Originally Posted by
Kapusta
Unless you are coming off when in the air, if you’re slipping off of your pedals much then either your pedals or your shoes (or both) suck. Get some decent flat pedals and shoes.
There is a HUGE difference between good flat pedals with a large platform and good pins vs whatever crap comes stock on a cheap bike, or what they use on the flat side of those combo pedals.
Cycling specific flat pedal shoes make a big difference as well. Five-Ten and Ride Concept (for example) both make a lot of great shoes for this. If you go the sneaker or hiking shoe route, go with the smoothest soles you can.
The most important technique tip for most people getting started on flats is to drop your heels when going through rough stuff.
Yeah, part of the problem was the spd cleat is slightly raised above the shoe sole, and they were striking the axle spindle housing, so I wasn;t getting good purchase of sole on the cage teeth...
Pedals are the hybrid style , SPD on one side and old school steel cage with teeth surrounding and what holds the shoe on the other side.
Originally Posted by
Ironfish653
I wouldn't say it's a totally bad thing, but 3 years off would definitely contribute to some loss of the muscle memory that makes up a large part of handling skills. It'll take a few rides to get that back to the point where you don't have to think about your feet all the time.
I run SPD most of the time, but the 'townie' bike has flats on it; I take it out and do "skill drills" on it on the regular (bunny-hops and manuals) since your technique has to be sharper to do it on flats than with clipless.
Also do yourself a favor and get some better pedals if you want to ride flats for a while; the backside of most 'hybrid' clipless suck. Get some BMX-style flats for better support and grip: RaceFace Chesters are popular, as are some of the plastic-body pedals like the Oddessy Twisted and Animal Hamilton
I'll get a set of Chesters, I believe my son uses them - he's total MTB committed and rides only flats... sadly he's in NC, and I'm in CA...
My shimano shoes are quite like flat shoes, same type sole and upper. I'm gonna take the SPD cleats off and that might solve some of the 'slipping' issue.
But my mtb skills have deteriorated... and I currently suck
... but it's not like I didn't have some decent skills before, but became reliant on the clipless... The whole 'balance' issue, although getting much better again, becomes really obvious when I was on single track... I'll work at it and hope to suck less as I ride more... LOL!
By the 3rd hour of the ride, things were improving a bit, but still sketchy...
Originally Posted by
gringomojado
Must have "Dork Disk" , "ching-ching", and kick stand to go with flat pedals.
Just keep riding!
gm
LOL! "ching-ching" ??