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From: marc@hpltca.UUCP (marc)
Newsgroups: net.bicycle
Subject: Re: Look pedals
Message-ID: <10700002@hpltca.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 8-Oct-85 11:19:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: hpltca.10700002
Posted: Tue Oct  8 11:19:00 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 15-Oct-85 06:11:54 EDT
References: <170@bbnccv.UUCP>
Organization: HP Loveland Instrument Technology Center
Lines: 51

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