- Now some of you out there are going to be shuddering
right now at the sight of my having some flat pedals
on my lovely Canyon Speedmax.
While some of us out there are will be going
finally some flat pedals.
Well today I'm going to be tackling
that hotly contested debate.
Flat pedals versus clipless pedals, and I'm sure
there's going to be others out there that'll be going straight
to the comments section below this to see the battle unfold
between both sides.
Well I'm going to be trying to answer
all of those questions for you.
It's time for clipless versus flat pedals.
( slow rock song)
Now when it comes to upgrades for a bike,
pedals tend to be pretty high on the priority list.
Now a lot of bikes will come fitted with flat pedals
as I got on my bike right now, but it's thought that being
secured to and clipped in to your pedals is far more
efficient and better for power transfer, and that is where
clipless pedals come in.
And I know what you're thinking, clipless pedals
that you clip into, sounds pretty odd right?
Well apparently this comes from back when we use to ride on
pedals that had toe clips or straps, and by taking those
toe clip straps away, the pedals then became clipless.
It's probably a bit dated now, but that is how
we still refer to them.
But like I say these tend to be the go-to choice
for a lot of cyclist out there and tend to be the pedals
that are recommended to us, in fact you'd be hard pushed
to find a pro triathlete or cyclist out there
that isn't using clipless pedals.
But why aren't clipless pedals actually that much better
than flat pedals and could flat pedals actually be better
for us as triathletes through transition?
Well let's start with flat pedals,
as I'm riding on right now.
They're really quite simple and easy G, just place your foot
on top, off you go and start riding.
There's no learning or very little getting accustomed to,
needed with flat pedals and the upshot is once you can just
place your foot down as and when you want.
You can also just ride on them in whatever you are wearing
on your feet, trainers, sneakers, shoes,
whatever it is, they're fine.
The drawbacks, however, are fairly obvious.
The fact that you are not secured into them means that
you could slip off the pedals.
It's also thought that not being secured into pedals
means that you don't have quite as much control of the bike.
I might argue that though because our pals over at GMBN
don't seem to have an issue with controlling their bikes
on flat pedals.
However, also but not being secured into the pedals
it's thought that there's a loss of power.
And by wearing trainers that are pretty soft on the sole,
and not as stiff as bike shoes,
there's also a loss of power transfer and efficiency.
(upbeat rock song)
(chain rattling)
(shoe clicking)
Where as clipless pedals have a pretty big trick
up their sleeve.
The fact that we're clipped into and secured to the pedals
not only allows us to push down, but also pull up
and there's some huge benefits to this.
One is that it allows us to create a far smoother
and constant application of power throughout our whole
pedal stroke or crank rotation.
Another, is it allows us to use this pull up phase
of the pedal stroke when we're climbing,
which is something a lot of us
actually do without realizing.
And then, of course, it allows us to lay down the power
to sprint all those sudden surges and again that pulling up
phase is really helpful for that.
Now another benefit to riding clipped in is the fact that
your foot is stable and secure, so you can set your clip,
which is the bit that clips into the pedal to
what ever you desire to your optimum riding position
and know that every time you jump onto the bike
it's going to be in that perfect position for you.
You can of course adjust the tension of the pedals.
There's a little bit more play in them, but it's still
going to be far more stable than a pair of flat pedals,
meaning that all that power you put out is pretty much
going directly down through and into those pedals,
rather than any side to side movement, or loss in power.
And of course, that's all enhanced through the stiffness
of some specific bike shoes.
Now there are of course some drawbacks
to clipless pedals too.
For starters, it's more equipment, more of just allude too,
you need those specific bike shoes, that's another item
for your shopping list.
And there's the cleats, they will wear out from time to time
so again you will need to purchase some more as you go.
And let's not forget the token stop and fall.
Now don't be embarrassed by this, this does happen
to pretty much everyone as they're starting out.
Simply forgetting to unclip before you come to a stop.
But it's very simple to learn and once you master it
it's not a problem at all.
But that doesn't lead me very nicely on to transitions
for those triathletes that might be watching this.
(tape unrolling)
Okay so I have just laid out a mini triathlon
transition there, it's just a bit of fun
certainly nothing scientific, but my idea is to go
from T1 to T2 in quick succession with a little ride in
between both on flat pedals and clipless pedals.
Now the fairly obvious which is going to be quicker through
to transitions I think is going to be flat pedals
given that there's just one change required.
