Patriot1

I purchased these as I like options...

cyccommute 

Bunny hopping...even giant ones... can be done without clipless but it requires a very different technique and much more finesse. Rather than pull up with your feet like you do with clipless, you need to bounce the bike and twist your hands forward on the handlebars to get the rear wheel off the ground. It helps to do the same with clipless but it's a lot less necessary to do so.

Without clipless, you are also just getting your feet out of the way so that the bike can bounce upward while with clipless you are drawing the bike up with you.

J.Higgins 

Lol, I don't think I could bunny-hop even if I tried.

phughes

I have never had an issue bunny hopping, and I have never had clipless pedals. In fact, I began bunny hopping with crappy smooth pedals when I was a kid. It is a non-issue.

cyccommute 

You certainly can't if you don't try. On the other hand, it's a nice skill to have for lots of applications. You don't need to get massive air but it's handy for riding up a curb (lofting the rear wheel saves wear and tear) as well as riding down a curb (where lofting the wheel also saves wear and tear).

It also comes in handy if a pothole suddenly appears in front of you because you weren't watching where you were going. It's also extremely handy if you are "adventure" biking or off-road touring.

manapua_man

I've got PD-T8000 pedals on most of my bikes. I really like em. There's a cheaper version without pins too, but those get pretty slick when wet.

J.Higgins 

Looks like I need to start practicing. I'll bunny-hop while I'm bar-hopping!

MarcusT

You can bunny hop with fully loaded front and rear panniers? Sir, I tip my hat to you

staehpj1

It really isn't that big of a deal unless we are talking about hopping real high. It helps to even just unweight the bike and even a tiny hop can make a huge difference in getting over a pot hole or other road hazard without damage.

IMO it is a skill that anyone who rides could learn.

cyccommute 

What he said

Watch a bunny hop some time. They really don't get much air. Now "hopping" like a American pronghorn or gazelle, that's an achievement!

MiE

I haven't don't my first tour yet, but I commute everyday about 16-17 miles and I use a pair of flats with plastic toe cages. You do miss some of the efficiency of clipless but still feel like your foot is secured to the peddle and can get a little pull up. I have seen some use material straps of some kind as well instead of the cages.

Tourist in MSN

I congratulate you guys that can do your bunny hops to lift the bike, but when I ride on difficult terrain, I switch to the platform side of my M324 pedals and if I am going to be on difficult terrain all day I switch to my hiking shoes so that I do not accidentally clip in. There have been tooooooooo many times when I had close calls and had to get my feet on the ground really fast.

A couple years ago I busted my GPS mount when I could not get unclipped fast enough when the front wheel hit a soft spot and dug in.

noglider 

That's some scenery! Where is that?

cyccommute 

I mountain bike in clipless and have for most of 30 years. I've never been in a situation off-road where my feet didn't come out of the pedals quickly enough to make me crash. That includes abrupt stops on uphills when the wheel catches a rock or root.

On the other hand, I'd rather fall while clipped in than try to stick my leg out to "catch" myself in the middle of a crash. I've tried to catch myself in the past and only ended up with worse injuries than if I'd just stayed clipped and let the bike take the fall.

Front suspension goes a long way towards keeping your wheel from digging into soft spots. My primary use of front suspension isn't for comfort but for the enhanced control it offers. Rather than just digging in and having the wheel bog down, front suspension allows the wheel to grab the edges of the soft spots and climb out. I've done my time on rigid bikes and I'm way past that. If I'm going to tour on roads like the ones in your pictures (and I've ridden many of them), I'm doing it on either my Dean or my Moots. I've done some on my Moots but, due to ill tempered fairy, I've not been able to take too many pictures of off-road touring. I either forget batteries or I lose my camera

Tourist in MSN

Interior roads of Iceland.

Road was much more passable for this photo.

Patriot1

These roads might be a “trigger” starting another I love kick stands I don’t thread.

nickw

I won't argue that I 'feel' more efficient with SPD's....but it's a common myth that clipless helps people "pull up" resulting in better performance/efficiency/etc.

It can help at the top to kick over and bottom to scrape and to hold your foot in a proper position through the pedal stroke...thats about it. In reality, flat pedals offer 98% of the performance of clips once you are used to them.

nickw

Careful.

