Sam Hill will be doing some EWS rounds this year – on flats. Interested to see how he gets on!

Clips with bright yellow shoes for that EnduroTM look.

Tried flats for the first time in 12-14 years last weekend while visiting a friend in Singapore (didnt have the heart to ask him to change pedals on his loaner) and was very impressed though, incredible stickiness on those 510’s.

Flats cos I’ve got manky feet and it means clips are hard to unclip in a hurry if I have them aligned to avoid the chainstays.

But clips for road and cx natch.

Flats.

Because sometimes I get off the bike and don’t want to walk like a spastic duck.

I’ve tried SPD and SPD-SL…. bit pointless IMO.

Flats. got fed up years ago of being unable to unclip quickly when necessary plus the twisting action of unclipping is bad for my knees.

Clipless all the way. For me its just better.

No spastic duck walking as shoes are exactly the same as flat shoes just with a bit of metal sunk into the sole.

Flats for everything, including on the road bike. I thought I needed clips when I got a road bike, turns out the bike works fine without them.

+1!

skip to 5:25 for the results of a very non-scientific test…
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNedIJBZpgM[/video]

I have both, but since last summer, have stuck with the clipless, mainly because they got stuck on the cranks and I couldn’t remove them so I was “forced” to do the Eastridge mini enduro clipped in. Much to my – at the time – horror.

Amazing what it did for my confidence though – i’m now faster, more committed, have better power transfer and generally have more fun as you are definitely “in” the bike a bit more.

I do occasionally go back to flats, but wholeheartedly prefer being clipped in.

clips

flats for uplift days usually

Clipped in for me. Except when I go for a pootle with my 4 year old daughter then I’ll swap the SPD’s on the hardtail for a pair of flatties.

Flats on both my MTB’s – I rode (and swore by) clips in the late nineties but switched to flats once my riding moved from XC to my jumpy / mucking about stuff.

I’ve dabbled in clips since then, but have never really liked them so have stuck with flats.

Clips on the road bike though (stupid things that never face the right way to clip into due to them being one sided).

Flats for the first time i ride something, i like to be able to dab if need be and bail out if required!…used flats at BPW for the first few runs last week…then went to my car and put on the clips.

My technique on flats isnt great, i’m no jumper and handle really rough stuff and getting airborne far better when clipped in (less chance of losing my footing!)….i know i should work on my technique but i’m pushing 40, cant be arsed and ride a HT at the moment so i like my feet held nice and secure as i barrel across inappropriate terrain thank you very much.

Both – at the same time…. CB Mallets (older DH style) used with either FiveTen Hellcats or 661 Filters

Clips for me. XT trail with a slightly bigger platform.

661 Filters

Snap, great riding shoe and does both flats and clips really well.

Surprised how many people are saying flats. Thought I was the only one! Flats for everything – my fitness and ability are what hold me back – not the type of shoes I wear 🙂

Flats on everything for me.

flats for everything except the road bike.

tried clips for 6 months,hated it, I’ve never fallen off as much as during this 6 month period.

If its trail centre ish SPD’s.
Anything with some proper gradient – flats.

Plus I prefer flats from racing dh

Flats for offroad, clips for onroad, I switched to flats after a knee problem years ago and have have never gone back for the MTB, it taught me to ride better.

If – on a mountain bike – you’re getting anything more from SPDs than a few % pedalling efficiency then you’re doing it wrong.

There I said it.

If – on a mountain bike – you’re getting anything more from SPDs than a few % pedalling efficiency then you’re doing it wrong.

There I said it.

I’d think a lot of DH racers would disagree with you.

If – on a mountain bike – you’re getting anything more from SPDs than a few % pedalling efficiency then you’re doing it wrong.

Indeed. If we’d evolved to pedal in circles both pushing and pulling then clips would be far more efficient. But we haven’t, we’ve evolved to walk, run and jump, all of which only involve pushing. Training can’t ‘fix’ what milennia of evolution have created.

If – on a mountain bike – you’re getting anything more from SPDs than a few % pedalling efficiency then you’re doing it wrong.

Indeed. If we’d evolved to pedal in circles both pushing and pulling then clips would be far more efficient. But we haven’t, we’ve evolved to walk, run and jump, all of which only involve pushing. Training can’t ‘fix’ what milennia of evolution have created.[/quote]

indeed even for massive flat pedal advocate like me i get less tired uphill/xc clipped in. and i`ve only really be doing ‘xc’ rides for a couple of years and even then i only dabble. training? nope.

clips in teh dry, flats in the mud. in the mud i`m like bambi on ice clipped in.

Rockplough – Member

If – on a mountain bike – you’re getting anything more from SPDs than a few % pedalling efficiency then you’re doing it wrong.

