Who said clipless pedals aren't dangerous?

colintrav

Alex wrote:

Another thing worth considering:

Cheap, short or moulded pin flats combed with non-waffle pattern skate shoes/trainers are desperately unsuited to mountainbiking. You will slip off them. You will arrive home with shins like raw hamburger. This will put you off riding. This is a bad thing.

You need to invest quite a bit in flat pedals and good quality sticky soled shoes before you get quality performance that gives a confident ride.

Cheap clips on the other hand work almost as well as well as the most expensive ones. You can't slip off a pedal and hamburger yourself if you're clipped in.

This means that when you arrive home with legs that took you up the hill faster than your flat pedal riding mates and aren't a mass of slices and bruises, you'll be wanting to go out for more.

Ah the days of old ... ..

bails87

Alex wrote:

Another thing worth considering:

Cheap, short or moulded pin flats combed with non-waffle pattern skate shoes/trainers are desperately unsuited to mountainbiking. You will slip off them. You will arrive home with shins like raw hamburger. This will put you off riding. This is a bad thing.

You need to invest quite a bit in flat pedals and good quality sticky soled shoes before you get quality performance that gives a confident ride.

Cheap clips on the other hand work almost as well as well as the most expensive ones. You can't slip off a pedal and hamburger yourself if you're clipped in.

This means that when you arrive home with legs that took you up the hill faster than your flat pedal riding mates and aren't a mass of slices and bruises, you'll be wanting to go out for more.

£25 for MG1s and £20 for walking/trail shoes vs £20 for super cheap SPDs and £50 odd for shoes

And I've never slipped off the pedals with that combo.

I've got some SPDs that came with my bike, and if someone gave me the shoes for free then I'd try them, but I don't see the point in paying more when I've got a perfectly good (in my eyes) set up already.

Alex

You can get OK cycling shoes from Lidl for £18.50 (and at one point, £2.99 after an advertising cock-up!). By all accounts, they're not bad at all. They'd certainly make sense to someone who wasn't sure about investing serious money in cycling shoes or who wasn't confident they'd get on with SPDs.

Walking/trail shoes tend to have a fairly aggressive tread on them? That's not going to help you grip your pedals...

supersonic

Wellgo 'V8' are from a tenner with replacable pins (and good ones too). The moulded ones are horrific.

I use a a Reebok Classic style trainer which has a soft outer soul and shallow grip which mates very well with the pinned pedals.

Some DJers actually don't like too much grip so they can get on and off the pedals easier when doing aerobatics and like their feet to move on the pedals.

I also have some old bear trap type things, they have a nice 'feel' under foot.

_Ferret_

let's be honest here, a SPD combo is always more expensive than flat pedals.
You need dedicated shoes people! with flats you can use a much wider range of shoes, probably ones you already have.