To cleat or not to cleat, that is the question (XC MTB)

SuiteCheex

As a long term commuter, I'm well used to riding with cleats (the 30km trip in and out of work would be hellish without them), so when a mate's stag-do brought me to Ballyhoura last year for my first ever XC experience, I thought it perfectly normal to get a set of SPDs thrown onto the rental bike.

After a couple of minor falls, I got used to the fact that I wasn't on tarmac and ended up having an awesome time flying (read: meandering) round the trails. So on my 2nd XC MTB trip, this time to Ballinastoe, I again went with the cleats. What a disaster!

We were out in the pouring rain and I couldn't get grip for love nor money. I kept wheel spinning and keeling over and after a while the toys got thrown out of the pram and I picked up my proverbial ball and walked home.

As a result, any subsequent off-road excursions have been with flat pedals. The only thing is that I find my feet come off the pedals more often than Charlie Sheen falls off the wagon!!

I'm new to this XC malarky, but seeing as Ticknock is on my doorstep I'm about to invest in my fist MTB. So as the thread title says "To cleat or not to cleat?"

Any and all advice is appreciated.

Cheers.

Tenzor07

I would view a good pair of SPD Clipless Pedal's and shoes as essential for XC MTB, will make your pedalling much more enjoyable and keep you in contact with your bike over all terrains up and downhill..

The trend these days is for flat pedals, kinda Bmx style, but are a waste of time for XC...

TinyExplosions

I found that MTB in flats was a lot better for me than clipped in, for some reason I was a lot less nervous, and so find that I dab my foot down a lot less when on flats than when I'm clipped in.... it's horses for courses really I guess

Hermy

What about a combination pedal?
I have these on my XC bike.

Tenzor07

Hermy wrote: »

What about a combination pedal?
I have these on my XC bike.

They also seem to be a very popular choice..but if the OP is used to being clipped in on a road bike then the Standard Spd pedals would be good..

Or if your into keeping the weight down go for these... http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=53276

sham2

Flat pedals for me all the time. I tried spds for quite a while and just could not enjoy cycling. The whole feel of them put me off. So I got the best flat combination I could; Five-Ten shoes and DMR V8 pedals. It would take a bomb to knock me off those. Confidence is sky high on any terrain. I'll agree I've compromised on pedaling efficiency but I'll take that any day over the 'trapped' feeling of spds. Each to his own.

seamus

Like Tiny, I found that riding clipped out on my M545's I was much faster and more confident than riding while clipped in. Still useful on climbs and fast descents naturally.

I guess when you become a lot more accustomed to technical trails, you probably spend a lot less time thinking about putting your foot down and/or anticipating when you need to put it down.

SuiteCheex

TinyExplosions wrote: »

I found that MTB in flats was a lot better for me than clipped in, for some reason I was a lot less nervous, and so find that I dab my foot down a lot less when on flats than when I'm clipped in.... it's horses for courses really I guess

Even though I'm well used to being clipped-in when I'm on the road, I found I was nervous when clipped-in on the trails. I suppose it's to do with the fact that when I have to unclip when I'm on the road, it's never in a hurry and it's always my left foot which gets disengaged. My inability to unclip my right foot in a hurry meant my right knee took a bit of hammering from the ground when I was on the trails.

Hermy wrote: »

What about a combination pedal?
I have these on my XC bike.

This might be a good investment. Would that mean I could start with pedalling in a normal pair of runners and then when the skill and confidence grows, I could clip in with the MTB shoes?

Vélo

I also went from clipless to flats. If you're getting flats with pins in them mke sure you have something to protect the shins.

Icyseanfitz

i use flats, they give me a lot of confidence tbh, also if you buy a nice set of flats they will have a good amount of grip, ive these and they are top notch

Icyseanfitz

Vélo wrote: »

I also went from clipless to flats. If you're getting flats with pins in them mke sure you have something to protect the shins.

so true, ive had some sore shins from a spinning crank and flats

C3PO

For anything other than downhill or fairly extreme all mountain then clips are the only way ....... end of story!

Alkers

Spds all the way. Loosen the tension in them so its easy to clip out. I have those combo pedals also but tbh the grip on them is pretty poor when not clipped in.

couerdelion

RPL1 wrote: »

For anything other than downhill or fairly extreme all mountain then clips are the only way ....... end of story!

+1

Always used cleats when I was doing xc mtbing except for the one time I forgot my spd shoes and tried to ride round south wales in a pair of work shoes on spd pedals. I think I lasted 20 minutes...

Tenzor07

SuiteCheex wrote: »

My inability to unclip my right foot in a hurry meant my right knee took a bit of hammering from the ground when I was on the trails

Just down to practice and expierience! If your already used to clipless from the road bike then it should become 2nd nature to you in no time!

SuiteCheex wrote: »

This might be a good investment. Would that mean I could start with pedalling in a normal pair of runners and then when the skill and confidence grows, I could clip in with the MTB shoes?

Runners and flat Bmx style pedals are more "dangerous" than being clipped in, reduces your contact points with the bike leaving your more likely to part ways with you bike on a choppy downhill like the lower trail at Ticknock..

langdang

I use V8's + runners but thinking of going back to clipless, at least for summer use, not doing anything too extreme these days.

Previously used Time ATAC Alium pedals with MTB shoes and they were great for the longer "roadies off-road" type spins. Never ever "went down with the ship", when fellas in SPDs were keeling over all round. I found that my natural bail out foot movement suited the TIME pedals perfectly - it wasn't even something I had to think about.

