LT hardtail – flats or spd – what do you use?

Interested to know what people ride. Ride flat but sometimes on rocky descent feel like clipping in could help?

SPD’s on my Switchback just because I have done for the past few years. I do keep thinking about going back to flats for a bit though.

Clipped on everything, done right fine for everything

Flats for everything. Can’t find a shoe/pedal combo that doesn’t make my knees hurt.

I just got some new Five Tens which feel like I’ve put suspension on my feet. They have crazy grip and feel so comfortable.

Yup flats. I don’t want to be that guy but if your technique is good you’ll not need clips to keep your feet attached.

Flats. Makes dabbing much easier.

Flats on my Slackline because having to put special shoes on to piss about on a bicycle feels wrong to me. YMMV

Flats, just because.

Been trying spds for the last few rides, but not getting on with them.
Maybe it’s because I’m fairly new to this, but not being able to easily dab is really making me cautiously slow on winding descents.
Also, on steep ups when you suddenly lose momentum, I’ve had a couple of sideways tumbles where you just can’t dab a foot down in time to stop.
Ride spd-sl on the road bike with no issues, but obviously not really comparable to MTB.
Going to go back to flats in the near future, probably some Superstar Nanos.

but not being able to easily dab is really making me cautiously slow on winding descents.

For this the thing when you are clipped is you don’t dab as much, your using it as a crutch in those situations. Commit.

I’ve had a couple of sideways tumbles where you just can’t dab a foot down in time to stop.

With practice unclipping becomes second nature.

There is one section of local trail that sights you the wrong way and you end up mid air closing in on the banked edge, on a few occasions I’ve managed a mud air unclip and dab before landing and pedalling off.

I use SPDs for my usual rides, but flats when I go to the Alps. Just been riding with flats (Specialized) in the Alps for the past 5 days and they were great, really grippy and comfortable.

I always used flats, though not for any LT hardtail related thing, it’s just what I like

SPDs but never used flats, I am very flat curious though

I was reading in one of the other mags recently that spds are the way to go for HTs especially for aggro stuff because you can forget about the foot technique bit and concentrate on the important stuff. Makes sense in a way.

I still struggle with confidence off-road on spds though, despite commuting in road clip less pedals into Birmingham city centre 5 days a week.

Swap between the two depending on season and what I’m doing on the bike. I’ve a pair of Specialized Defrosters for winter so go SPD then. Long ITT/bikepacking stuff in summer is also SPD; tech trails in summer then flats. The latter two cases aren’t fixed in stone, it’s more a case of remembering to change the pedals than anything pro-active.

prawny – Member
I was reading in one of the other mags recently that spds are the way to go for HTs especially for aggro stuff because you can forget about the foot technique bit and concentrate on the important stuff. Makes sense in a way.

That translates to “Use SPDs because ou can have bad foot position and get away with it”

Better to have good foot position, Id have thought

Better to have good foot position, Id have thought

Yes, no and maybe… It’s possible to have the technique but rely on a back up during some moments of stress/technical sections are the correct technique may not help you with the actual problem so being able to shift weight etc and maintain contact is a good thing

Flats on my Slackline because having to put special shoes on to piss about on a bicycle feels wrong to me. YMMV

Ah man, so this.

And stop over-thinking shit and just ride the **** bike 😆

Flat spds – CB mallet DH – same as on my FS

Flats on both bikes. It’s what I’ve ridden for a very, very long time. Having been a massive advocate of SPD’s I swapped to flats when I started mucking about more on jumps etc.

I have dabbled a bit with SPD’s since and don’t feel as confident on them. I found them odd when cornering – when dropping feet etc the float makes them feel odd whereas dropping a foot and putting your weight through it on a flat pedals feels really solid. I also noticed the lack of feedback through me feet as well.

Flats on all my bikes, after 15ish years of riding exclusively on SPDs I bought some to give them a try and now the SPDs only go back on for cranking the miles out locally or on the turbo.

Flats, so i can leap the f*** off when i forget i’m not on my 180mm full bouncer and have just hit something large and pointy at warp9 and expect the bike to be able to ride itself….. 😆

Don’t know about an LT hardtail but I’ve gone to SPDs on my fat bike as it is a bit too bouncy for flat pedals.

I tried flats on my hardtail and felt myself being bounced off all over the place.

SPDs all the way for me. I’ve been toying with flats on my big bike, but the bad influence that I might ride trails with where flats would be worth it for bailoutability is currently off with broken bones, so I’ll wait for now.

New P7 here, ridden on very rocky Pennine trails, and I use £30 plastic Nukeproof flats with Five Tens. Amazing grip and control.

I prefer SPD’s but I became convinced that I was going to get injured because of being clipped in, so I moved totally over to flats on both HT’s and full suss.

Unlike most folks here, it wasn’t on technical sections where I was concerned – I wasn’t able to tell a different between clipped in and flats on techy sessions. It was on boring easy sections, especially if stood still where I was convinced that SPD’s would eventually get me.

Two or three friends had reasonably serious injuries caused by overbalancing when stood on around on a steep slope, waiting for someone, but with one foot clipped in. The fact that they couldn’t get unclipped in meant that when they overbalanced, they had a major tumble.

SPDs but would like try a good set of flat pedals and shoes but the outlay is high enough that I can’t justify just to try.

I don’t seem to get bounced off flat pedals, which either means I’m not hardcore enough, or that I’m doing something to stop it happening like standing up slightly so I’ve more weight through my feet.

I guess on a hardtail it makes sense to stand up a bit, but it could be that I don’t encounter situations where feet-bouncing is going to happen much.

My main reason is that I used to have dodgy knees, and I can need to shift my foot position around on the pedals a little bit every so often to keep them feeling happy.

Flats for everything.

Dabbing is easier, foot out round corners (for show 😉 ), I gave up with SPDs as I seem to pedal strike quite a lot and got borded with my foot hitting the rock rather than the pedal and after continually falling over when knackered after failing to unclip 😳

I ride vaguely technical rocky Peak riding by the way, re thinking about foot bouncing etc…

SPDs for everything.

I think it is just whatever you get used to.

After nearly 20 years on SPDs, I gave flats a try for a recent weeks holiday in mid/north Wales.

Initially found them odd but after a couple of rides had no problem with grip or tecnique. Had a couple of offs that would have been potentially nasty in spds as I was caught out by a section and fell to the side essentially down a steep slope. Just jumped off the bike, fell over and rolled a bit. With spuds it would have been different – or would I have commited to the section more and not come to a halt? hmm.

After the week riding I thought I’d made a good decision to change, but have just gone round locally (Cannock) and felt totally uneasy and wrong with the flats…doh

Anybody want to buy a 100 mile old pair of Vaults? haha.

I regularly swap between Vaults and XT Trails.

flats, for everything from 400 milde tours to riding to work.
oh, and normal baggies cargo shorts and t shirts too.

never understood why people need special clothing to ride a bike, it seems odd to me.

Ton, you’ve never got wet/sweaty in a cotton tee shirt then still been out when the temperature drops or the wind starts blowing? 😕

Cotton in those conditions is horrible.

I don’t wear many cycling specific (expensive) tops, but they are all polyester or whatever other wicking material is available / comfy.

Shorts are generally always good bibs with baggies over the top mind. Can’t be doing with a sore or cold and wet ass.

Flats…but need good shoes. Currently running vaults and adidas cross trail. Brilliant combo IME

Flats for everything apart from XC race bike.

I don’t have an XC race bike
Or race XC

Both, of course.

Clips for XC and fast, rough, rocky style DH.

Flats for proper slippery, steep, rooty stuff.