A hip problem meant I had to go flat pedals after 25+ years on spds . I really like flats now and agree with most of what has been said . Five tens are a lot better than anything else that I’ve tried . The one thing that hasn’t been mentioned is that flat pedals are physically a lot wider than spds so be prepared for pedal strikes particularly if , like me you ride in an area with lots of ruts .

OP I’m in your same situation, only difference is that I’m a noob in trail riding. I’ve moved to flats to learn proper technique as you can’t cheat with flats.

Had my first off road ride in flat pedals today after 20+ years using clipless.

It was muddy and wet, but I enjoyed it very much, only once on a steep uphill section I tried to pull and my feet went off the pedal. Oh, and still tried to unclip a few times when stopping. Somehow I feel more connected to the bike on flats than on clipless.
I’d say just take it easy on the first rides.

I was wearing football shin pads to be on the safe side until I get proper cycling pads.

Also did my first technique training session after the ride trying to learn how to manual, something I’d never try on clipless.

The key is to get good pedals and shoes.

PD: If someone ever makes raincovers specific for flat pedal shoes, they will make tons of money

I’ve been ridden SPD for ever minus a day and a half. Except during my flats experiments. Back on SPD again currently and getting quite annoyed with one of my pairs of shoes where the cleats are too far forward. And I’m preferring the feeling of flats where the whole width of my foot is rooted to the pedal rather than just the central area.

In addition to above tips I’d add ride everyday.

Hmm… what to expect…

An overwhelming sense of superiority and effortless cool over those who have to be physically attached to their bikes to get both wheels off the ground ride clipped in 😀

(Wellgo V8s and Vans here!)

Probably it’s technique/situation/bike dependent, as I can’t think f any time I’ve had my feet bounced off my pedals while using flat pedals and 5:10 shoes, I did at first when riding in flats and with close tread waffle soled trainer trainers, but not with 5:10s.

Possibly on a hard tail I might be more likely to be standing up a tiny bit over any ground where a foot could be bounced off, so that my weight stops that from happening.

I learnt how to bunny hop while using flat pedals and some (nos Airwalk trains recently with squashy soles, and it’s about pushing back with your feet and moving/pulling upwards on the bars.

IIRC, Steve Pete has written about how he will either use flats or SPD’s depending on where he’s riding, and has written about using his SPD’s to lift up his bike ovr rocks (IIRC) – so I dunno about flats being cooler. 😉

When I started riding in the Hampshire Alps (Lordswood) I had loads of silly crashes often caused by not being able to clip out in time if a wheel slipped on one of the occasional roots, or not being able to get clipped back in after avoiding the aforementioned root.
Previously had 20 years on clip less pedals (big hand grenade style DX back in the day then Time for the bulk of it) but moved to flat’s with 5.10 shoes. (Currently Straitline on one bike, Superstar Nano on another)
Took maybe a few weeks to get used to it all of the time but now I just don’t notice. I’ve happily done 100km forest track bashing rides as well as Enduro races etc…
Had one or two shin gouging incidents but no more.
I was taught both heels down when doing a skills course & now I’m used to it I reckon it gives more control & I don’t find the need to scoop the rear wheel as I use my weight shift to allow the back wheel up when needed. It makes sense when you try it properly.

I had been using SPDs since 95 up until a couple of months back. I was fairly happy on spds in terms of riding but was getting really bad foot pain (even with the larger cage type spds) so borrowed some flats to see if that helped and had no pain at all.
The 1st ride was mixed as I had a couple of moments where my feet came off the pedals as I was still trying to pull up to get over obstacles but loved the feeling in corners. I stuck with it to avoid getting the foot pain again and have worked on my technique a bit and now love riding flats especially now the weather has turned as I am a lot more comfortable with the bike sliding, before I’d have been looking to get a foot unclipped now I know I can dab if I need to.
I would definitely get the best shoes you can afford as the difference in grip between the trainers I used when trialling them and the 5:10s is huge.

I am a lot more comfortable with the bike sliding, before I’d have been looking to get a foot unclipped now I know I can dab if I need to.

Probably the key point here, if you are comfortable getting in and out of SPD’s then that part of it doesn’t really come into play. (a year racing DH on HT’s on small pedals and XC shoes kind of sorted that one out for me)

If you do the technique stuff right in clips you can do all the same stuff, just need to think a little more – then when you’re knackered and don’t want to think you can fall back on the clips. Win Win.

