Indeed, Mrs Rickmeister wears shin pads all the time for just this reason… she is doing really well on flats… I do equally well on spd’s… and as such we both enjoy our biking.
Going to flats saw the biggest regression in my ability to the point where I didnt want to bike at all. I have been on spd’s for 12 years now. Had I been on flats for that long I may have a different POV ..looking at dh riders, quite a lot of them are clipped in and that doesnt seem to slow them down…..
Sticky 5:10’s, are they really? I reckon its just the pins going between the bobbles on the sole and nowt to do with “sticky” at all… grippy maybe, sticky, not so sure… but that may be just semantics.