Started doing some hairier stuff and tried the TIME ATAC Z-control - basically a clipless pedal with added platform, but went to the V8's pretty quick. The Z-Controls weren't much good with stiff plasticy soled MTB shoes, they would have been ok with runner type shoes with cleats I suppose.

studiorat

I find the BMX style platform pedals give good balance and the ability to shift the bike around useful. Though it's interesting when you jump the bike only to land on the pedals a split second after the bike lands.

I've been in a few situations lately where I've had to bail out quickly before thinks went horribly wrong. Getting out of SPDs might be fine when you're sitting on the saddle, try it with one wheel in the air with your weight on the pedals. Mind you I probably wouldn't have tried that with SPDs on.

tassajara

I'm a big fan of DMR V8s and 5-10s, no pedal slip at all with this combo and I'm confident on technical trails so no need to worry about ripping my shins to shreds.

If it weren't for my banjaxed knee though, I would use SPDs for XC and from the few times I have used them, it is pretty easy to clip out once the tension in the pedals is loosened up.

instinct

am considering getting these multi release cleats for MTB.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=10969

I have loosened the tension on my pedals and am happy enough with the setup. I takes a bit of time to get the confidence up and its helped improve my riding as in places I would normally hesitate and put my foot down i now just ride thru.

Also have tried the flat / clipless pedal combo and while ok, I found them a bit of a pain when i got going on any sort of trail but had to concentrate on rotating the pedal before I could clip in. That and the grip is pretty crap on the flat side using SPD shoe.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=5937

Since i have gone clip-less i dont think I can go back to flats.

SuiteCheex

Cheers for all the advice folks. Much appreciated.

Not that I'm a sheep or anything, but I think I'm going to go with how the masses have voted and put some loosened SPDs on the bike when I get it.

However, don't be surprised if you come across me wimpering in the foetal position in Ballinastoe sometime!

fatbhoy

sham2 wrote: »

Flat pedals for me all the time. I tried spds for quite a while and just could not enjoy cycling. The whole feel of them put me off. So I got the best flat combination I could; Five-Ten shoes and DMR V8 pedals. It would take a bomb to knock me off those. Confidence is sky high on any terrain. I'll agree I've compromised on pedaling efficiency but I'll take that any day over the 'trapped' feeling of spds. Each to his own.

Same for me: 5-10s and DMRs totally. I hated SPDs.

C3PO

SuiteCheex wrote: »

Cheers for all the advice folks. Much appreciated.

Not that I'm a sheep or anything, but I think I'm going to go with how the masses have voted and put some loosened SPDs on the bike when I get it.

However, don't be surprised if you come across me wimpering in the foetal position in Ballinastoe sometime!

I have a set of those Shimano pedals which are flat one side/cleat on the other, you're welcome to borrow them until you're confident! They're such a pain in the arse to keep flipping over that you'll soon graduate to clips both sides! Drop me a PM if you want a loan of them!
In fairness Ballinastoe is probably not the best place to learn to use SPDs, you're bound to have a few "oh ****" moments and there are a lot of pointy rocks up there!

petethedrummer

RPL1 wrote: »

In fairness Ballinastoe is probably not the best place to learn to use SPDs, you're bound to have a few "oh ****" moments and there are a lot of pointy rocks up there!

I'm not much of a MTBer and find there are a few spots in Ballinastoe where SPDs feel like a bad idea. I'm sure once you're technique is good those rocks are easy to get over. I'd be tempted to go back with flats next time, but I didn't die last time so maybe I should stick with the SPDs.

zil

It might be best to spend a few months on flats to get the basic bike skills up before graduating to cleats. I learnt on clips from the start and I've always wondered if I would have improved quicker if I'd spent a bit of time on flats to get my confidence up before transferring over to clips. There were certainly more than a few times where I felt I was struggling with the clips so much that I couldn't concentrate on the trail.

Lumen

I've crashed quite a bit on and off road whilst using cleats and never felt that the outcome would have been better with flat pedals.

uberwolf

Cleat.

I think the additional contact with the bike is a real benefit for mtb, it might be a slightly lazy option in terms of learning control of the bike - my bunnyhop is pitiful for instance because it's a yank on the cleats rather than pure technique.

I find coming out of the cleats such second nature that there's no thought or concern about that side of things, which only comes with time and a few hairy moments when you realise you've dabbed and the cleats had released for you before you knew it.

recedite

OP you know that you can adjust the tension on the spd's with an allen key?
Mine are so loose that they release before I even know I'm falling. Still get a good pedalling style the rest of the time.
The more well worn routes like Ballinastoe are always slippy in the wet. If its not slippy rocks, its slippy polished tree roots. I choose the dry conditions for such places. Plenty of other places that are less worn, for when its wet.

SuiteCheex

RPL1 wrote: »

I have a set of those Shimano pedals which are flat one side/cleat on the other, you're welcome to borrow them until you're confident!

Cheers for the offer, much appreciated. I've already got a set of SPDs so I think I'll just get flats to start in order to gain confidence and skills, then switch over to the SPDs once I'm somewhat competent. Might even take the stabilisers off at that stage as well

SuiteCheex

uberwolf wrote: »

I find coming out of the cleats such second nature that there's no thought or concern about that side of things

I'm ecstatic for you :rolleyes: May have something to do with the fact that you could ride before you could walk!!