- For many mountain bikers,
and actually bike riders in general,
they often start on flat pedals.
They're the simplest thing,
you don't really need any special shoes,
you just jump on the bike and go.
But for a lot of mountain bikers
the benefits of clipless pedals are hard to ignore
and eventually they wanna move over.
So here are a few tips on transitioning to clipless pedals.
(upbeat music)
The first thing I will say is
there's nothing wrong with riding flat pedals,
many people just stay on them.
I myself, I rode them for 15 years
when I raced downhill and they're really good
for learning the basics of riding on.
So I think there are a few good reasons
why you should learn to ride on flat pedals
and one of those is being able to dab,
so to get your foot to the floor really quickly
and that helps in corners
where you don't quite get it right.
Also in technical situations, it's a bit less scary
being able to get off the bike quick if you have to.
And one of the biggest reasons I think
is for learning the correct skills.
With flat pedals you can't cheat,
you have to use your weight
to lift the bike into the air.
So a big one of those is the bunny hop
and as I say in a lot of skills videos,
actually bunny hopping well goes on to lots of other things,
so being able to jump properly,
but also to unweight over technical situations
on the ground like rocks and roots.
So why would you wanna move over to clipless pedals?
Well for me it was the change
from downhill racing to enduro racing,
which is a much more endurance fitness-based sport.
I felt that the extra power and efficiency you get
from clipless pedals makes that big a difference.
For me personally, it feels on flat pedals
you just use your quads to push down on the pedals,
but with clips you use your hamstrings much more.
On long rides my legs feel
much less tired on clipless pedals.
There is a good reason why all road
and cross-country riders use clipless pedals.
(upbeat music)
So what kit are you gonna need to move to clipless pedals,
or clips as we like to call them.
The first thing is the pedals themselves.
Now this is a Crank Brothers Mallet E,
it's somewhere in the middle, it's an enduro pedal.
So you can see the clipless system in the middle
and you've got this cage around the outside
that's gonna give you some support
on the bottom of your shoe.
You can get a few different options,
you can go for some cross-country pedals that are lighter,
they don't have this cage round the outside
or bigger pedals that are downhill pedals
with a bigger platform.
You're also gonna need some
clipless-specific mountain bike shoes.
You can see in the bottom here
you've got that cleat that engages into the pedal,
that gives you that connexion to the bike.
So they're bolted into the bottom of the shoe
and they can be adjusted.
You also often see these systems
like this ratchet and this Velcro strap
to keep the shoe nice and snug to your foot.
Now there is another option and that is a hybrid pedal
like this Crank Brothers Double Shot,
where it's a flat pedal on one side
and then a clipless pedal on the other.
Now that might be really good for someone
who uses their bike for a couple of different things.
Maybe they commute on it in the week to work
and they want the benefits of clipless pedals
and then at the weekend they ride off-road
and they wanna ride flat pedals.
That really saves you buying two sets of pedals
and then swapping them all the time.
Whilst clips are great for a lot of things,
it's definitely in the skills department
where you can cheat with them.
Obviously cause you're attached to the bike,
you can use your feet to pick up the back wheel.
But there's a good reason not to do that
because if you do that,
all your weight is still over the back wheel.
So if I pick the back wheel up
to go over a really slippy root and I get the timing wrong,
all my weight's there so I will slide off it.
So there's still a good reason to try and use your weight
to lift the back wheel rather than cheat and use your feet.
(upbeat music)
Whilst personally, I do like to feel my pedal
through the bottom of my shoe,
and I actually adjust the pins on my pedals to do that,
you don't want too much friction
because that's gonna hinder you clipping in and getting out.
So you wanna play around with the pins if you can,
but also you can get these spacers
that go underneath your cleats,
just to pull it a bit further away from the shoe
if you're getting too much interference.
There's also quite a few different things
you can play around with with cleat setup,
so sliding them front to back,
adjusting the twist a little bit.
Personally I like that cleat to be slightly behind
the ball of my foot, only slightly,
and it just sits me in that nice position on the pedal.
I find if you have that cleat too far forward,
you start standing on your toes too much
and it starts using your calf muscle an awful lot
and that can lead to cramps in your calf muscle.
You also get the option with Crank Brothers pedals
of choosing 15 or 20 degree release.
So personally I prefer the 15 degree release
which means you put the cleat
with the dots on your right shoe.
That means I can just get out
nice and quickly when I want to.
If you put that cleat with the dots on the left shoe,
you get that 20 degree release
and that might suit people with a different pedalling style.
They might move around on the bike a little bit more,
they don't wanna come out of the pedals unexpectedly.
So you can adjust the cleat side to side as well
and that is probably determined more
by the length of the axle of your pedal.
I like to space my foot out as much as possible
which does increase the Q factor
to how far apart your feet are,
but that just means that there's no chance
of my toe catching on the crank at all
when I'm trying to unclip.
(upbeat music)
When you're getting used to riding in clips,
I would always recommend going somewhere
nice and mellow with easy trails,
cause it can be pretty scary if you're not used to it,
being attached to the bike.
Also get used to just unclipping early before you stop.
Another good way of practising on your clipless pedals
is to find yourself a bit of space
and do some low speed manoeuvres, a bit of cornering,
just to get used to being attached to the bike.
And it'll get you used to clipping out
and getting your foot on the ground as quick as you can,
just before you topple over.
I know that does still happen
to a lot of us when we're practising
and I would say try and persevere,
it did take me quite a long time
to get used to riding with clipless pedals.
So there you go, there's a few tips
on getting used to riding with clipless pedals.
I know it took me quite a while to do it myself,
but now I probably ride them for 90% of the time,
just for things like downhill and jumps I still ride flats.
If you wanna see more videos from GMBN,
click on the GMBN logo here to subscribe, totally free.
If you click down there that'll take you through to
how to set up your clipless pedals
and click over there for clips versus flats.
Give us a thumbs up if you found this video useful.