Coombe Clipless Pedal

The Coombe Clipless Pedal was a short production clipless bicycle pedal that saw a small following in the cycling community in the late 1990s and early to mid 2000's.^[1]
The design is as stated:

"A retention mechanism for retaining a cycling shoe to a bicycle pedal, having a solid tongue and groove mechanism for engaging the shoe cleat to the pedal body. The shoe cleat having a forward ramp, and side walls, for guiding the cleat into engagement with the pedal body. Engagement being accomplished by, first, sliding the foot forward across the pedal body, bringing the rear tongue of the cleat into engagement with a mating groove of the pedal body, then rotating the foot, out and back, about an axis perpendicular to the top surface of the pedal body, bringing the front tongue of the cleat fully into engagement with the pedal body."^[2]

Patented by William "Bill" Coombe in Boulder, Colorado in May 2001, under US Patents #6234046 and #6227071, the Coombe is hailed by some as the "best pedal" made, due to the high quality, low profile, and lightweight design.^[3] However, for unknown reasons, Bill Coombe discontinued his product in the spring of 2006. And with replacement parts being difficult to find on the used market, one Coombe pedal enthusiast describes on their website how to get extra miles out of the cleats, as the pedals themselves "seem like they can last forever".^[4]

References