I know Mike, and I agree with not supplying pedals, I just don’t like the ‘bikes with flat pedals are unridable’ comment.

Only bike I’ve ever bought with pedals was a £850 road bike (clips and straps) and I used them for a week while some proper (well, spd) ones turned up.

Others that haven’t, I’ve bought them in the shop, sometimes I’ve paid for them, most times the shop has swallowed the cost.

Maybe not, but you do own ‘shoes’ I assume? ergo a bike with flat pedals will still function safely

not really, I don’t have any shoes that work well enough for proper off-road riding with flat pedals or would not have the soles damaged by something with big pins like a superstar nano.

Whereas my hands still work with any grip and my bum still works with any saddle.

The ONLY shoes I ride seriously in are my SPD ones.

I know Mike, and I agree with not supplying pedals, I just don’t like the ‘bikes with flat pedals are unridable’ comment.

Correction – I wrote “unridable to me”

big difference to a sweeping claim of being universally unridable.

Also I made no claim of it being a safety issue. Just not suitable for the riding I want to do with it and would be buying a proper mountain bike to do. Why would I want to go riding off road in my flat soled dress shoes or cut up the soft soles on my running shoes on something like a superstar nano (which are not really suitable to use on flat pedals anyway)

This is hardly a new thing though is it?

High-end bikes never come with pedals, as I see it the bike makers have 3 options:

Supply shitty cheap pedals, 90% will go in the bin, 10% will be returned to the shop over and over again when buyers demand to know why a £3k bike came with pedals that fail every ride.

Supply entry level flats – a pair of V8’s even Welgo copies, about 70% will be wasted, some will be clippless riders, some will have some nicer ones to hand.

Supply entry level SPDs – a pair of XTs even Deores, about 70% will be wasted, some will be flat riders, some will have some nicer ones to hand.

Or… do what has been done for at least a decade (since I started buying nice bikes) but probably much longer, you buy a nice bike, from a nice shop and they throw in a pair of V8s or Shimano SPDs if you ask for them within the price. Less waste in materials, less waste in money, everyone’s happy.

Buy online, save a few quid, buy your own pedals.

The Hope F20’s I wanted for my new Jake took 2 weeks to come in. I was glad to have some spare flats in my shed.