I’ve had flats for ages and ridden them a bit, but not really bothered as I find it too annoying when climbing. However exploring the steep loamy stuff around Machen I suddenly wished for flats, so I reckon I’ll fit them to the Patriot and see.

I’m a bit like the OP.

Only 53, but switched to flats last year after 25 years of spuds. Basically I wanted to learn to do stuff correctly; jump, manual, wheelie, bunny hop etc. Before, if I wanted to leave the ground I just leapt in the air and the bike came up with me as it was attached to my feet.

Now I don’t even think about what’s on my feet.

Still shit at skills though.

It does beg the question whether, whilst acknowledging that flats allow better technique to be learned in the first place, for those of us who have ‘ok to enjoy our ride without feeling lacking’ technique doing it ‘the wrong way’ on spds, do flats bring a benefit, or do they represent, for us, ‘Emperor’s new clothes’ ???

I don’t think either spuds are flats have a massive benefit over the other. I use flats as my knees were gowpin after the puffer, and I got fed up of freezin cold feet with the big brass heat hoover on the bottom of my shoes.

Other minor benefits such as family rides in normal shoes, nipping to shops etc… not a deal swinger though.

It works for me, but may not work for others. Took me a long time to be as confident on steep techy rocky descents on flats as I was on spuds, always liked the feeling of being attached to the bike, whereas others are quite the opposite.

It does beg the question whether, whilst acknowledging that flats allow better technique to be learned in the first place, for those of us who have ‘ok to enjoy our ride without feeling lacking’ technique doing it ‘the wrong way’ on spds, do flats bring a benefit, or do they represent, for us, ‘Emperor’s new clothes’ ???

Depends.

I had clips on my HT, as I head up onto the South Downs & bash out reasonable miles on undulating terrain. The odd root is about as technical as it gets.

For racing DH/Enduro, and run riding though, my other bike has flats & always will do. I’ve tried to ride fun stuff and race in clips, but for the most part, it just doesn’t work for me. I ride tight and slow on steep tech. So it’s useless for me to persist.

They both have their place for me 🙂

I think that if you’re happy on clipless and enjoy your riding (and not being “held back”) then why bother changing? I went from a lifelong clipless user to flats about 6 years ago, when I got my first FS, mostly because a riding buddy recommended it.

I don’t know why, but I’ve never really had an issue with my feet coming off the pedals, and certainly never been smacked in the shin, and I’m hardly a riding god. Maybe a few years of riding horses before switching helped with weighting through my legs more?

Tried going back to clipless a couple of years ago and hated it; I couldn’t stand the feeling of the float (felt like I was stood on ice) and that I couldn’t change the position of my foot relative to the pedal axle depending on what I was doing. For those reasons alone, I doubt I’ll use clipless again.

Edit: that’s on both a FS and a rigid SS.

I’ve always ridden flats and have never even tried spd’s. To be fair I don’t do long rides on trails very often, more DH sort of stuff, but I’m going to have a go clipped in on the XC bike. Why? Just for the experience of it really. If mastering flats benefits spd users then why not the other way round? And after all it offers a different angle on bike riding and I’ll take any opportunity for a bit of that.

some great replies, and an interesting view that it’s very much horses for courses, which is very much where i think I am.

Whenever I read threads like this I tend to think most of the contributers must either be posh or stupid. possibly both.

It’s just riding a bike. If you’re not very good at it. It really won’t matter what footwear or pedals you do it with.

^^^^ what an odd thing to say. I suppose it doesn’t matter whether you have gears, suspension, or solid rubber tyres either …. 😯

Why would this be a discussion just for posh people 😆

Well. If you really have to ask… 😛

Whenever I read threads like this I tend to think most of the contributers must either be posh or stupid. possibly both

I’m neither posh nor stupid , just someone trying to get more out of
“Just riding a bike .

^^^ well said

I’ve always ridden flats and have never even tried spd’s. To be fair I don’t do long rides on trails very often, more DH sort of stuff, but I’m going to have a go clipped in on the XC bike. Why? Just for the experience of it really. If mastering flats benefits spd users then why not the other way round? And after all it offers a different angle on bike riding and I’ll take any opportunity for a bit of that.

I seem to have gone the opposite way to most others on this post, I have recently in the last 4 weeks put clipless pedals on after nearly 2 decades of flat pedal riding on BMX and MTB, I had ridden clipless for a few years on my work commuting roadie but always thought I’d die on the trails if I went clipless.

Turns out I wont, picked up some Shimano DX’s wound off the tension, picked up some single release cleats and AM5 shoes and I was away. In the 4 weeks I have only had one SPD related crash and this was playing in the car park trying to do an endo to fakie and stalling before going over, before this I had managed to get out of an endo 180 to fakie fine. Out on the trails I have had no extra crashes on top of the ones I frequently have where I mis judge corner speeds!

The biggest learning curve for me wasnt getting out, it was getting in when I had stopped and took a foot out on something steep, few goes at it and nows its natural without looking. I am really loving being clipped in, I used to be really anal about foot placement (prob something to do with BMX) so used to get quite annoyed when my feet would be bounced into a different position on my pedals, SPDs are excellent for this and allow me to try and charge the rough stuff faster then before. They feel great on the ups for spinning to the top and I have even noticed I can get the power down better when sprinting too.

I should really go back to flats soon just to see how it feels, but part of the thing that pushed me to clipless was my 510’s wore out and I picked up all the clipless stuff seconds hand except for the cleats for £50 which is less then I could get 510s for!

I ride flat pedals, I tried clipless for 6 months off road, and I’ve never had so many crashes, I just accept that clipless doesnt suit me.

However the best riders I have met (in this case various guides around the world) have almost all been on clipless, but a small minority have been on flats, so I conclude it doesn’t really matter what pedals you use its just personal preference.

Whenever I read threads like this I tend to think most of the contributers must either be posh or stupid. possibly both.

I shall be sending my butler round to see you off!

Bloody rif raff.