My son has decided he wants to train on a road bike instead of a mountain bike, he is only 14 and never been on a proper road bike but he has been given a nice carbon Merida for free from a friend so he can explore the change to road bike. However he is not keen on being clipped in to start with and wants flats till he is used to the bike. So what flat pedal for a nice carbon road bike that doesn’t look ridiculous, I put a set of V12 on and he said “they look stupid I cant go out with them on it”

Cheers.

They’re all going to look a bit amateurish but who cares? I put some V12s on the Mrs’ road bike as they’re the industry standard decent cheap grippy pedal! They look fine, no-ones ever said anything 😀

Maybe a spd combi pedal?

 “they look stupid I cant go out with them on it”

So what? Either shave your legs and clip in or crack on. No one cares what your pedals look like.

That what I was going to say I use these on my road / gravel bikes if he wants to go Clipless later he can. Planet X do a cheaper version.

Link

I did look at hybrid pedals but the bike came with a nice set of Look pedals (don’t know which model) so that would have been the progression, shoes and cleats to fit the Look.
I’ll just have to convince him that the V12 look fine and the quicker he gets used to the bike the quicker he can get clipped in.

“So what? Either shave your legs and clip in or crack on. No one cares what your pedals look like”

He’s only 14 so not much hair on the legs to shave.

KCNC do some lightweight road bike flat pedals. Smaller platform than MTB pedals so you’d probably want a stiffer shoe, but you’d probably want that anyway if doing any sort of hours on the road

He appears to want the moon on a stick. Twice.

Just tell him to gtfo with it and stop worrying about what other people think.

Use whatever you have, anyone looks amateur on a road bike if they’re not clipped in (not a criticism). He’ll find out in a few rides if he either doesn’t like the road bike or is comfortable and wants to move to clips.

Who notices once your feet are on ’em anyway?

I use OneUp composite on my gravel bike, they’re reasonably low profile so dont look too chunky, and they’re (fairly) cheap and light.

OneUp alloy (same as my mtb) on mine it’s a big platform but slim I think they look good so maybe any slim pedal.

Old school Crank Bros 5050s, FTW

Doesn’t compute – if he’s training then must be a fairly competent mountain biker…

It’s a road bike man up (even if not through puberty yet) and get on with it with clipless

I use flat pedals on my commuter/road/gravel bike. Just used some cheap welgos, do the job. TBF I also wear my peaked MTB helmet and baggies.

Appreciate he’s a 14 year old boy so worried about it looking right. But once feet are on the pedals no one will know.

Is he also getting lycra and a road helmet?

Set the bike up on a turbo and let the lad get used to clipping in and out on a stationary bike. This is what I did with both of mine and now a few years down the road, both say it’s the single best thing I did for their riding.
PM me his shoe size and I’ll send you some shoes.
Edit: Forgot to mention, use double sided spd MTB pedal and cleats. The lad is now on SPD sl but my daughter can’t be bothered as she’s much more into her off road.

Does he use spds on his mountain bike? If so, just swap the pedals he’s got on that bike for him to try…

Clipless is a lot more intimidating when mountain biking compared to straightforward road biking…

“ Clipless is a lot more intimidating when mountain biking compared to straightforward road biking…”

I’ve never used clipless or ridden road bikes apart from two occasions where both happened at once – and indeed, it was fine clipping in. It’s not like trying to get a foot out when you’ve just hit an off camber root that’s trying to take you down, plenty of time to think about it on the road.

If he’s worried about what the pedals look like, he’s going to be mortified when he learns what must of the world seem to think of people on road bikes.

I used v12s for a bit, they really got on my nerves, my feet would bounce about all over the place on rough roads. Wasn’t long before I stuck some MTB SPDs on.

Imo it’s good if they’re a bit smaller, I almost highsided myself into space when I had my horizon comps on the cross bike, touched the pedal down on a roundabout… I mostly used Nukeproof ELectrons, I don’t like ’em at all for mountain biking but they’re that bit smaller

For me it was just that I like jumping on my bikes and riding them without having to go and get funny shoes.

