Couple things... 1. Does anyone else prefer technical climbing in flats? After a couple years of riding and racing on clips, just this past weekend I went back to flats. It started with a Friday evening jump park sesh and I decided to leave them on for the weekend. I was kind of thinking... "I've been riding clips for awhile now, better get some rides in on flats to make sure I'm not relying on them too much" The good news is that no, doesn't look like I've been relying on them for hopping & jumping etc... and it seems (as I've been suspecting), clips have been holding me back when it comes to really difficult tech climbing!
There's a climb here at Hartland in Victoria called "Breathless" that takes you up to the top of the mountain, out of the park and accesses the best (if not necessarily sectioned... but that's a whole can of worms over here) trails. It's a double black climb trail... it's steep, loose, rocky, sometimes steep switchback-y and dotted with really difficult technical rocky sections/features. On my flats this weekend, I cleaned a bunch of sections I've never done before! I think on clips, I tend to bail out early and/or when I have a chance to bail out before getting into a situation where it gets really difficult to unclip and save yourself from a significant fall into some exposure. Flats seems to allow me to push that last little bit knowing I can easily step off (in anyway that I need to)... it was enlightening.
I also like being able to use different fore/aft positions depending on what I'm doing and then of course, I feel just a tad more confident when dipping into some of the double-black+ trails/rolls/features.
End result... think I'll keep the flats on the bike for a while... maybe reserve clips for racing? One thing I did miss was getting a great foot position every time I step back on a pedal after taking it off with clips. I was relearning foot position a bit with flats... ended up riding a few features with some wacky foot placement, ha!
2\. Question.. It's definitely time to upgrade my old neglected worn out flat pedal shoes... my Freeriders are just too worn and soft... need a little more support as my feet would start to get sore after extended periods of rough descending. How is the support of the stamps compared with others? Or at least with worn out freeriders?
May 17, 2021, 9:51 a.m. - IslandLife
Couple things... 1. Does anyone else prefer technical climbing in flats? After a couple years of riding and racing on clips, just this past weekend I went back to flats. It started with a Friday evening jump park sesh and I decided to leave them on for the weekend. I was kind of thinking... "I've been riding clips for awhile now, better get some rides in on flats to make sure I'm not relying on them too much" The good news is that no, doesn't look like I've been relying on them for hopping & jumping etc... and it seems (as I've been suspecting), clips have been holding me back when it comes to really difficult tech climbing! There's a climb here at Hartland in Victoria called "Breathless" that takes you up to the top of the mountain, out of the park and accesses the best (if not necessarily sectioned... but that's a whole can of worms over here) trails. It's a double black climb trail... it's steep, loose, rocky, sometimes steep switchback-y and dotted with really difficult technical rocky sections/features. On my flats this weekend, I cleaned a bunch of sections I've never done before! I think on clips, I tend to bail out early and/or when I have a chance to bail out before getting into a situation where it gets really difficult to unclip and save yourself from a significant fall into some exposure. Flats seems to allow me to push that last little bit knowing I can easily step off (in anyway that I need to)... it was enlightening. I also like being able to use different fore/aft positions depending on what I'm doing and then of course, I feel just a tad more confident when dipping into some of the double-black+ trails/rolls/features. End result... think I'll keep the flats on the bike for a while... maybe reserve clips for racing? One thing I did miss was getting a great foot position every time I step back on a pedal after taking it off with clips. I was relearning foot position a bit with flats... ended up riding a few features with some wacky foot placement, ha! 2\. Question.. It's definitely time to upgrade my old neglected worn out flat pedal shoes... my Freeriders are just too worn and soft... need a little more support as my feet would start to get sore after extended periods of rough descending. How is the support of the stamps compared with others? Or at least with worn out freeriders?