But I've got a few extra elements going on in here
which I think is going to be quite interesting.
So I got my transition line here, as you can see,
I've also got a marker at 20 meters.
Now the idea is I've got a few time checks throughout
this little mini triathlon.
So the first time check is from me grabbing my bike,
crossing this transition line.
The next time check is from crossing this transition line
to the 20 meter mark, which is hopeful where I plant my feet
and shoes, and whatnot will happen.
Then from the 20 meter mark, the bike out
and back to that 20 meter mark.
The next time check is from 20 meters
to the transition line.
And then finally is from me dismounting
at the transition line, racking my bike back up
and then running back across the line.
(sighs)
Well hopefully all of those time checks will become
a little bit more obvious and apparent
as to why I'm doing it as we go through this test.
And given that I've got the clipless pedals on,
let's start with them.
- [Man] Three.
Two.
One.
Go!
("Not Funny" by Conditional)
♪ I've lost my way out of line ♪
♪ Bleeding, this evening ♪
♪ God could I go for a ride ♪
♪ Stitches, bleeding ♪
♪ And God as I turn around ♪
(clock ticking)
(panting)
- Oh (bleep)
- [Man] Three.
Two.
One.
Go!
(soft rock song)
- As you can see I am wasting a little time here to pop
my shoes on and therefore I'm four seconds slower
through the mount line.
But I'm good to go.
On the last run it took me eight seconds to get to the
20 meter mark as I pop my feet in my shoes,
but this time at just five seconds, and I'm more or less
back level with the clipless pedals in terms of time.
(upbeat rock song)
It definitely felt odd only being able to push down
and not being able to pull up too.
As I came up to the 20 meter mark on the way back
I was now three seconds down but there is no need to remove
my feet from my shoes so I actually make this three seconds
back, but this is also where the flats come into there own
and beat the clipless pedals by eight seconds.
So what does this all mean?
Well that wasn't a total surprise,
I mean it's fairly obvious only having to change your shoes
once is clearly going to be quicker
than changing your shoes twice.
We saw that difference between the transition area
and the 20 meter mark both out and back.
But is was marginally quicker with the cycling shoes
on the cycling portion.
Given my little experiment was fairly short,
if you extended that margin out over 20 k-40, 90-180 k
within normal triathlon distances that is actually going
to have the biggest impact on your overall time,
not the few seconds saved going through transition.
But of course if you are doing a super, super, super short
triathlon then you know trainers are the way to go.
Now moving on we do get asked quite lot about
wearing mountain bike shoes, pedals and cleats
for a triathlon.
And it's a really good question.
The idea being that if you wear mountain bike shoes
that has slightly raised sole with the cleat,
kind of embedded in the shoe, which allows you then to walk
on that shoe a little bit more easily and freely.
So if you are someone that perhaps puts there cycling shoes
on in transition and takes them off in transition
it allows you to just run through transition far more easily
than when you try in your cycling shoes, with cleats
and doing that funny cycling shoe dance.
So it is very good in that sense, but one thing I would say
is just to be wary of, with mountain bike pedals
they are designed for mountain biking so you can clip
in and out of them really easily.
That means even at the highest tension
they have a little bit more flow,
or quite a lot more flow than a standard cycling pedal
or road cycling pedal.
So as I mentioned earlier, that increased flow could affect
your power transfer, which isn't a great thing.
Not to mention also, the increased weight
and the potential aerodynamic disadvantage.
That being said, if it's just something you're happy with,
you're comfortable with, well that is, in my opinion,
a more important factor.
But now back to the original debate clipless versus flats.
Well there is one more consideration for us as triathletes,
and that is, is one better than the other
for running off the bike?
Well if we remember back to earlier, I was discussing
the fact the we can pull up using clipless pedals
we're secured into those pedals.
That allows us to distribute the overall workload
onto numerous muscles.
Compare that to your flat pedals where we can want to
just push down, that really hammers the quads and glutes.
And that is really going to affect the run off.
We're going to feel worse than we already do.
Clipless pedals, we're distributing it using
number of muscles and that is why in my opinion
they're the option particularly
for the longer distance triathlons.
Now if you have enjoyed today's video,
do give us a thumbs up, a like.
And if you would like to see more from GTN,
just click on the globe, subscribe to the channel.
If you'd like to find out a little bit more
about transitions you can see our T1 explainer here,
and T2 explainer just here.