I don’t think that’s true tbh, there’s definitely other advantages- ask a pro downhiller, spds are better for control in general.

But, hmm, how to phrase it. If you need SPDs because skills deficiencies that stop you from using flats- ie “my feet come off” or “I can’t bunnyhop with flats”, that sort of thing- then those issues don’t go away just because you’re using SPDs- you’re really just papering over the cracks. But it’s almost certain that you’re still getting ill effects, because you’re not moving well with the bike, you’re working against it.

So, even if you stick with SPDs it’s really useful to have the skills needed for flats. Loads of people on SPDs already have these, they’re not flat specific, the only difference is that you can get away without them on SPDs- you get killed if you don’t have them on flats.

So if you think “I can’t ride on flats”, you’d probably benefit from learning, and then even if you prefer SPDs afterwards transferring those skills back to your spds

Used both mainly SPDs up until last week. Did the 2014 Scottish Open Enduro on SPDs. A friend of a friend we were riding with noted after we’d finished “You were clipped in? You nutter!”. It helped on the transition stages but I think flats would have been better on the downs for me. General mix at the Enduro, didn’t seem like there was a definite preference for flats or SPDs.

Last week went for a night ride at Glentress, snowy/icy in places so put on my recently purchased flats and it was a bit of an eye-opener! Had a lot of fun cornering and generally bombing around. Fitness wise, I noticed no difference on climbs. Think I will stick on flats, then go back to SPDs in the summer.
Though I’ve found I like being able to shift my foot on the pedal, something SPDs don’t seem to allow

Anybody mentioning DH Racers is forgetting Sam Hill.

Sure some have switched over but thats probably the nature of some of these courses.

At the end of the day ride what your comfortable in.

Yep, and Martin Maes raced the first year of EWS on flats with dual ply DH tyres & still smoked the majority of the field.

You don’t have to ride flats, or clips to be the fastest rider in the world. They are both as good as each other.

Both.

I like flats for techy stuffy and winter when sliding about is a lot more likely – plus my flat shoes are warmer then my spd shoes.

On a trail I know well I’m definitely faster on SPD’s though.

Anybody mentioning DH Racers is forgetting Sam Hill.

Sure some have switched over but thats probably the nature of some of these courses.

At the end of the day ride what your comfortable in.

Imagine how fast he would go if he was on clips 😉

Joking aside, I think at the top level it probably makes a difference. How much? A small amount, but probably worth it at the top level of racing. 95%+ of riders are on them and for a reason.

For the vast majority though I doubt it makes any measurable difference at all for speed. Much like carbon, slightly bigger wheels or fluro clothing.

Apparently clips help you lay down more power through the rough or get very light across off-camber nasties. However, as Neko showed last year it’s often more mindset than pedalling power that gets you good results in DH.

If you find pedalling in clips much easier, are you wearing decent stiff shoes on flats? Bendy shoes are never good for pedalling!

joefm – Member

Anybody mentioning DH Racers is forgetting Sam Hill.

Nope, nobody’s saying “downhill racers use spds”- just saying it’s wrong to think it’s just about a bit of pedalling efficiency.

Flats, mostly because I always have – I’ve toyed with the idea of trying clipped, but two things stop me – I’m too tight to drop £100 or more on shoes and pedals for an ‘idea’ and I mistakenly think the odd ‘Rossi Rudder’ helps cornering or looks cool.

On a hardtail it’s definitely easier pedalling over rough stuff clipped in unless I’m doing something very wrong technique wise which, incidentally, I would appreciate pointing out. I have more balls in the wet mud when wearing flats though, simply because it’s easier to bail. I am a pansy though.

😡 edit just read the title so in true stw style my post is not relevant.

Time clips.

Tom_W1987 – Member
Flats because they don’t shit up your knees

Bollocks 😉

there is a lot of misconception and BS from both camps….

ride what you like but don’t guess what the other is like

clipless for me. Flats, after 15+ years, feel scary. Disconnected from my bike.

Who here rests their hand flat on the bars with fingers outstretched and who curls their fingers around the bar?

Flats.

Gave clips a go, didn’t do anything for me. To used to having pedal axle under my arch, not my ball, couldn’t get cleats far enough back, could not use my legs to soak stuff up like i was used to, messed up jumping, weight simply wasn’t where it should be.

SPDs feel disconnected from the bike too, i personally rely heavily on sensations through my feet to asses weight distribution and what’s going on underneath me, my feel feel cupped with flats too. SPDs just felt disconnected.

Still strongly believe SPDs do nothing for efficiency for being SPDs, it’s more the stiffness of the set-up people are experiencing as efficient.

The idea of attaching my feet to the bike by anything other than gravity and awesome technique frightens me. I wouldn’t wish for my hands to velcro’d to the bars either for that matter. Flats. Always and forever.