I used v12s for a bit, they really got on my nerves, my feet would bounce about all over the place on rough roads.

🤣

That condescending laugh emoji is an example of why the rest of the world hates cyclists. You know that, right? 😉

I can happily smash through rock gardens, haven’t lost a pedal in years, but most of my weight on my scrawny arse on drop bars, trying to spin smooth circles on rural roads, and for some reason my feet were all over the shop.

Starting out on clipless with road SPDs isn’t that easy but MTB SPDs are far easier to use. PD-M520s with light cleat tension could be good.

It’s not like trying to get a foot out when you’ve just hit an off camber root that’s trying to take you down, plenty of time to think about it on the road.

I’d say you have a lot more chance to react or recover it on the MTB off-road. On the road bike you can go from mid corner to sliding on the tarmac in an instant and you have pretty much zero chance to correct it. So you may as well clip in, flats won’t save you.

I almost highsided myself into space when I had my horizon comps on the cross bike,

Road bikes with MTB flats have pretty low lean angle or pedal clearances, it’s a valid point.

most of my weight on my scrawny arse on drop bars,

You should have more weight on your bars. Slam your stem.

😉

Oh yeah, definitely go for metal pedals, not nylon!

Metal pedals make sparks and big pedestrian scaring noises.

Nylon pedals dig into the road and launch you skywards scaring the shit out of anyone who might be following you.

Nylon Nukeproof Neutrons here on mine… i’m riding the Gent Wevelgem next weekend in MTB shorts, top, helmet and the above pedals 🙂 I don’t own any roadie kit.

“I’d say you have a lot more chance to react or recover it on the MTB off-road. On the road bike you can go from mid corner to sliding on the tarmac in an instant and you have pretty much zero chance to correct it. So you may as well clip in, flats won’t save you.”

I should have clarified that on MTB rides I expect to frequently be on the limit of grip and (especially in the winter) to often save myself from binning it with a quick dab. I presume this kind of behaviour is not so normal on road bikes, because tarmac grips so hard right until you crash?

I leave a big margin of grip on road corners when commuting on my MTBs or Brompton!

Lovely reading all the mtfu comments on this thread. How about letting the lad feel how he wants at 14?

I’d suggest something low profile like the one up composites. Or depending how big his feet are, look at ones with different platform sizes like the crank bros stamps?

I did a 90% road ride on my ‘gravel’ bike on Saturday with wide Superstar flat pedals, pedal axle extenders (dodgy legs and narrow Q factor cranks), BAGGY SHORTS and a camelbak. Surprised I made it home without being killed.

Any. Literally any pedals are fine for this. He can take as long as he likes to get used to the bike, the pedals don’t matter.

Lovely reading all the mtfu comments on this thread. How about letting the lad feel how he wants at 14?

yes, bless the wee snowflake with his carbon road bike & goldilocks pedal dilemma; at 14 I was still wearing hand-me-downs and getting around on some ancient Raleigh 3-speed thing from a charity shop, kids today etc etc 🤣

amazon link

My 15yo has these on his road bike, look in keeping with road bike styling, unavailable on that link so not super helpful info!

Let him wear his big daft MTB pedals on his road bike with pride. Who cares? These are what mine have on, because they were the first thing that came to hand when I got the road bike. I wear baggy shorts, a peaked helmet and a Camelback too, just to annoy the purists 😀

I had some DMR V6’s but thought they would would look stupid huge on a road bike, so I got some cheapies from Halfords and they’re perfect.

Like these but with a metal cage round the edge (don’t seem to be listed on the website).

One day I’ll get Shimano PD-EH500 or something to try clipless but these are fine for now.

I’ve not tried them, but you can get pedal plates to fit SPD-SL pedals. Might be the sort of thing he’s looking for?

I have a pair of vaults on my road(ish) bike. Mostly hidden by shoes anyway once moving and the hardcore roadies would be to busy laughing at the camelbak to notice them anyway.