This might be the easiest review I’ve ever had to write: Just go buy a set of Pocket Pedals’ platform adapters, thank me later.
Pocket Pedals slip over your road or mountain bike SPD pedals and turn them into grippy platform pedals in about 5 seconds. They work brilliantly, they’re affordable, and they solve a problem…what’s not to like?
At the moment, they’re only offered for Shimano’s SPD pedals, but that includes the SPD mountain bike pedals and SPD-SL road bike pedals. They work on either, with different cutouts on either side, you only need one set of Pocket Pedals platforms to work for either road or mountain bikes.
The notches fit perfectly on the pedals’ clips, keeping them from rotating or sliding off. This makes them very secure, enough so to stand and hammer to catch a light or just nab that city limits sprint away from your kids.
I’ve been testing them for a couple months on both road and MTB pedals, and I love them. I leave them on one of my bikes that fit my daughter, and she loves it, too. Then when I need that bike, I just pop them off and clip in like normal.
And this is one of the big benefits – one bike, multiple uses or riders. Need to run to the store and not clickety clack down the aisles in cycling shoes? Just pop these on and wear your regular kicks.
If I add anything else here, I’m wasting words. Just buy them. They’re only €30 and come in black or red. They’ll have other versions soon, and they’re working on U.S. distribution. For now, they ship from Europe, where they’re made.
You do know this is not a new invention, there have been many versions of this for years.
Most other competing versions I’ve seen try to click into the clipless mechanism from above as their only way of installation. These slip over *the entire pedal body* from the side, using the clipless mechanism only as a point of security.
Yes
These have been around for years. I had a pair that snapped on and off but you never had too, they were only on one side. SPD on one side and slip on the other. It was brilliant still have them. It’s been 16 years now
I’ve got a clip-in set of platforms for SPD-SL. They are surprisingly difficult to remove without the leverage provided by a shoe.
Spray peddles and cleats with silicone.
I have a similar set for SPD-SL. It’s easy if you use your hand to manually push down the clipping mechanism instead of just twisting the platform. No need for extra leverage.
I would love those
Alas they won’t do a Time ATAC version
Can’t find them on amazon. Link to purchase?
https://pocketpedals.com/
I never understood these types of pedal adaptors. Don’t most people that have multi-thousand dollar high-performance bikes also have beaters to go to the coffee shop? Do you really want to ride a multi-thousand-dollar bike to a place where you lock it up? Why would you even want to ride a high-performance bike in a de-tuned fashion? The only real use I can see for these is if you have out-of-town guests and they need a bike to ride – then these pedals would make sense to me.
I don’t have a ”multi-thousand dollar high performance bike” but I still use spd pedals. I don’t always want do get in full suit and shoes to go to see my friend 2 kms away or run a simple errand
This. I have an aluminum mid level gravel bike and sometimes I just need to wear notmal shows so I don’t sound like a galloping horse when I go to the meeting. These are actually clever and solve a problem many of us have.
I have a 24 yr old stumpjumper with spd pedals on. I am going to be buying some of these new slippers, great idea
Wow, nice to see I’m not the only one still riding their 1998 Stumpjumper.
I’m a bit surprised to see how much your POV has been down-voted on a site like BikeRumor.
I see this product as fitting in as one of 4 choices:
Edit – I can count 🙂 Option 4 was to swap the pedals over. For the use case of swapping back and forth for quick trips, as for option 3 above I’m too lazy. But as someone fitting the N+1 stereotype, of course I _do_ have multiple sets of pedals and will occasionally swap out the flats on my MTB for SPDs if it’s a long XC style day.
In my opinion, another reason to use these is when you want to practice wheelies, manuals, etc. I don’t want to swap pedals so having the ability to slip these on to practice is very appealing.
The fact that these can’t rotate and unclip accidentally really separates them from the “platform with a cleat” adapter options
I own a Pinarello Dogma xlight F12 and use it for races and training with spd pedals. I will go for a two hour long training ride and then take my daughters out for a few miles. I can easily pedal with tennis shoes on the Shimano SPD pedals without any issues. They are small but it is not impossible to pedal. Maybe a novice would need these over covers?
Your anecdotal experience is nothing more. Just because YOU can doesn’t mean others would want to under the same circumstances.
Hey, what kind of bike do you have again? Some folks in the back didn’t hear.
It doesn’t take much longer than 5 seconds to swap pedals anyway. These are for people that are so lazy that they’ll probably never use them.
Ride my Cervelo Aspero with flat shimano,Enjoy every min.Dont need lycra and the rest when not racing.The roll of a quality bike make you smile.
Shimano pd-eh500
Like other posters here I’ve had no trouble using the clip-in pedals with sneakers or even formal shoes when I’ve had to. I don’t see a need here.
Wat kinda shoes r them
Yup, brilliant. For me, it’s the daily morning run around with the dog. I get by fine with “unprotected” SPDs but these will be more enjoyable.
I have a solution for all of the commenters that don’t see a need for this product: don’t buy it. Problem solved on your end.
No no no! I really need a pair of Adidas Velosamba and this could ruin my argument
Only 30 lbs? Like the cost of a set of pedals.
The unwritten message here is that every cyclist needs clipless pedals in thirst place.