DH + Clipless pedals?

Just to reiterate, the cleats come with the pedals. So if you're buying used pedals, make sure you get the cleats as well or at least know how much they cost.

Not sure about matching cleats to shoes, since I run Shimano and have yet to see an MTB shoe that doesn't work with a standard 2-bolt cleat. You should be OK with most major brands.

(There are some cleat/shoe incompatibilities on the road side, but that's another story.)

its really a matter of what you like and what works for you

If one or the other might make you faster why would you say one or the other is better if you havent tried it ?

I like shimano clipless personaly …except for maybe riding skinnies when you need that extra milli-second to unclip [HTML_REMOVED] get away

I use basic double sided Shimano clips on my Road bike for commuting and I used to use them on my hard tail for XC. However when I started moving into steeper trails I found the clips too distracting. Mainly as I could start off with one foot preclipped but the other foot was the issue and I was finding that by the time I clipped the second foot I was already at an obstruction or corner and because I'd been focusing on clipping my foot in I had a bad line and then it just got into an annoying chain of repeating events: start, try to clip, shit! bad line, stop, try to start again etc, etc…

I'd be interested to know what the recommended technique is for avoiding that issue? Maybe I need to try to start in a track stand and then clip before moving? Although I just bought some nice 5.10 bike shoes (my first every pair of proper mtb shoes) to use with my flats so my wife would probably kill me if I swapped to clips on my Norco Six right now.

I ride everything on clipless, shore, dh, xc even dirt jumping! the thing is, your feet are always where you want them, none of that shifting your feet to get them in the right place nonsense. However I learnt to ride on flats and am glad I did, the only time i miss flats is on really sketchy stuff in the wet and dirt jumping when I want to do no footers (difficult in clips)! One advantage is that you can also do no handed wheelies up hills! enjoy practicing that one.

Any tips for getting started moving on the steep stuff with clips?

you can clip one in while standing ,the other foot don't clip till you are able just push down with an unclipped shoe for a bit till you get a chance

stop while clipped in and lean against a tree which also rips jerseys so I like to always wear elbow pads even for xc (like the 661 2x4's) cuz they let me bounce off tight trees even if I don't crash

Clipless pedals with a good sized cage (platform) tend to clip in faster when you need to clip in quickly in a pinch. The cage tends to act as a "guiding mechanism". For any sort of aggressive riding/desending platform+clipless is the way to go. There is still however no replacment for experience, you need to put in your time to get real good. You also dont want to compromise a few hundred grams for the security the plaform+clipless brings you. Even for XC around here I recommened these types of pedals.

Thanks for the advice flattire, the clips I'd been using where the road bike style models so no cage/platform, now I think about it a cage would help allot. I'd always wondered what the cages on the clips for offroad were for!