An interesting idea...

[Ti Designs]

The forcast for the Boston area is about a foot of snow on Friday (plus or minus about 12 inches - it is a weather forcast...). My workouts change from the usual base mileage to something more creative with large amounts of snow. With deep snow I'll take my mountain bike and snow shoes over to the local ski slope, ride up the access road, throw the snow shoes on, hike over to the other side and ride down the face. My snow shoes have these straps that can't be adjusted while wearing gloves. So this morning I was thinking that I use clipless pedals on the bike, why not use the same cleats to clip into the snow shoes? What's more, the show shoes have a pivot to allow the foot to rotate, and pedals have the same thing! The show shoes have rows of spikes under the foot, but then so did the old Look Delta cyclocross pedals. I would have to increase the release tension, but that's easy. I'll have a prototype built by the end of the day, testing starts in about 24 hours...

[paczki]

The forcast for the Boston area is about a foot of snow on Friday (plus or minus about 12 inches - it is a weather forcast...). My workouts change from the usual base mileage to something more creative with large amounts of snow. With deep snow I'll take my mountain bike and snow shoes over to the local ski slope, ride up the access road, throw the snow shoes on, hike over to the other side and ride down the face. My snow shoes have these straps that can't be adjusted while wearing gloves. So this morning I was thinking that I use clipless pedals on the bike, why not use the same cleats to clip into the snow shoes? What's more, the show shoes have a pivot to allow the foot to rotate, and pedals have the same thing! The show shoes have rows of spikes under the foot, but then so did the old Look Delta cyclocross pedals. I would have to increase the release tension, but that's easy. I'll have a prototype built by the end of the day, testing starts in about 24 hours...


From ski bindings to clipless pedals to snow shoes-- it would be a full circle.

[gdw]

Ski slopes near Boston? Blue Hills? Can you really get a workout on that pimple? :D

Good luck with the bindings. The system should work well on groomed trails but will really be tested cutting through the woods or trying to cross the face of a hill.

[rpm]

I'll be interested in seeing how the experiment works out.

Integrated boot/binding systems are starting to make some inroads into the snowshoe world:

http://www.llbean.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?categoryId=57392&storeId=1&catalogId=1&langId=-1&from=SR&feat=sr

[Bill Bove]

I'm gonna stick with clipless bicycle pedals, forcast for Friday is sunny and 80. Lot's of this :banana: none of this :fight: