My feet have been hurting in my fancy bike shoes lately. I’m also trying to relax a bit with my riding and get my form back. The girlfriend is riding flats so maybe I should match.
I’ve been playing with running flat pedals on trail for the first time ever. For jumps and flow and tooling around, sure. Just not on trail or DH. Last week was my first time using flats for trail outside of riding with boots for trail work days. It’s interesting.
Clipless pedals are really a lot faster and better for riding off-road. I’ve never had any issue and feel they offer major advantages, especially in the rough. World cup DH and WES enduro is almost exclusively clipless these days. I don’t think it’s a question what works best. The way my feet move over the pedal as I bounce down trail is simply a pain on the flats. With clipless, everything is perfect, always.
What can riding with flats do? Train my form. Get me moving better on my bike. I used to do drills for this but I just don’t have the time and energy for that these days. Once I feel things are going well, I’ll move back to the clips. It’s good to change variables from time to time.
In two big rides this weekend, I found that I really wasn’t getting the grip or control that I wanted from my Spank Spike pedals and my FiveTen Freerider shoes. The pedals would roll over and my foot would move to the outside at undesirable moments. I decided that I needed to improve the spikes. The older style standard screws that came with the pedals are thick and blunt. Sharper would help.
I increased the length of the spike 1mm and added a taper point. This should help keep things sticky.
Even though the newer pedals come with an improved screw, I figured that I’d do even better.
Here’s a print of the part. It’s a weird 4mm screw.
Comparing the old with the new and a Race Face Pin.
