clipless pedals: why?

[telestoner]

ok, its 1230am and i've had a few brrrs, but this bothers me even when sober: why are so many mtnbikers so in love with clipless pedals? i raced mtnbikes a lot in back in the day and loved 'em myself, but got tired of spending $100+ on crappy shoes that make you look like a euroslut, suck to walk in, and break after a season. i spent some years on flat (ie cliplessless) pedals due to budgetary constraints and have had a hard time going back. disregarding any $$ and qc issus, and as a trail-rider in a place where most rides have some hike-a-bike, here is my take on pros and cons of clipless pedals for mtnbikers:

pro: locked-in feel on dh; potential for upstroke power; lighter weight; way better ground clearance (esp in horse-ruts); hop the bike without the need to learn bunny-hopping skills.

con: sketchy to get out of; can release in sketchy places (ie mid-air); restricts knee rotation; restricts fore-aft positioning of foot; promotes bad riding style; requires expensive shoes; more moving parts to break; better hope those cleats don't come loose; shoes generally suck to walk in; shoes suck to go out in public in.

don't get me wrong, i'm not a hater, i have plenty of friends that ride clipless, but i also know experienced riders that have gotten f'd high-siding (on 2mph uphills!) because they couldn't clip out. even worse are the beginners that are told they need clipless, get f'd on the high-side because they can't clip out, and say f.u. to the whole sport. i guess the whole clipless pedal thing seems like a crazy road-bike carryover to me, even for xc ridiing, and i'm hoping for some enlightenment from the collective brain.
cheers, ts

[tigerstripe40]

in alot of cases, it's the right tool for the job
IN others, its not;
Part of mountain biking, at least for me, is figuring out when to use clipless and when to use flats.

When I don't feel the need to get off the bike regularly, then clipless it is. When I feel the need to be able to step off, it's flats.

[tone capone]

In these parts, like you said, most of the good stuff has hike a bike and that alone will never have me considering going back to clipless. That and the fact that my bike weighs 40 pounds and I am always getting on and off the thing going uphill. I will say that after 4 seasons with that bike that it is totally worth it though.

I can see why a lot of the XC type dudes, or "cyclists" as I jokingly call them, like the clipless. You know, those dudes that would rather shoot themselves than put a foot down or do something with some uphill hike a bike. You see them on the trail and they silently glare at you for taking two hundreths of a second off their best time. /End shit talk.

One good buddy of mine uses Time clipless pedals and says that using platforms is stupid for anything but real freeriding or real downhill racing, so go figure.

[concretejungle]

I like the power transfer because I suck. I've got the some with a bit of a platform that still allows me to pedal uphill and downhill in sketchy situations. They do suck to walk in but, like everything, it's a trade-off.

I don't go out in public in them. Usually have a pair of sandals to change into for post-ride beers.

[BushwackerinPA]

you simply cant ride everything here in pittburgh as fast as possiable with out clipless.

also around here if you good enough there is no hike a biking and we ride some pretty sketchy stuff clipped in.

hard to get out of? try shimano or time they are super easy to get out. If you get high sided in shimano your a tool sorry.

knee rotatation? leaning your knee and nothing else ISNT good form. Bio mechanically its does nothing for you.

I dont wear my shoes out and walking isnt that bad for the short distance you have to do sometimes.

For racing of any sort DH and 4x included its the best way to go. although people do fine with out like Sam Hill most DH guys use clipless while racing. For XC you wont find anyone not using them.

[Trackhead]

Is this thread about how gnar you look in public with your flats, or how gay you look with clipless?

My bike has pedals, if I plan on pedaling it, 95% of the time I prefer clipless. I'm not concerned with how I look now that lycra is long gone.

[chaka]

this thread is retarded.

[marshalolson]

i know this guy that slipped on some ice on the sidewalk once. he only walks on grass now.

[El Chupacabra]

I tried flats for one summer because of all the people I saw riding on flats. I ride 98% XC, maaaaaybe 5 days per year lift or shuttle served.

I thought it sucked. Back to clipless.

Flats = equivalent to fixies + manpris + cards in spokes, for the rider who wants to look super aggro. (For the minority who can ride like kidwoo, they make sense. For the rest of us... not so much.)

[PowTron]

I only ride in flats...for the last 10 years or so. I have a messed up ankle, and now a messed up knee, so I have no form anyway.

That, and I seriously look super fukin' rad, so step off son.

[2turntables]

Right now I ride clipless almost all the time except lift-served or some shuttles. I've become a bigger fan of flats more as time goes on. I'll be sampling some more bigger XC rides on flats this year.

I really think I have incorporated a decent enough spin into riding flats for efficiency and really like how I've come around to really riding / weighting a bike with proper skills more on flat pedals.

[eldereldo]

I have a set of clipless shoes that look more like hiking boots, the clips are recessed into the sole (vibram) and walking on them is no different than walking on normal hiking boots. I haven't tried riding with flats for at least 20 years, maybe I should see how different it is on a suspension bike, but on the old style rigids clipless helped keep you on the bike when rattling over rocky/rooty sections of trail.