Has someone really linked to bikejames.com on that previous page? One of the most notorious cycling quacks on the internet? People were linking to him in around 2003 on here and his research wasn’t credible then.

As for the OP, you might like them, you might not. I run flats occasionally, for example in the Alps or for street and park riding, not that I do much of it anymore. I definitely don’t like them as much as SPDs, by a long way. If you like them, great, but if you don’t then you don’t have to feel pressured by the cool kids to stick with them. It’s no slur against your skills to use clips.

Theres a very good reason every XC pro rides clipped in.

Christ, not this again….. I suspect the OP isn’t planning on being a ‘XC pro’ any time soon…

I went to flats not to improve my technique, not to appear cool….

But because after 12 hours of the puffer my knee was in bits (since had an op on it, so it might be okay now!) and also because I was fed up off my feet being blocks of ice, and despite spending a small fortune on various winter spd boots/shoes, they all had the same fundamental flaw. A big damn brass heat sucker on the bottom.

Has someone really linked to bikejames.com on that previous page? One of the most notorious cycling quacks on the internet? People were linking to him in around 2003 on here and his research wasn’t credible then.

I don’t why people hate him so much. For me nothing has improved my riding more than his advice and programs. The stuff he says is interesting actually works and he backs it up with studies.

dmck16 – Member
You can angle your pedals in a sort of cradle, with your leading foot toe-up and your rear foot toe-down. This allows you to push against each pedal for either a little extra security or to move the bike with your feet. If that makes sense?

jairaj – Member
Thats not the technique that I was taught or found it works for me. Both heels down is what I use

Try scooping your back wheel up with dropped heels…

You only rock your back toe down to lift the back wheel up. Heels down the rest of the time to keep planted going through rough stuff.

blackmountainsrider – Member

I wouldn’t bother. It’s a myth that flats give you a better technique. It’s just a different technique.

Well. It’s not that simple is it? The key techniques that make flats work are also valuable for spds. The difference is, flats make you develop those techniques or you’ll crash your brains out, SPDs don’t. It’s totally possible to learn the exact same techniques on SPDs which is why some people try flats and find it’s just easy, whereas others find it a challenge.

Ironically, if you jump on flats and it feels horrible, you probably have more to gain from sticking with it. When it comes right down to it it’s all just “moving with the bike” and that’s valuable regardless of pedals.

I went to flats after many years clipless to, was the best thing I did when I moved sooth to the Lakes. Riding on my own clipped in – and usually at very quiet times on the trails – I was finding The Fear seeping in on anything technical. My ability to ride went out the window and I started mincing or walking bits that really weren’t that hard.

Switched to flats and everything was good in the world again 🙂

Sounds like a lot of people never got to grips with clips. It never crosses my mind that I might not get out of the clips if I needed to. On the bales and crashes I’ve had getting out of my bike has never been a problem. I can get out instantly without even thinking. But ultimately it doesn’t matter – whatever works for you. I feel more confident and secure clipped in, but that’s just me. I’m conscious of proper technique and employ it to the best of my ability – I don’t need the additional motivation of knowing that if I don’t employ proper technique it’s going to end up with a crash or scraped and bloodied shins, and if the answer is to wear more pads, then I’m not interested. The proper technique works so benefits riders whatever pedals they’re using.

But it’s all good, ride whatever makes you feel better. If it feels better, it is better.

@paton, yes, i agree, not really feasible to pull up at any sensible cadence. Only really works when climbing something horrifically steep and cadence has bogged right down.

If you are pulling up with your trail leg are surely you cannot be pushing down as hard with you lead leg.

Christ, not this again….. I suspect the OP isn’t planning on being a ‘XC pro’ any time soon…

That wasn’t really the point. I was just objecting to @idiotdogbrain being an idiotdogbrain……

The point was that if the OP has a nice smooth round pedalling style he may find it irritating having his unweighted foot come off all the time.
And since the topic is titled “what to expect”, it seems quite logical it should be mentioned.

If you are pulling up with your trail leg are surely you cannot be pushing down as hard with you lead leg.

Don’t know the answer to that – you’d need to ask someone into biomechanics or something I guess. It seems to work, although as I say, not something that gets used very often.

I’ve just done this in the last two weeks. Been riding properly for 17 years. Learnt to ride trials and dirt on flats for the first few years then went to clips for xc and ‘enduro’ I still hit relatively large doubles, drop offs etc clipped in.I thought I would never entertain flats on an mtb for general riding. However I tried them just for a laugh last week. Now I have a set of 510s and am hooning around even more sideways before. Tried them on the hardtail at woburn sands and hit nearly all but the longest of doubles.