Sam Hill still uses flat pedals, granted he's on of the few, but rides the most technical gnarly terrain out there and is the top rider in the WORLD:

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/sam-hi...-ews-2017.html

Using clips for bunnyhoping is a crutch, absolutely not needed. I can clean the same obstacles just as easy with flats without question. No top trials riders, or 'street' BMX guys use clips, they are the bunnyhop kings...

This is coming from a guy who races XC MTB and Cyclocross with clips and wouldn't have it any other way, I still feel more efficient with them for racing.

seeker333

Speedplay Frog pedals are excellent, I've used them almost exclusively on all my bikes since ~2003.

In 2010 I tried some Power Grips pedal straps for a short time - basically a soft version of the toe clip. These would probably work well for a lot of bicyclists (combined with a similar Wellgo pedal). They are harder to get in to, but easier to get out of, compared to toe clips.

In 2016 I tried some Wellgo MG-1 pedals. Compared to Frogs there was only one advantage to this platform pedal (semi-universal shoe compatibility), and a few disadvantages - 100g heavier per pair, plus foot locked into position by combination of pedal tread pins and shoe sole, whereas Frogs allowed effortless lateral rotation. I changed back to Frog pedals after a few short trials. I may try these again when I'm more willing to experiment with pin placement and compatibility with various shoe soles.

Good clipless pedal systems are hard to beat. Bike shoes designed for use with clipless pedals have stiffer soles than "street" shoes, so less energy expended flexing a shoe sole, instead going towards pedaling effort. Street shoes and platform pedals are more likely to result in pressure "hot spots" on soles of feet.

https://www.bikeforums.net/19906961-post11.html

79pmooney

That myth will be exploded soon when pro racers start winning races in flats. Just you wait and see.

(I'm sitting back and watching. This will happen in my lifetime, won't it? I'm only 64.)

Today's race, the E3 Harelbeke in Belgium was a race where the advantages of flats would have proved huge. The winner spent the last 70 km in the wind with one other rider. He won by seconds. With flats and the gain of efficiency, that would have been minutes.

Ben

WNCGoater

Sorry I have to disagree. With clipless there is the option of switching to pulling instead of pushing the pedal, and this engages some different muscle groups, while offering a bit of rest to others. For me, it also changes forces against the foot which gives a bit of rest to areas of the foot being stressed. Heck, you can even unclip one foot, let it hang down off the pedal and pedal with the other if you wish!
Engaging some muscle groups while allowing rest in others by changing how you push or pull the pedal can indeed increase efficiency IMO. There is a reason toe clips came about in the first place and advent of "clipless" pedals.
But I suppose we would have to define "efficient" as it applies to touring. Does it mean faster? Longer distance? Less fatigue? Just easier? Seems easier at least, to me.
I do NOT believe "efficiency" means bunny hopping! nor do I believe that was the intent of the OP's question.

At the end of the day, for touring where one is typically riding moderate to long distances at relatively slow pace, I doubt there's much difference between the two, all things being equal. But regardless, everyone has to decide what they want, like, and what works best for them.

WNCGoater

This

79pmooney

+1! Something I have been doing both conciously and unconciously for more than 40 years. I've nursed my knees (lifelong chrondromalicia) many times "deleting" the dwonstroke for miles at a time. Made a point of doing more pullng than neccessary in the early, easier miles of races to have more of the big muscles at crunch-time.

Ben

KD5NRH

More than that, I've noticed sometimes that my average pushing vector varies based on certain factors. Usually, when just starting up a steep hill but not getting out of the saddle, I'm pedaling a bit more forward than down. I've been playing with it as a way to vary the load between muscle groups, and it seems to work, but I haven't had the good weather and time off to play with it on a loaded, most-of-the-day ride lately.

For my primary pedals, I like these: https://blueskycycling.com/products/...bearing-pedals
I can feel the mechanism when riding them in thin/soft soled shoes, but at least for a few miles around town, it doesn't bother me a bit.

dannwilliams

Dontcha love how a topic can go so far off on a tangent? Bunny hopping on a loaded touring bike!

I've been using clipless for almost 15 years now, but just wondering how flats work for folks day in-day out on a loaded touring bike. And if using flats, do you wear "regular" shoes or cycling specific shoes. I am considering getting flats just for the ability to wear whatever shoe I want. Thanks for all the comments so far, tho!