride with Look pedals, because normal riding shoes do not have their uppers bonded to their lowers very well and you will probably pull the uppers away from the lowers. The Look line of shoes is specially reinforced across the uppers to prevent this problem. I thought the Look shoes I tried were quite well made and very sturdy (and seemed quite expensive). I'll buy a set when I finally locate a store or catalog which stocks them. I think the Look bicycle bindings will do to bicycle pedals and shoes what the Look ski bindings did to leather bear-trap ski-bindings and lace-up ski boots (did you even know that there were such things?). Marc Clarke, Hewlett-Packard Company, Loveland, Colorado hplabs!hpfcla!hpltcb!marc
mlj@lanl.ARPA (10/08/85)
> Does any one out there use the new Look pedals? These are the ones that > operate like a ski binding(nothing on top). A friend of mine won a pair > in a race and is unsure about using them for racing. He seems to think > that they might hit when cornering because the bottoms are lower(its de- > bateable). > To use them he must remove his present cleat and repace it with theirs > buy drilling holes in his shoe. Needless to say he doesn't want to do > all this just to test the pedals. I bought a pair of Look pedals this summer in France. They also sell "Bernard Hinault" shoes that have the special platform mounted already, I think for about $80 (in France), so I went ahead and mounted the platforms on my own shoes. After the holes are drilled, the platforms can be adjusted a little up and down but not sideways, so you must be careful when drilling those holes. The pedals themselves are rather heavy. I don't race so I don't know how they handle in cornering, but they are very comfortable. My feet are secure in the pedals but can easily get out of them with a twist of my heels to the outside--much safer than traditional cleats and toe straps. And since there are no toe straps, no numb toes that can result from tight straps. Look for other manufacturers copying these pedals. They will probably be considerably lighter and eventually less expensive. (I think they sell for ~$80 or 85 here in the states--but are much cheaper in France.) Marie-Louise Jalbert Los Alamos Nat'l Lab