After moving from fairly wide flats with a bit of a duck stance to clipless... I needed to go Crank Bros in order to get their wider axle kit... I even needed to use a washer on them to get my stance where I like it... though it still feels just a little restrictively narrow to me.
This article really spoke to me... after riding clips for a full year, I'm going back to flats. I am most definitely not at the level of Chris Kovarik, haha, but like him... it seems I like to move my feet around quite a bit and in ways that clipless pedals don't currently allow.
Even after a year on clips, I still find I just can't get as comfortable or be as confident, especially on gnarly terrain, as I am on flats. And I still find myself trying to move my feet and adjust their placement in different ways for different types of terrain, but feel held back by my clipless pedals fixed position.
I also like to climb in a different position than I descend... though I've kind of gotten used to climbing in a more mid foot position (I push my cleats all the way back on my Giro Chamber II's)... I love being able to move my foot back a bit for climbing with flats.
The only benefit I've found to being clipped in has been during races, when I want to get out of the saddle and just hammer/sprint... I worry less about my foot coming off and/or getting it back into the proper position for optimal "hammer time".
But, this seems negated by the times I come unclipped during a gnarly section or pedal strike, can't get clipped back in while still trying to be fast in that section, but am bouncing around on a slippery clipless pedal, forcing me to slow down... at least with flats, if my foot got bounced, I could jam it back on... and even if it wasn't in an optimal position, it was solid enough to keep pushing hard and adjust later when the gnar dies down. After a year of riding and racing, I still never got very good at re-cliping during intense scenarios.
Anyway, didn't mean for this to turn into a "flats vs clipless" rant... but I think there's a lot to be gained from wider q-factors and platforms. And maybe it even seems, bottom brackets? And I'm not a big guy... 5'11" with size 9.5 feet... maybe my hips are wider?? Not sure... maybe the width preference comes from years of snowboarding? Come to think of it, after the winter season... the first time I throw a leg over my bike, it always feels a little narrower than I remembered...
I get the sense maybe people aren't moving their feet enough?? Maybe I move mine too much? Maybe it's just how I learned to ride... I don't know.
Jan. 21, 2020, 12:39 p.m. - IslandLife
After moving from fairly wide flats with a bit of a duck stance to clipless... I needed to go Crank Bros in order to get their wider axle kit... I even needed to use a washer on them to get my stance where I like it... though it still feels just a little restrictively narrow to me. This article really spoke to me... after riding clips for a full year, I'm going back to flats. I am most definitely not at the level of Chris Kovarik, haha, but like him... it seems I like to move my feet around quite a bit and in ways that clipless pedals don't currently allow. Even after a year on clips, I still find I just can't get as comfortable or be as confident, especially on gnarly terrain, as I am on flats. And I still find myself trying to move my feet and adjust their placement in different ways for different types of terrain, but feel held back by my clipless pedals fixed position. I also like to climb in a different position than I descend... though I've kind of gotten used to climbing in a more mid foot position (I push my cleats all the way back on my Giro Chamber II's)... I love being able to move my foot back a bit for climbing with flats. The only benefit I've found to being clipped in has been during races, when I want to get out of the saddle and just hammer/sprint... I worry less about my foot coming off and/or getting it back into the proper position for optimal "hammer time". But, this seems negated by the times I come unclipped during a gnarly section or pedal strike, can't get clipped back in while still trying to be fast in that section, but am bouncing around on a slippery clipless pedal, forcing me to slow down... at least with flats, if my foot got bounced, I could jam it back on... and even if it wasn't in an optimal position, it was solid enough to keep pushing hard and adjust later when the gnar dies down. After a year of riding and racing, I still never got very good at re-cliping during intense scenarios. Anyway, didn't mean for this to turn into a "flats vs clipless" rant... but I think there's a lot to be gained from wider q-factors and platforms. And maybe it even seems, bottom brackets? And I'm not a big guy... 5'11" with size 9.5 feet... maybe my hips are wider?? Not sure... maybe the width preference comes from years of snowboarding? Come to think of it, after the winter season... the first time I throw a leg over my bike, it always feels a little narrower than I remembered... I get the sense maybe people aren't moving their feet enough?? Maybe I move mine too much? Maybe it's just how I learned to ride... I don't know.