Sprint: cages, clipless or bust?

I would say it depends on your budget and on the course.  If the course is hilly you will benefit greatly from cages or clipless.  If the course is fairly flat it might not really make all that much difference.  If the cages are that old and difficult to use I wouldn't recommend doing that at all.  I used cages for my first two races, changed to clipless shortly after that, clipless are the way to go if you can afford it.  If you do go clipless and shoes you'll be able to move these to a new bike in the future.  Most of the better bikes don't come with pedals.

Oh, just for reference, I did a Duathlon this weekend.  There was a 12 year old boy that rode the 10 miles on a single speed kids bike, no cages, no clipless.  A fairly hilly course on a windy day.  He didn't finish last!  He was in the middle of the pack.  It can be done without cages or clipless if that's what your budget dictates at this time.

Chris.

my 2 cents.

First off, with an older raleigh, you might not be able to find clipless pedals for it, as the cranks may be drilled for a 1/2" thread instead of the standard 9/16".

Secondly, I am considering buying a good set of platforms with cages for sprint distance events.  Why?  Throwing on your running shoes and using them on the bike saves you gobs of transition time.  Even over the somewhat difficult trick of leaving the shoes on the bike.  I'm willing to bet that the time saved in transition will make up for the amount of time lost on a short bike leg by not wearing real clipless pedals.  This will varry with course length, terrain and skill of rider, but over the short sprint distances, not ammount to much.

Third.  Skill of the rider.  Clipless pedals are something you need to get used to riding.  If someone were to train on platforms and  then go race with clipless, they wouldn't notice a huge gain in time.  They are still used to the mashing tecnique of platforms.  The benifit of clipless is the ability to spin the pedals and hold higher cadence.  Something that comes with time and practice.  So even if you were to ride for a few weeks with either clips or clipless, I'm willing to bet your technique in either would be about the same, meaning the benifit of clipless over clips wouldn't be much.  Certainly not enough to overcome the Transition time diff.

so long term...clipless = good.  For now, I'd use the toe clips, as I think they will suit you a lot better.  Also, retro is retro.  You wouldn't go putting 20" spinners on a '32 Ford would you?

My first tri last year was a sprint. I used my 17 year old mtn bike with cages on the pedals. I wore my running shoes on the bike and it made for a quick transition to the run. It is not a bad way to get a taste for your first tri.

Have fun!

one other thing thast may help is lose the gel gloves. i got awful blisters with mine - they just weren't protecting the right bits of my hand. bought the ednura mighty mitt instead - complete with snot wipe pad

they're fab and my hands no longer hurt

I'm surprised a number of people advised you away from the clipless.

I bought clipless for my even older bike and found an immediate improvement.  I don't consider it wasted money, as the pedals and shoes can be reused on a new bike when I get one.