[Sportsandrec] foot restraints for a terra trike

[Ron Burzese]

Hello Robert,

Like Kelly, I recommend clipless shoes and pedals. I’ve heard that the Speed Play Frogs are good, but have no direct experience with them. For myself, a blind stoker, who rides more than just my own tandems, I’d recommend the Shimano SPD, a mountainbike pedal. They are the most popular and likely to be on a tandem, that belongs to someone else, you may meet on the trail or club ride. Like the Frog, the cleat is recessed in the soul of the mountainbike shoe and easier to walk on than road shoes. Road shoes, use a larger cleat, for stiffer power transfer in competitive riding. However, your toes are elevated off the ground and you must walk like a duck. They are awkward and slippery. So if you go with aftermarket pedals and cycling shoes, go with the mountainbike style. I’ve used both styles and only prefer the road shoes for races.

Most importantly, it comes down to the goals and needs of your team. This, may be hard to determine, since neither of you have done much riding. Another alternative, if you both want to wear regular, athletic shoes, is called the PowerGrip. It is a neoprene strap that mounts diagonally across most normal pedals. When your foot is inline with the pedal, it secures your foot to the pedal. When you move your ankle to the outside, it then becomes inline with the strap and pulls right out. This angling of the heel is the same method used to unclip from the above, clipless system, by the way. PowerGrips work well for casual, recumbent riders, who may do a lot of walking, during the ride. Still, mountain shoes and clipless pedals work well, too. Should you choose the PowerGrips, you may find them easier to access, from the underside of the pedal, since you are on a recumbent trike.

Do you or your wife have any particular issues or concerns? Such may also be part of which way you go with pedals.

Feel free to write or call, if you have more questions.

Ron, in Sacramento
916 716 5400

> On Apr 8, 2016, at 10:09 AM, Robert Moore via Sportsandrec <sportsandrec at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi 
> 
> My wife/pilot and I/stoker  am getting a terra trike recumbent tandem
> Trike. I want to get  some kind of system for her feet. I would think that
> there are several different systems.  I think I am less concerned with
> performance than I am about safety and making sure that her feet do not end
> up ever coming off of  the peddles because that could be disasterous.
> 
> What  have some of you used and what  would you suggest and why. 
> 
> Cost is a factor but not the  determining factor.  Again safety is my
> primary concerne. 
> 
> We can talk shoes here as well but what I am really talking about are foot
> restraints to lock her feet onto the peddles or some kind of heel cup that
> would not let her foot fall to the ground.   Hope  this is all clear. 
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks in advance 
> 
> Robert 
> 
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