Me thinks your next thread will be about arm wrestling or religion.

LEAF BLOWING IS WRONG

If you ride epic routes or you lap times make a financial difference in your life, go clipless, otherwise stay on Flats.

Flats make you ride cleaner.

I used to be clipped in on all my bikes, including my DH bike.  Now I am only clipped in on my SS. 

renoirbud wrote on 10/25/17 at 12:34am:



How so?  I've been thinking about trying to get used to flats this winter.  Nice seeing you at Cyclofest!

catsruletn wrote on 10/25/17 at 12:47pm:

Excellent point! I will follow your suggestion and test what I like the most.

The only time I wish I had flats is when I'm riding something I'm rather intimidated by or I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna make it... lol  Honestly ride w/e makes you feel comfortable.  You are not going to ruin your riding experience by choosing to ride flats.  In fact if they make you feel more confident you will have a better ride and that is why we all do this right?  To have fun....?

I started on flats.....went clipless and now back to flats.  It's all personal preference as mentioned but I found a good pair of flats and a set of Five Ten shoes or similar shoe as the perfect setup IMHO.

btalley wrote on 10/26/17 at 2:09pm:


You just have to ride facing backward. Who cannot do that?

This is my point of view from a shameless newb with some decent riding skill.

I got back into biking this year after likeeeee a 14 year hiatus from my BMX champ glory days. I never, ever had a mountain bike, and I used to ride trails a lot as a kid....one a 20 inch bmx bike.

So I got my bike a couple months ago, and obviously started with flats. My endurance is not the best, so I was struggling to ride up climbs, and it was discouraging. I put &^&^ty flat pedals on my over $2k bike, and didnt really have good riding shoes.

After some thought, I decided to give clipless a try. It was kind of scary lol and like the idiot that I am sometimes, my first day riding clipless just happened to fall on a day when I took my first road trip to Dupont with some pretty experienced riders. I actually did pretty decent that day, but I did fall probably 2-3 times pretty hard going up climbs when I lost traction going over a log or something. 

The worst fall I had that day was actually in a parking lot, in front of everyone, and it hurt lol.  Dont forget to unclip!

Fast forward a couple months, I am becoming a better ride, and the clips definitely help me a lot with climbs and even confidence going down hill. However, when I ride trails that are unknown to me, and am riding with someone that is a very good rider, I still have troubles through some technical parts while trying to keep up. Last time I rode clipless at WWC, I fell going up the carpet climb because my tire slipped, lost traction, and I went down. No biggie. Next trail we were riding pretty hard, and was going up a short steep climb with a log, and almost got over it, but I lost momentum again, and fell to the side, and slammed my ribs into a small tree.

.....2.5 weeks later, I can finally kind of go to sleep laying on that side of my body and the bruising is almost gone!


After that day, I ordered some good flats and some better riding shoes for flats. I tested those out the other day, and wow! I always thought a flat pedal was a flat pedal was a flat pedal, but good pedals and shoes do make a difference.

My plan now is to develop some better technical skills utilizing the flats. When I go to ride trails I know very well, I will put the clips back on and once I get more confident in my skill, I will probably put the clips back on 100%.

If you are afraid of falling, dont go clipless. It'll happen and itll hurt, unless you are a natural born freak of nature rider. However, dont let it get you down, it is all part of progression, and you will notice that you can ride a bit more with clips because you truly get so much more energy every cycle of the cranks. 

Good luck!

I use XTR Trail and like them, I can feel the extra pedal to shoe surface and feel a small amount of extra stability going to the pedal vs the shimano pedals without the platform.  I rode the non-trail pedals for years though and had no issue with them.