anyone ride all flats all the time?

when my cast comes off i'll be putting flats on the bikes. it's a good idea for the healing ankle but i'm also trying to convince myself to commit to them for a year. gladly soliciting input from riders who think there is no real disadvantage to riding them especially on tech climbs, etc. i kinda think there is but i also think i've developed lazy riding habits and could stand to work my feet more like a trials/bmx rider to gain some skills.

I remember getting used to it and still being pretty effective climbing. At one point it was a good trade-off for extra flexibility in other areas - i.e. we were shuttling more and riding more TTFs. But once AM bikes got better and there were better clipless combinations available (Shimano AM45s and DX pedals) I went straight back. The extra climbing power is noticeable. I find it hard to believe sticky rubber allows the rider to pull the pedal.

I'm all flats all the time on my all mountain daily driver and my DH bike.

I do like the mobility it gives you on the bike and the fact that you are always more aware of moving the bike with your body and not just yanking it around with your feet.

I also have ankle issues and find that daily trail riding to and from work year-round, the clipless just started to wreak havoc on my ankles. Just the repeated strain of never being able to really change the position of my foot on the pedal day in and day out.

I do still believe there is a noticeable advantage climbing with your feet attached. I like the freedom of not being attached. Sticky rubber is good, but it ain't a cleat. I never miss it on the downhill. If I entered a race with long tedious grinding (IMBY 50), i'd throw the clipless back on.

That's a good point. I've done years on flats and they really helped my riding. Even in my clipless I still manage the bike as if I were on flats. Riding well on flats is an important skill for sure.

when i took up the sport again i put on flats and got some 5/10s and never looked at clips until recently . i,m enjoying the enduro format of racing and have been toying with trying some of the platform style clipless pedals . back in the day i used 636,s from shimano with a xc shoe . with 5/10 making flat style shoes for clips and a few companys making flat style pedals with clips it seems like a better choice for racing and park riding .

I only ride flats.
I own clips and tried to get used to it for 6 months on road and around the ubc endowment lands' gravel traills. After 6 months, I noticed I had learned to pedal differently when I went back to riding my mountain bike on flats, but I still didn't feel comfortable clipped in.
To stay consistent in how I pedal I've only ridden flats since, including when I got into cross and touring/long ass gravel/road rides in the flatland this fall.
If your not seriously racing and don't hold up your friends, who cares if you'd be slightly more efficient clipped in?
I can't comment on the advantage for technical climbing since I've only ever ridden my mtb with flats. I have never blamed my pedals for struggling with a climb and usually do pretty good on them and enjoy riding them. However, if you find your rides are consistently being ruined by your inability to make it up techy climbs on flats, clip in again.

Also see Sam Hills Enduro bike for a pro rider who seems to only run flats.

I rode clipless for a long time then two winters ago I tossed flats on to be able to ride snowy and icy trails slightly safer. I never took the flats off that spring and have since realized I enjoy flats much more. I could likely climb better but I'm not racing and find the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

I'll probably go back to clipless sometime though just to change things up.

can't stand riding trails on flats, love having my feet firmly planted in a consistent place. Never really have trouble having fun, or getting feet out when needed. I do have flats on the dj/pumptrack bike, definitely appropriate in that setting, no problems being able to ride/jump with them, just definitely don't prefer them.

imo the type of pedal you run is mostly dependent on the type of riding you do. if you're mainly a dh/fr rider that shuttles or does easy fire road climbs and charges on the downhill then flats make more sense. i keep flats on my dh bike because being able to stick out a foot for a quick dab in gnarly terrain is a big plus.

if you're doing lots of tech climbing or xc style riding then a clipless pedal is definitely the way to go as it makes a noticeable difference in your climbing efficiency and power.

if you're mostly am/enduro style riding then the choice gets a bit tougher. i think it depends on how challenging of a climb you like to do and how important it is to you to be able to make that climb. for myself, i'd rather have the extra benefit for the climbing and find that on the downhill i don't lose anything with the clipless.

like with many things bike, there is rarely one right answer.

i do recall the ability to jump higher and further when i was clipped in . today i feel like the bike falls away from me with flats so i try to pump rather then jump . i also hate the feet bouncing on and off the pedals in certain choppy high speed sections .

i also was reminded on the ability to tail whip the bike around corners was way easier clipped in , after watching some vids of the Rotorua EWS race . some killer tail whip nose wheelie action in some of the vids popping up online .

I also have ankle issues and find that daily trail riding to and from work year-round, the clipless just started to wreak havoc on my ankles. Just the repeated strain of never being able to really change the position of my foot on the pedal day in and day out.

I've never bothered to give clips an actual shot, only traded shoes+bike for one ride but this is something that would concern me. I know through the summer of hundreds of bike park laps I try to do as many of the easier runs I end up on with my feet switched (right forward instead of left) so I don't end up with crooked hips one day haha, and I know I move my feet all over.
I can see the advantages for climbing and pedalling etc but I'm not much of a racer and don't really care lol, I'll just keep flats on both bikes.

Flats.

Flats only on the DH bike… clips for the AM bike. Tried flats for everything one year and just couldn't come to terms with the loss of climbing power. Or the perceived loss of climbing power.

I'm a flats all the time guy now. After riding on flats exclusively for a couple years, I find that I'm a lot more confident in gnarly sections than I used to be.

For climbing I find, in my experience, that the perceived advantage of clips diminishes the gnarlier the climbing gets, and body English on the bike makes more of a difference on getting up technical bits. I also find my fitness to be more of a limiting factor than any sort of perceived efficiency of clips. I'm still going to be sucking wind at the top of Old Buck whether I'm clipped in or not. Maybe clips and spandex is the magic answer?

TL;DR: I don't race, and I don't use Strava at all. I ride for pure enjoyment and I enjoy flats much more than clips, so I ride flats.