What I found was on the slash hitting big bumps the suspension would deal with it better and my weight stays rearward. On the ht ( a genesis latitude) big bumps and drops I had to concentrate a bit more to really shift my weight and drop my heels as I felt at high speeds I was going more over the bars as my feet lifted a bit.

One main benefit is that I’m finding myself faster into corners and through them. I was never the type to unclip and motocross style it through corners. I still keep my feet planted even when both wheels are sliding. However in my head I feel a tiny bit more confident that I could be able to dab and therefore I’m committing more initially into them.

Hope that helps.

The point was that if the OP has a nice smooth round pedalling style he may find it irritating having his unweighted foot come off all the time.
And since the topic is titled “what to expect”, it seems quite logical it should be mentioned.

I don’t understand why your/his foot is/would be coming off all the time. If you cannot spin your pedals round without your feet being strapped to them that indicates bad pedaling technique.

I don’t understand why your/his foot is/would be coming off all the time. If you cannot spin your pedals round without your feet being strapped to them that indicates bad pedaling 
technique.

I found my front foot would lift of the forward pedal, this would happen if the rear wheel got hung up a bit on steep tecnical climbs when my cadence dropped. With spd’s I could just pull my rear pedal through. Over time maybe I would have adapted to this, but for me I thought why bother, get the spd’s back on and be happy 😀

If you cannot spin your pedals round without your feet being strapped to them that indicates bad pedaling technique.

Care to explain?
It seems perfectly normal that the foot that’s unweighted comes off the pedal very easily, particularly noticeable around 8-10pm as there should be virtually no pressure on the pedal there, and at around 12pm as you want to start applying power over the top.
If this wasn’t the case, then do you care to explain exactly why toe clips and then clipless systems were invented in the first place?

Yup, I definitely found that- on high power pedalling I didn’t have an issue but in steadier pedalling there’s very little weight on the foot at some points. (and the less, the better) I can sustain a nice effortless spin on flats but it takes more thought and at best it probably isn’t quite as effective as I was with spds. But in practice, I don’t really try, because it’s a hassle, whereas with spds it’s effortless.

I think people visualise/rationalise pedalling in different ways and there’s a bit of a tendancy to oversimplify (like obsessing with pulling up, frinstance, or obsession with dabbing) Bottom line is it’s a good idea to get good at both then decide which one you like.

i made this change (yonks ago) and quickly realized that I’d happily trade any speed advantage with SPDs for the extra fun and freedom I felt on singletrack etc.

I went from toeclips to SPDs to flats and I never enjoyed riding more than with flats 🙂

Your trail leg is not moving with your pedal. From you description of what happens when you ride flats You are lifting your foot off the pedal instead of unweighting it and letting the drive from you lead leg return it to the top of the stroke. That would suggest that when clipped in you are pulling up on the back stroke which has been shown to be very inefficent.

That is not what the pros do. they unweight instead of pulling up.

Late to the party (as ever) but although I always reckoned that I could get a foot out of an spd pedal fast enough for a saving dab on slow, techy stuff, I realised that after trying flats for a few months I could do it a lot faster with flats and also, equally as importantly, get a foot back on the pedal instantly.
Also, I could just jump off the bike if things turned to shit.
The rockier and more potentially damaging the riding, the more I noticed the advantage. Whether it’s just a psychological thing or not I can’t say

There has to a reason that 99% of those alpine “Vertriding” guys use flats, with the possible exception of Tobi Leonhardt – presumably because with the sort of exposure they experience a fraction of a second could be the difference between life or death?

Late to the party (as ever) but although I always reckoned that I could get a foot out of an spd pedal fast enough for a saving dab on slow, techy stuff, I realised that after trying flats for a few months I could do it a lot faster with flats and also, equally as importantly, get a foot back on the pedal instantly.

This is my motivation for trying flats. I am too timid on tight steep, loose corners and would like to have the mental safety blanket of being able to dab quickly. This could be complete bllx, but worth trying I guess.

Your trail leg is not moving with your pedal. From you description of what happens when you ride flats You are lifting your foot off the pedal instead of unweighting it and letting the drive from you lead leg return it to the top of the stroke. That would suggest that when clipped in you are pulling up on the back stroke which has been shown to be very inefficent.
That is not what the pros do. they unweight instead of pulling up.

