The age old online debate over clipless vs flat pedals. Should you be clipped in or should you ride flats? This is probably the #2 argument behind wheel sizes so I thought I would weigh in on what I think about each and whether you should be riding clipless vs flat pedals.
Table of Contents
The Origin of the Term Clipless Pedal
Before we get into the clipless vs flat pedals debate, let’s clear the air on one very important fact. If you have not been riding that long, you are probably wondering why clipless are called clipless. Anyone with a brain can tell that you are actually clipping into the pedal. You have a cleat on the bottom of your shoe and that matches up with a pedal that you clip in and out of with the cleat. It seems really straight forward.
This all comes from the beginning of mountain biking. Riders were looking for a way to better secure their feet to the pedals which were generally small platforms. Someone came up with the idea of putting a plastic cage around the toe/front part of your foot to secure it to the pedal. There was usually a strap of some kind that would then tighten the pedal to your foot. The design was horrible. Not only were they hard to get in and out of but if you rode with the toe clip facing down when you missed it on the trail…it could actually be dangerous as your pedal clearance went to zero.
The next innovation to hit the market was an early version of clipless pedals that we have today. The reason they were called “clipless”? We got rid of the “toe clip” in favor of a cleat and the term “clipless pedals” was born. You can still find toe clips packaged with cheap Walmart mountain bikes and commuter bikes but…honestly…those need to be just thrown in the trash immediately.
Clipless vs Flat Pedals – Pro’s and Con’s of Each
Now that we have gotten the history lesson out of the way. Let’s take a look at the clipless vs flat pedals debate objectively look at what they do well and where they fall short. Neither of these two ways of riding a bike are perfect and when you analyze each…it will better tell you which to use when. I will say this…I think all riders should be able to ride both proficiently. I am not a 100% one or the other fanboi. You will see why in the following.
Flat Mountain Biking Pedals
Flats have been making a serious comeback as of late as more manufactures are investing in not only quality flats…but quality shoes designed for flat pedals. It wasn’t that long ago that the shoe choices were basically any skate shoes or a pair of 5.10’s. With more options out there…more riders are seeing the benefits of flats and trying them out for themselves.
As the name suggests, you are riding a flat pedal just like when you first started learning how to ride a bike. The flat pedal usually has pins in that are threaded. You can adjust the height of those pins and they are designed to dig into the shoe to provide grip to keep from slipping. Flat pedal designed shoes then use grippy rubber to make this contact point even more secure. 5.10 started the trend of actually using rock climbing rubber on their soles but now companies are using their own formulations.
Flat Pedals – The Good
Flat pedals have some serious benefits in mountain biking.
They Teach Proper Mountain Biking Form – If you have ever asked someone to show you how to bunny hop and they tell you to pull up with your feet on your clipless pedals…that is completely wrong. Proper technique on a mountain bike is not obtained by pulling on the cleats of your clipless pedals. That is a bad habit that people learn and when you are practicing your skills…you should be on flats. If you learn how to bunny hop, nose manual and other technical techniques on flats, you will do them correctly on clipless.
More Confidence in Technical Riding – There is a reason that very few freeride or trials riders use clipless pedals. If you need to bail quickly or drop a quick foot down to dab, those precious seconds to get unclipped can mean the difference from a little crash and a bad one. If you ride technical terrain, the increased security of knowing you can bail quickly will help with confidence to try new features and ride harder.
Added to this…you can use more body English when riding technical features. There are multiple times that I will balance the bike by sticking my leg out to keep from falling. Unclipping from clipless pedals would take too much time and would disrupt the balance of the bike too much to accomplish that.
Better in Terrible Conditions – Ride in a lot of mud? Have a lot of hike a bike sections? Using flats help in all of those. You are in a real shoe that you can walk in comfortably and you don’t have to worry about mud caking up around the cleat making it hard to clip in. There is also the added bonus of being able to actually drive home in a pair of shoes made for flats.
Flat Pedals – The Bad
As I mentioned before…it isn’t all roses for either setups so let’s take a look at the downside of flat pedals.
Less Pedal Efficiency – This is the largest negative that usually keeps people away from riding flat pedals. It is harder to keep an efficient circular pedal stroke and you lose some of the ability to have power by pulling on the cleat. There is a reason you do not see a single road biker riding flats. There is a serious efficiency benefit to being clipped in vs not.
Do you like your shins? – Those great pins that keep your foot planted to the pedal can really wake you up if you miss the pedal and it goes straight to your shin. Any rider who has been riding flats for an extended period of time has at least one little scar or two on their shins from pedal hits.
Pedal Clearance – You are more apt to hitting your pedals on rocks and other parts of the trail due to the size of flats. They come out to the edge of your shoe unlike clipless pedals so you have to keep that in mind and adjust your riding.
Clipless Mountain Biking Pedals
If you are reading this article you are most likely riding clipless pedals right now. Clipless pedals are typically the first thing that new riders learn how to use when they get their first, quality mountain bike. We all remember riding in grass figuring out how to twist our foot out that first couple of times. It was like learning to ride a bike as a kid again.
Clipless Pedals – The Good
Let’s get into the benefits clipless mountain bike pedals bring to riding when deciding between clipless vs flat pedals.
Pedal Efficiency – This is the biggest one and the reason that so many people ride clipless pedals. It is easier to make circular motions, sweep the bottom of the pedal stroke and use the cleat to get some added power out of the upstroke (full pedal instructions here). You foot is secure to the pedal so with the added power you also don’t have to worry about your foot slipping which would rob even more power.
