How different/difficult is it compared to SPDs, i've starting doing jumps and drops nothing too extreme at the moment about 3-4 foot?

All my mates ride with flats and say i should start as it'll improve my technique and give me more control, especially over the back end, i tend to lat the back end drag on doubles and table tops.

Would my riding regress before i see any improvements?

Cheers

it matters **** all bewteen pedal systems as long as your foot position is correct etc….

Try both and then decide. I prefer flats overall but clips have their place. Can't be bothered chopping and changing pedals/shoes all the time so ride flats for everything.

used to ride flats had no problems keeping my feet on the pedals etc but i much prefer clipless now. i have greatly improved since. once you get over the fears of being clipped in its no different tbh. i have done everything i done on flats on clipless but imo my climbing is improved when clipped in.

my reasoning behing this is when the back end slips on flats there is little you can do to keep momentum and carry on where as when your clipped in you can keep momentum by pulling up.

this is just my opinion and preference though 🙂

I got a pedal pin hole in my leg whilst chasing a sheep over some soft grassy stuff. I'd have been fine clipped in.

More power clipped, espesh going up stuff, more freedom on flats. depends really, confidence, etc. I dunno why I ride flats at the mo', just had a few sketchy rides and went back to them.

Do what you want. I find practising some stuff is better on flats like manuals and wheelies, etc. I find clips to be better when climbing really technical stuff where you loose traction. I find it hard to get my foot in the right position sometimes with flats and it is hard to move them when you are going downhill fast. Just remember to get your heels down a bit for both when jumping.

I liked wearing flats in the snow as I was bailing out more.

All my mates ride with flats and say i should start as it'll improve my technique and give me more control

Possibly the biggest myth ever in mountain biking and discussed at least once a day on an MTB forum somewhere. You could equally argue that flat pedals promote poor techniques like constantly putting a foot down when you don't need to and poor foot placement. I often use Greg Minaar as the classic example, he is about the smoothest most fluid rider I have seen yet he clips in and not a hint of poor technique. Of course certain well known celebrity instructors try to push flat pedals as it's what they ride but I know other top instructors that wouldn't even ride to the corner shop on flats. For me the flats only come out for very muddy wet downhill courses in winter everything else is SPD.

However at the end of the day who cares? If you are happiest on SPD or flats it really doesn't matter, all that really matters is that you do what makes you happy and go fast.

I prefer flats, but i am seeing more and more benefits with SPD's. Noticably more powerful.

I have spent most of this year riding flats instead of spuds and the end result is i have flats (MSG 1) on the FS but spuds on me HT.

Just can't seem to enjoy the rougher descents on flats on the HT (yes i have tried lowering my heels).

I often use Greg Minaar as the classic example, he is about the smoothest most fluid rider I have seen yet he clips in and not a hint of poor technique.

I bet he could ride just fine on flats too though. I do think you learn poor technique for jumping etc with clips – I know I did.

I often use Greg Minaar as the classic example, he is about the smoothest most fluid rider I have seen yet he clips in and not a hint of poor technique.
I bet he could ride just fine on flats too though. I do think you learn poor technique for jumping etc with clips – I know I did.

Poor technique……….according to who? Some of the fastest and most natural riders I know couldn't care less about their feet or what trendy instructors from downhill backgrounds say, they just want to ride their bikes.

Try flats, see how you go.

Last time I rode flats for xc I suffered a costo-thoracic dislocation caused by the utter stupidity and misery of it. 😀

As Duir said, try it and see. Just be aware that it will take a few rides to adjust. The first ride your feet will come off the pedals

I rode clipless for years and this year tried flats. Now have them on both bikes and don't find any problem on climbs.

is it worth purchasing shoes with a softer sole so they grip onto the pedal pins?

Shimano AM40's. Quite possibly the best flat pedal shoe around. Definitely worht it if you stick with flats, mine would look good as new if i washed them. and thats after 9 months…

Sam hill. He's good on flats. He'd be good in spuds too tho. Depends on the rider really.however talking about myths, thats spuds is better uphill is pish.its all about technique.

Think it's a myth that either SPDs or flats WILL encourage bad technique but I don't think there's any doubt at all that they can, because they can be a little more tolerant of bad technique than the alternative. Like, watching coaching at AQR, almost every rider was constantly told to drop their heels more, I never heard it once because I had to relearn to ride on flats and soon learned I wasn't dropping my heels enough, and so sorted out an issue in my riding through changing pedals. And I doubt I'd ever have learned to bunnyhop on SPDs. Now I'm sure all that'd be benificial if I could use SPD again. And I reckon I developed better spinning techniques from using SPDs that I've transferred to flats, but that would be harder to develop from scratch on flats.

Just don't assume that you'll benefit, not everyone does. Also don't try it once and decide you hate it! I'm not sure now which I prefer, it's ages since I could use SPDs but at first riding on flats after a break from riding felt really horrible, like learning to walk again. But now, hmm, I think probably I do prefer flats but I could get on with either.

And also just be aware of the obvious, that fans of both types of pedals talk a total load of s**t about the other type of pedals. Especially the ones that have never used them.

I've never used spds but I don't really like the idea of being connected in that way. It'll be fine for road (and I'm getting some for my road bike soon) but seeing as I'm riding more and more downhill, I can't see much benefit for me. Only thing I could see them being useful for is keeping my feet on over bumpy/rooty stuff (I'm on a HT). I just think being attached will make me more cautious over everything else, especially fast corners/berms.

Poor technique……….according to who?

Learn to jump on SPDs, then try transferring those skills to flats
Learn to jump on flats, then transfer to SPDs.

Which one works better?