THE PEDAL DILEMMA – FLATS vs CLIPS

When I first started learning how to be a coach, I shadowed the Spokeswomen camp up in Whistler and they basically re-taught me how to ride. One of the biggest changes was going from 12 years of riding clipless pedals to flat pedals.

To be totally honest, I was pissed when they stuck me in flats! For the first part of the day I kinda hated them. By the end of the second day I realized how much more balanced I was in the cockpit of the bike! It was a turning point in my riding. Sometimes people get into bad habits in their clipless pedals so it’s fun to teach them how to use their feet. Are you dropping your heels, toe-ing down, do you know how to wedge? Let me show you how!

Clipless are great for building confidence too! It’s nice to be able to exit off the bike quick, especially when you are learning new skills. I think it’s great to learn on flats and if you’re doing lots of climbing eventually you can transfer to clipless if you really want to.

If you’ve been riding clipless a long time and I’m making you try flats, bare with me and give it a try, you might like it. If not, you can always go back to clipless later.