[Conundrum]

To each their own. I ride both and pick based on my mood. I always ride clipless the day after I wax my junk though.

[Beaver]

First off I think the name is wrong clipless to me means no clips ie. flats. I used to run spuds but once I started going down the hill fast & free riding I abandoned them. I like being able to get my foot off the pedal and back on instantly. I also like to be able to have the pedal farther back on my foot to relieve ankle strain

[VTskibum]

....
hard to get out of? try shimano or time they are super easy to get out. If you get high sided in shimano your a tool sorry.
....

^^ I lol'ed at that one.

I agree with Chaka this thread is pretty dumb.

[altagirl]

I go back and forth - one season I was riding nothing but clipless, now I generally only ride clipless on my singlespeed or road bike. I just don't like trying to race DH clipped in. And flats have their own learning curve in not getting bounced off in high speed chundery stuff and pedaling efficiently, etc. So I use them most of the time, unless I'm on a true XC trail.

The first time we went to Whistler I had ridden only clipless all year long. Got up there, tried to ride woodwork and went back and changed to flats. And then spend several days trying to get used to the pedals again and felt like I was going to fall off the pedals on the stutter bumps. For me there are definitely situations that call for one or the other and I don't want to get totally out of practice with either.

[LittleYellowFriend]

clipless pedals put you in a totally off balance body position by placing the center of the pedal under the front of the foot instead of in the center where it should be, making the rider all hunched over, off center, and making it hard to bend the knees to adjust to terrain and properly shift the body forward or back. Thats why people who use clipless pedals suck at riding generally.

[trainnvain]

clipless pedals put you in a totally off balance position by placing the center of the pedal under the front of the foot instead of in the center where it should be, making the rider all hunched over, off center, and making it hard to bend the knees to adjust to terrain and properly shift the body forward or back. Thats why people who use clipless pedals suck at riding generally.

What? Seriously, I'm a predominant flats rider and can't agree with this statement.
Balance is under the ball of the foot(right where the the clip is), not the center.

[Z]

clipless pedals put you in a totally off balance body position by placing the center of the pedal under the front of the foot instead of in the center where it should be, making the rider all hunched over, off center, and making it hard to bend the knees to adjust to terrain and properly shift the body forward or back. Thats why people who use clipless pedals suck at riding generally.

Everything in this post is wrong. Nice work on that.


Biggest thing clipless helps for me is technical climbs. Bouncing over rocks on the way up is much easier clipped in.

[nihiles]

i think its all about style and if the OP doesnt mind downgrading his performance for looking gnar then thats his problem. but now that hes wandered away from newschoolers hes our problem.
like el chupa said, sometimes the image is more important. all the guys i ride fixed with in nyc say im wack cause i ride clipless instead of toe clips. well i say toe clips are wack. but the tension on my fixie pedals is way higher than the tension on my freeride and when my xc buddies get on my freeride they jump themselves right out of the clips. guess they dont know how to properly bunny hop.
however i rock flats on my '64 despite how aggro having clipless on 3-sp schwinn may be.

fwiw i hate clipless shoes and rock kicks like the 661 filter which of course all the xc racers tell me defeats the purpose of clipless. well, yes. it defeats the purpose as far as efficient energy transfer but it doesnt defeat the purpose of upstroke and maintaining spin.

i agree clipless is a stupid name. it should be clips, straps and flats. ive only dh a couple of times and i dont think i would ever do it clipped. way too important for me to be able to move my foot around. but i would never do xc with flats and clearance/weight is a big part of that.

is it time to leave work yet....?

[funkendrenchman]

I just ride without pedals. It eliminates all the problems mentioned above since I can't get my bike out of the parking lot.

[chaka]

clipless pedals put you in a totally off balance body position by placing the center of the pedal under the front of the foot instead of in the center where it should be, making the rider all hunched over, off center, and making it hard to bend the knees to adjust to terrain and properly shift the body forward or back. Thats why people who use clipless pedals suck at riding generally.

thank you for proving my thesis that this thread is retarded.

[altagirl]

Everything in this post is wrong. Nice work on that.

I was baffled by that post too. You need the ball of your foot over the pedal not only for pedaling power, but so you have more range of motion in your ankle to absorb things and flow with the trail. Limiting the suspension your body naturally has isn't going to help your riding.

[H-man]

Everything in this post is wrong. Nice work on that.

Classic TGR humor Z.

That's all I got.

[Ed el Loco]

Atom lab's and 5-10's I feel like I'm clipped in. I use egg beaters for 5 years, when I started riding more tech stuff, log rides, etc. I switched to flats. Then I got tired of changing my shoes ever time I took my commuter to the store so I switched it to flats, I dont miss clipless at all. Mostly I hated moving my foot around trying to clip back in after a dab before I hit the next sketchy section.