With so many colors, shapes, and sizes to choose from, it can be hard to decide what pedals to get for your mountain bike. Fortunately, knowing the not so simple question of whether you want platform or clipless pedals can be a huge help when narrowing down your options to choose from.
While combo pedals might seem like the answer to the problem, these have downsides of their own which make it usually better to go with either one or the other. There are of course advantages and disadvantages to each kind, but taking a look at each one a little closer in order to see what they are like can be very helpful.
The Ins And Outs Of Platform Pedals
First of all, most bikes come with platform pedals, so if you have not changed out your pedals since you got your bike then most likely this is the kind of pedals you have on your bike right now. These pedals are not only less expensive than the other kind, but they also do not require any special kinds of shoes or any other parts like the clipless pedals sometimes do and this makes them cheaper in that respect as well.
This also means that you can wear any shoe you want to with platform pedals, whether you are going for a trip to the beach and want to wear sandals or are commuting to work and wearing dress shoes. This is a huge advantage over clipless, for which you always have to wear your bike cleats no matter the occasion or how short the ride will be.
Platform petals are also very easy to care for and clean, with no problems if they get a bit muddy from riding in wet weather. The fact that many people never change out these pedals at all when they get their new bike does seem to prove how long these can last and that you might not need to do anything at all to your bike pedals. It is certainly undeniably easier in some respects to leave something good alone than it is to change it for something else.
Due to the fact that they will not grab the bottom of your shoes, should you need to ditch your bike for any reason – such as if you find you are going downhill way too fast and your brakes aren’t working – then these are the safest pedals to bail with. However, this same feature of having no grip also means that your feet can potentially slip off the pedals easier at times when you might not want them too.
Due to this fact, if you like doing tricks on your bike or plan on learning how to, then platform pedals are possibly not the best kind of pedal for you and can actually be dangerous depending on the trick you are trying to do. This kind of pedal also has a larger footprint and is more likely to get in the way or to get caught on side braches if you plan on riding through trails that are a tight squeeze.
With mountain biking platform pedals you have to keep a downward pressure on your pedals at all times in order to keep a good grip on them. If you like platform petals and simply want an easy way to get a few of the advantages of clipless pedals, then these can easily have toe-clips or straps attached which can help keep your foot from slipping and let you pull up on your pedals as well as push down.
Studs can also be a great option to improve the grip, but if your foot does slip in spite of the studs then these will hurt your leg more if it hits you. These can also potentially damage the bottom of your shoes if they stick out too far, but they can fortunately be removed if you do not want to have them.
The Ins And Outs Of Clipless Pedals
First things first, and contrary to popular belief, clipless pedals will not give you more power when you are biking. While they do strengthen the tie between your feet and the pedals, this can help you last longer on your ride but can actually hinder you when going uphill. This is because it is better to stand when going uphill, but when you stand you actually lose most of the advantages of a clipless pedal.
Another common misconception is that the ability to pull up on one pedal while the other one is going down will help give you a boost. In reality, if your brain is split between pulling and pushing then you are unable to exert your full energy for either, making you more likely to be slower instead of faster in the long run if you try it.
But perhaps you are more interested in finding out why in the world this kind of bike pedal is called clipless when you have to clip into it! Well, simply put, before these were invented someone invented something called toe-clip pedals which are like cages that attach to regular platform pedals to help keep your foot in place – much like what clipless pedals do but using a different method.
Sometimes these toe-clips would “clip” into the pedal when they attached to it. So, since the clipped name was already taken, some idiot decided to call these new pedals clipless pedals even though they clip. Why this they choose this name I do not know any more than I know why there are often brail signs on drive-through number pads… it is not as if a blind person would be driving anyway.
However, back to the subject at hand, this is not to say that there are no advantages to having clipless mountain bike pedals. Thanks to the better grip on clipless pedals, you will not have to worry about your feet slipping off of your pedals when doing a trick. This also helps to keep your feet in their proper position, making for potentially fewer aching legs and muscle cramps due to your legs going up and down at an angle they shouldn’t be.
Their smaller size not only helps with obstacles but is also lighter in weight most of the time, which is great if you are riding a race and want to cut back every unnecessary ounce. On the other hand, due to the necessity for “locking in” your feet, any dirt or anything that gets on your pedals could potentially interfere with this and cause problems.
This means that these pedals will require extra care and time to clean and that when riding in snowy or muddy conditions you will have to somehow make sure that none of either of those things manages to get into your cleats even when you are walking to where you are going to start from. This also means that you can add cleats to your list of things to care for and clean and that you have to remember to pack them for any biking trip you go on.
It can certainly take a bit of practice to get used to clipping onto your pedals and this takes a certain knack to be able to do. The cleats you use for one set of clipless pedals will not always work with a different set too, and this can add to the already slightly higher cost of clipless pedals when compared to platform ones.
Also, if for any reason you should crash into another person or into a something else, then you will often be unable to get your feet out of the way in time, especially if you are still learning how to smoothly unclip. You would therefore be more likely to get hurt, after which you would still have to unclip yourself even should you have a broken leg – not something you would enjoy doing. You also have to remember to unclip every single time you stop or you will end up crashing or falling over.
Pedal “float” is a description when referring to clipless pedals and is essentially the name for the small amount of movement that your feet can have even when they are fully clipped in. The amount of float that you can have can be adjusted in most clipless pedals to suit your own preferences and can give you a bit of wiggle room. This can be a nice feature if you want to go clipless but are not so sure of the idea of having your feet firmly attached to the pedal.
As a final note on the clipless mountain bike petals, these can also potentially be enticing for someone to steal your bike. This is because they are widely known to be more expensive than platform pedals and if paired with a nice looking bike can give the impression that your bike is worth a lot of money and therefore worth stealing.