Clipless pedals. The Hilarity!

To pull on the upstroke with flats you angle your foot downward slightly and 'push back' into the pedal.

One negative point I've noticed is that trying to clip in when pulling away is a pain in the arse. It was much easier and safer with flatties.

I'm already making sure I read ahead the traffic more with SPD's though, and don't be an ass and go through red lights etc, just because it inconviences me (Rules of the road and all that).

I have always used SPD's since they first came out. I DH, XC, FR, everything in them, wouldn't ride without them. I had them setup professionally along with seat hight, reach etc and never had an issue. I feel I have much more control over the bike. I have mine done up as tight as possible. Never had a crash due to SPD's either apart from 1 or 2 when I first rode them in the very early 90's.

My partner who I got in to MTB'ing, I also got on to SPD's about 2 months after her first MTB ride, been almost 3 years now and she hates riding flats

So basically... personal taste.

When you say never had a crash due to SPD's.. have you had a crash possibly made worse because you remained clipped in?

Scougar":3gv3q3fe said:

One negative point I've noticed is that trying to clip in when pulling away is a pain in the arse. It was much easier and safer with flatties.

I'm already making sure I read ahead the traffic more with SPD's though, and don't be an ass and go through red lights etc, just because it inconviences me (Rules of the road and all that).

Click to expand...

i stop at lights, usually i don't clip back in straight away, i'll get back into my stride then click the shoe back in,
once you get used to wearing them, you will know the exact position your foot needs to be to click in

Scougar":1cd8egr3 said:

So basically... personal taste.

When you say never had a crash due to SPD's.. have you had a crash possibly made worse because you remained clipped in?

Click to expand...

I wouldn't say no to be honest. Unclipping for me is like driving a manual car, I don't think about it, just comes naturally. I don't think about clipping in and out anymore. I actually don't feel comfortable riding flats anymore.

I prefer flats off road for no other reason then the ease of being able to drop a foot quickly to save you from a nasty bout of 'sack ache' if things go wrong!

on the road I like a smaller pedal with toeclips rather than spd's but I have only tried them once. my problem is with dodgy knees's and flat feet I need to slightly shift foot position pretty frequently to stop aches & pains setting in after 1 or 2 miles.

Got round to putting My new Shimano M520's on my Carerra yesterday afternoon. Went for a 7 mile ride with the Spds and my new Muddy fox shoes earlier this afternoon and apart from 1 minor fall which was due to a balance issue I had no major issues clipping and unclipping.

I find that with flats my shoes grips the pedal meaing my foot stays in the same place/angle etc. through out the rotation of the pedals. Because SPDs have float your feet can twist as and when required throughout the pedal rotation. Aslong as the SPDs are set up correctly it should, in my opinion, be better for your knees. With SPD's I allways check I can twist my feet in either direction as I ride to make sure I'm in the middle of the float and so allowing my knees to move as they want to throughout the pedal rotation.

Can't say SPD's have ever given me knee problems and I have had knee operations on 1 knee and smashed the knee cap on the other. I think seat height has more to do wiht it. If I have my seat to high or to low I have leg and knee issues.
Having some float is good, means you can hang a leg or knee out when cornering.
I still remember the last time I crashed, was barrelling through a field flatout doing about 35kmh, grass was all flat, next thing my front wheel dipped out from underneith me, I somehow managed to unclip, get both feet over the handlebars and I landed running flat out before falling and rolling The grass had grown level and I couldn't see the huge hole in the ground. But i still managed to unclip from my SPD's easily enough.