Exactly, and the very reason I use flats on my 34/18 SS hack; 120rpm on the road in flats soon showed up the lack of smoothness in my pedal stroke and helped me correct it. Second nature now, just like riding clipped in used to be.

At the end of the day, if there’s any weaknesses in your pedalling and weighting technique, flats will show them up. If you fix them, the fix will transfer back to SPDs. If you choose not to fix them, that’s up to you! It’s all just grown adults arguing about pushbikes after all.. 😉

Pulling up on the pedals can, sometimes, be counterproductive

http://www.over40cyclist.com/correct-pedalling-technique-part-2/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/recreational-cycling/10840824/How-to-cycle-with-the-technique-of-a-pro.html

If the itch needs scratching what are the best 5:10s for this time of year/all-year riding

Shimano AM41/AM7

The rockier and more potentially damaging the riding, the more I noticed the advantage. Whether it’s just a psychological thing or not I can’t say

Hugely psychological, there was an old pink bike on the topic which went along the lines that being able to throw a foot out easily made you rely on it more, being clipped meant you committed harder – the point comes where the dab etc. is there to compensate for something going wrong, if you know it’s there you don’t have to try as hard to corner/clean a section properly.

That said with the right pedal/shoe combo I’m happy to get out before I’ve finished thinking about it, there is a local trail section where if you get the launch wrong you’re heading too close to the bank, on a few occasions I’ve found myself dabbing about knee height to correct then straight back on the pedals and clipped.

Also on pedals, the CB system lets you clip forwards, backwards and if you time it right straight down, most of the time once I’ve connected with the pedal (mallet) it’s a case of nudge forward or back a little and I’m locked in.

teamhurtmore – Member

If the itch needs scratching what are the best 5:10s for this time of year/all-year riding

Freerider Elements I think. It’s not a great winter show tbh but most Five Tens are terrible winter shoes, the Element is OK

I know it is entirely psychological for me, but to be honest I don’t really care! The added confidence is what I was looking for – after years on SPDs I was happy enough with being able to unclip without thinking about it, but there is always that odd occasion when it goes a bit wrong and doesn’t release (very occasional granted!).

Most the problems I have riding stuff are in my head, anything that helps alleviate those is a good thing 🙂

I was a trials rider for many years, where the aim is to clean everything, so I don’t think I suffer from “comfort dabbing” too much – however, there are times that with the best will in the world a dab, or even just stepping off, will save you from potential serious injury.
It’s those moments that I’ve come to appreciste flats.

As someone mentioned previously, getting back on the pedal is a big benefit of flats over clips too. I had it fairly often in the past where I’d come unclipped and then I’m concentrating on trying to clip back rather than paying attention to the trail. Still see it occasionally when following other riders, so it wasn’t just me.

Ultimately though I wouldn’t have switched if it wasn’t for the pain so I was quite content with clips. If you’re curious then give it a go, it probably won’t be as different as you might expect and the bits that are can be easily sorted.

Just give it a try to see if you like it, and if you’ve enough money to spend out on spensive pedals and special shoes do that too if it floats yer boat.. I seem to ride in an old pair of NB trainers most of the time at the moment, completely unhindered by their lack of MTB marketing

I learnt to ride when I was a kid and had never considered the thought of attaching myself to my bike in any way, I was always taught to kick the bike away from me in the event of a crash to minimise injury..
But after a lot of time hanging out with modern MTBers I noticed the prevalence of SPDs so I gave it a try for a few months..

Not for me I’m afraid.. I can see how SPDs could offer some advantages in the skills department to the inexperienced bike handler, but my style is fast and loose not do or die

Yunki, do you consider the likes of minnar, Steve peat and cedric gracia ‘inexperienced’ riders?

predictable..

No mate.. I just prefer flats cos that’s what I’m used to after 40 years of riding them..
I suppose if you’re a very skilled rider and looking for a few extra 10ths of a second here or there SPDs could maybe provide an advantage, although whether it’s psychological or real at that level it would be hard to know… maybe it’s just part of their sponsorship deal to market weird, expensive ‘must have’ gadgets?

like I said.. for me it’s fast and loose not do or die

What was predictable? Someone pointing out you made a false statement about clipped riders being inexperienced?

I should add I think everyone should just ride what they like most. And if being clipped in makes you nervous on technical terrain or jumps etc it’s clearly going to hold you back.

I think that there is a misconceptions though that using the fact you are clipped in to move your bike around is a bad technique. I’d say it’s just different. I can definitely do bunny hops for instance, with flats, but it’s just easier for me when im clipped in.