Clipless, toe cages, or flats?

Marc · Mar 17, 2006

Well to further some discussion in our new forum- what kind of pedals do you prefer to ride with? It will depend on your riding to some extent, but I'm curious.

I ride clipless both road and mtb. I don't do too much in the way of freestyle/trials or hardcore DH when I'm off road, so I never really find myself wishing I had flats.

Whenver I crash I release as they're designed. Some people that aren't familiar with this concept (obviously not skiers) stay away from clipless because they're afraid they won't release. Well, just as on a ski binding you can adjust release tension on clipless pedals.

djspookman · Mar 17, 2006

clipless on the XC bikes, and platforms on the freeride/jumping bike.

I like to stay in for XC, and "free" when i'm on the freeride bike.

dave

Marc · Mar 17, 2006

Yeah, if I were to ever really get into freeride, I'd have a new rig with flats or I'd put the hybrid flats w/ clipless on my XC bike.

I don't know if I have the cajones for some of the freeride stuff I've seen though.

djspookman · Mar 17, 2006

Marc said:
I don't know if I have the cajones for some of the freeride stuff I've seen though.

The key is to start small and carry speed!

dave

andyzee · Mar 17, 2006

Clipless on the road bike, cages on the hybrid, only cause I don't want to spend the bucks and it's sort of a kick around bike. I still remember when I started with clipless, that was funny and painful at the same time. If anyone remembers Artie Johnson from the old Laugh In days, well that was me my first year on clipless. I had trouble getting used to them and there were times where I stopped, couldn't get my feet loose and fell over on my side

. Other times, I would just try and pull my foot up and out instead of twisting, I was successfull, but killed my knees that season. Wouldn't want to ride the road bike without them now.

skibum1321 · Mar 17, 2006

I ride clipless on the mountain and road bike. Right now I'm actually in the market for new road pedals and shoes since I'm using the mountain pedals/shoes. I'm looking at the Pearl Izumi Vortex shoe and some Speedplay pedals. For road, do you prefer Speedplay or Look style pedals? I'm trying to make the decision now - leaning more towards Speedplay.

Charlie Schuessler · Mar 19, 2006

I use Speedplay X-Series pedals on my road bicycle and the Speedplay Frog Series on my MTB and errand bike...

Bumpsis · Mar 20, 2006

Speedplay Frogs on my "fast" road bike. At the time I was getting into the clipless systems that was the only pedal with a 20 degree float. One of my knees needs that (old crash injury).

I use cages on my all my other bikes: mountain, touring, cross and another road bike I used for commuting. I have too many bikes but I have a hard time parting with them.

I find that cages work just fine except where speed matters, so for club rides and training it's my beloved Speedplays.

skibum1321 · Mar 20, 2006

Bumpsis said:
Speedplay Frogs on my "fast" road bike. At the time I was getting into the clipless systems that was the only pedal with a 20 degree float. One of my knees needs that (old crash injury).

I use cages on my all my other bikes: mountain, touring, cross and another road bike I used for commuting. I have too many bikes but I have a hard time parting with them.

I find that cages work just fine except where speed matters, so for club rides and training it's my beloved Speedplays.

I feel safer when I'm mountain biking with my clipless pedals. I think it is much easier to get in and out of clipless pedals than cages. And also my foot slips off less, thus leading me to bang my shin on the pedals less.

skibum9995 · Mar 20, 2006

Clipless. I have the eggbeaters and I wouldn't use anything else. Easy to get in and out of and they don't collect any mud.

marcski · Mar 20, 2006

skibum1321 said:
I feel safer when I'm mountain biking with my clipless pedals. I think it is much easier to get in and out of clipless pedals than cages. And also my foot slips off less, thus leading me to bang my shin on the pedals less.

I agree. 2 weeks ago, my pedals got iced up (there was a few inches on the ground) and i was frozen out of them. After using clipless for so long now, I feel so much more solid with them. Every time i hit a rock or rode over a log, I lost my footing and was doing spread eagles, holding onto the handlebars for life.

Plus once you're used to them, they're so much easier to get into on the fly.

Marc · Mar 20, 2006

marcski said:
I agree. 2 weeks ago, my pedals got iced up (there was a few inches on the ground) and i was frozen out of them. After using clipless for so long now, I feel so much more solid with them. Every time i hit a rock or rode over a log, I lost my footing and was doing spread eagles, holding onto the handlebars for life.

Plus once you're used to them, they're so much easier to get into on the fly.

Yeah, it's really amazing how many people don't know what the tension adjustment is for. I think a lot of people would be more comfortable with them if their tension weren't either sky high or so lose they pop out all the time.

ga2ski · Mar 21, 2006

Clipless. I only ride XC

gladerunner · Mar 21, 2006

flats all the time. use crank bros 50/50 xx. best flats on market, bar none.

cbcbd · Apr 25, 2006

Clipless for both road and mtb. I used to have cages for the road and tried once on a friend's mtb - I cannot stand cages - they are a pain to get into and scary to get out of in a hurry.
Flats are ok, but I feel much more safer and agile when clipped in to my mtb.

Marc said:
Yeah, if I were to ever really get into freeride, I'd have a new rig with flats or I'd put the hybrid flats w/ clipless on my XC bike.

I used to have the Shimano M424 hybrid pedals - I thought that the hybrid part of it was useless. The clip still has to clear the pedal around it, so even if you ride the bike with regular shoes your foot still pivots in the center. Granted, you can still feel extra grip on the ends because of the added pedal around, but if I was to use the bike for more than a mellow 10 minute ride down the street I'd just put on my bike shoes and clip in.

Basically, don't expect to use the hybrid pedal hard with regular shoes. If I wanted to once in a while use my bike for casual use and not have to walk around in stiff shoes I'd just buy a less stiff, more casual shoe and take a ride down to DQ

Doro · Apr 26, 2006

I'm w/ djspookman....flats if I specifically going to freeride (Lynn woods etc) If I'm in the fells I will still do a few drops but mainly xc so I use clippless but w/ a platform intergrated. I hope to start riding clipped in at Lynn soon but goddamn do some those drops and rollers send chills down my spine!:-o

bvibert · Apr 26, 2006

I have flats here for now. I'm thinking of switching to a combo pedal though...

freeheelwilly · Apr 26, 2006

Doro said:
I'm w/ djspookman....flats if I specifically going to freeride (Lynn woods etc) If I'm in the fells I will still do a few drops but mainly xc so I use clippless but w/ a platform intergrated. I hope to start riding clipped in at Lynn soon but goddamn do some those drops and rollers send chills down my spine!:-o

i've ridden Lynn alot - always locked in. That place rocks but it wouldn't be any less gnarly if I was on flats. Clipless are so easy to get out of - once you get the hang of it.

"Lynn, Lynn the City of Sin, You Never Come Out the Way You Went In"

Clipless, toe cages, or flats?

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