Foot Security – There are times in technical, fast riding that it is good to be clipped in. With your foot physically attached to the pedal, it is not likely that your foot will slip off. This is why you will see about a 50/50 split on enduro racers and World Cup DH racers riding flats vs. clipless. A lot of times they will switch back and forth depending on the track. One foot slip that could cost a fraction of a second can mean the difference between being on the podium or not.
Ground Clearance – Clipless pedals are small in most cases. This helps out with pedal strikes on the trail giving you more ground clearance between the pedal and objects like rocks and roots.
Clipless Pedals – The Bad
So what drawbacks do you have from using clipless pedals in this clipless vs flat pedals debate?
Forming Bad Riding Habits – Many riders use their clipless pedals the wrong way and it can actually keep them from progressing as a rider. One of the most common ways to use them incorrectly is to pull up to bunny hop. The bunny hop is performed with the upper body when done correctly and you can keep back your development by using the clipless pedals as a crutch.
Learning Curve – For a lot of riders, it can really take awhile to be able to clip out fast. With flat pedals, you can just get out and ride right away but with clipless pedals it is going to take some practice. Even when you get consistent at clipping in and out, it can take some more time to be able to do it fast enough to get the bike off of you in the event that you crash.
The Shoes – To get the cleat mounted in the shoe and have that be stiff enough to get the full efficiency benefit of clipless pedals, the shoes are generally uncomfortable off the bike. There have been some more recent shoes that are trying to do a better job of that but for the most part…you are not walking in them for any extended time. This makes it a lot harder in hike a bike situations in comparison with shoes made for flats and you are not going to want to ruin your cleats by walking on hard surfaces.
Price – While the pricing of flats and shoes designed for them has gone up just like everything else, clipless pedals and shoes are more expensive on average. There is just more technology, equipment and engineering that goes into the design. This means more moving parts that can also fail as well.
Clipless vs Flat Pedals – Which is right for you?
As I mentioned before, I think all riders should be proficient in riding both clipless and flats so this is more of a “clipless vs flat pedals” by a different metric. If you just look at the benefits of both and ignore the negatives…you can see why. I like to break it down into what kind of riding and where that is to make my decision. Hopefully this will help you with what you should be using and when. If 90% of your riding falls into one of these situations, that will be your answer.
Mountain Bike Racing – For 90% of race scenarios, I will be riding clipless pedals. The goal is to get to the bottom or the end of the course as fast as possible. The security of not having any foot slippage and the added efficiency outweighs everything else. I am also not going for any style points and I won’t be hunting out the gnarliest line. The goal is speed and clipless is the one to go to for that.
XC/Light Trail Riding – Again, this is almost always clipless pedals. There are not going to be a lot of jumps, technical sections or other features that I have to worry about so this is basically a race at a leisure pace. Clipless pedals just make more sense. That said…if I am just too lazy to swap pedals out…I will ride flats. I can go either way here but I see the most benefit out of clipless pedals.
Technical Riding/Steep Terrain – Flats. If I am out with my friends riding loamy trails that can get really steep…I don’t want clipless pedals at all. There are usually hike a bike sections. We are almost always sessioning parts of the trail and searching out harder lines. This is my favorite kind of riding and I never bring clipless pedals on these. The benefits of flats will far outweigh the efficiency you get from clipless which would essentially go unused.
Mixed Trail/Technical – There are certain places we go ride that are a mix of light trail riding with technical riding sections we will hit as we go. Trail systems with multiple options are typically where you see this and I will ride flats. I want to be able to have the highest levels of fun on the hardest parts of the trail. I will give up efficiency on the easier sections to enjoy the harder ones more. That Strava PR on the climb is not the goal…shredding the tech sections and having fun on the ride overall is.
Practice/Skills Training – Flats. You learn good technique and form riding flats. Those skills will translate when you ride clipless but you will not be bringing bad habits with you. I also will try more technical and harder skills on flats as I can bail quicker. Do you really want to try even a two foot high skinny for the first time clipped in?
So there you have it…my long, drawn out explanation of whether or not you should be riding clipless pedals or flats. There is not a 100% right or wrong answer for me as I really enjoy all aspects of mountain biking. It really comes down to the type of riding I am doing and what I want to ultimately get out of the ride that day.
What do you guys think? Do you follow a similar plan for flats vs clipless or are you hardcore one way or the other?
4 comments
Awesome article, I have been riding flats for a year now. I ride aggressive xc. No jump/drops or super technical trails. Makes sense to clipless now. Only thing is, whether this will increase effeciency/speed. There have been many opinions that say no difference which I will have to try myself to decide but what do you say to this claim?
I think they make it easier to sweep the bottom of the stroke. It increases efficiency because you have more pedal strokes that are more technically good. If that makes sense?
good article.
i’m down to 3x bikes which get roughly equal use:
1. Kona Honzo for XC/light trail riding;
2. Kona Precept for more techy stuff and downhill; and
3. Kona Dew Deluxe for greenways and toe paths where skinny tyres and longer gearing make sense.
(4. ok, so i also have my old lime green Muddy Fox Courier Comp suspended from the garage ceiling)
so, i have flats/flats/clips – or rather cages & straps, which work just fine. that works out at 66%:33% in favour of flats.
bear in mind that all my bikes had cages & straps until I bought the Honzo – 2nd hand – which came with DMR Vault pedals: a watershed moment for me.
when i then bought the Precept – again 2nd hand – i sourced a pair of DMR V8s – almost as good at the Vault, at a fraction of the price.
so, for me, it’s flats off road and cages on tarmac: simples 🙂
Thanks for your feedback Joe! Sounds like you have a fun group of bikes.