Some pedals...

[ThinAir]

How rude ;-)

 

[Ciar]

I ride flats, I rode flats on my BMX when I was in my early teens, so it's only natural to me to keep riding them, on my hybrid cx i have wellgo b143's lovely flat pedal on my scott scale 29er I use dmr v8's, only difference is the v8's are shin slicers, where as the wellgo's are just brilliant all round pedal out of the two, i would pick the wellgo's but as lots of people have said already it's a personal choice on what you prefer to ride and which pedals you buy

 

[Tango]

This is all really a non starter and rather like a helmet debate. No one needs to justify their choice. I'm not quite sure what you want Tango ? You've made your choice are you trying to justify it to yourself or others ?

That's a fair point re the helmet debate. There will always be two sides to an argument.

I use both pedal types and as I said earlier, you make your choice and get out pedalling.

Riding and grinning being the mat important part

I am not trying to justify what I do, I was just trying to find out if there was a specific tangible argument for spds over flats

But happy to move on and avoid the 'going round in circles' bit

 

[Tango]

You could look towards Gisburn Forest ThinAir, there are some very nice blue sections with red and black also available, it's only just over an hour from Prestwich

 

[lukesdad]

I thought there had been several tangible reasons given, here are mine besides having your feet planted in the right position all of the time. Flats are to bulky and foul obstructions far too regularly. you may think a cm or 2 would not make a lot of difference but try riding 165 cranks compared to 175s and its the same with width. You may not ride a lot of ruts or river beds but I do and flats are far to clumsy. Your reasoning behind power in the stroke is a little off the mark too, on the road turning the pedals is a continous regular motion mtb is different to get up a bank or over a rock needs a burst of max power you need the lift on the up stroke.

 

[RhythMick]

My view... Ride what feels right to you...
Having tried SPD on road I went back to flats and love it. I just enjoy my ride more. I know a lot of people feel differently and that's fine.

Just saying...

 

[Tango]

I thought there had been several tangible reasons given, here are mine besides having your feet planted in the right position all of the time. Flats are to bulky and foul obstructions far too regularly. you may think a cm or 2 would not make a lot of difference but try riding 165 cranks compared to 175s and its the same with width. You may not ride a lot of ruts or river beds but I do and flats are far to clumsy. Your reasoning behind power in the stroke is a little off the mark too, on the road turning the pedals is a continous regular motion mtb is different to get up a bank or over a rock needs a burst of max power you need the lift on the up stroke.

Absolutely agree re 'clumsy' as you put it. I have done some river bed and rut riding and the Vaults do indeed catch.

Regarding power delivery, I have never had an issue with bursts required for getting up a bank or over rocks. Might give spds a go next time I am up at Bolts Law in County Durham

 

[GilesM]

If you want to learn to ride a bike properly off road, then those in the know recommend using flats while you are learning the skills, (you do pick up some bad habits bunny hoping and jumping with clipless pedals), and once you have mastered the skills then move to clipless if you want, however, it all depends what you want/plan to do, I've always used SPDs, (I can live with my bad habits) I have XTRs on my hardtail and full suss, I think they're great, and the release is so natural I very rarely get clipless moments, I ride quite a lot of techy black stuff/natural trails, I find all accidents I have are nothing to do with be clipped in, me and bike are always separated once the crash has finished.

As several have mentioned it really is a personal choice, I was out on Saturday, beautiful natural trails in the Scottish Borders, I was clipped in, mate was on flats, we rode the same stuff no problems, he was faster on the techy stuff, but that's 'cause he's a better rider, I would like to, but I can't blame it on my pedals.

 

[ThinAir]

Ok then, sorry to resurrect this...

I am now in possession of my shiny new machine, and I absolutely love it. Can't believe what I have been missing out on. So much so, that I am looking at selling some of my stuff to finance buying a full sus.

However, in the meantime, I have settled upon one thing, and that is that I will be subscribing to the flat-pedals side of the argument. It's what I am comfortable with...

So what do you guys use? What do you recommend in the £50-80 bracket. And, what colour pedals should I get to go with a bike that is black... Is black the only option I should consider, or would something starkly contrasting look pretty cool, like some white ones?

All answers greatly appreciated!

Cheers guys!

 

[Tango]

http://www.globalbike.co.uk/dmr-vault-pedal-9-16.html?gclid=CPDayKKT6bgCFcfJtAod8RUAeg

i use these and found them to be great, DMR V12 are good too, but i have had no experience of other pedals so cant offer any further thoughts