Been using 'clipless' on road since the very first - cyclebinding. But for the past 17 years I've been using eggbeaters on both road and mtb. I never felt comfortable using flats for XC, event though the terrain around here can be very technical, with high risk for serious injury or falling into a steep canyon. But in younger days, the ability to react quickly and 'eject' from pedals was more doable.
Not so these days.
I had put my mtb rides away for some time, until this past spring, when I decided to do more mtb, again - not competitive, just fun, tech, rec riding. I put on eggbeater ACID pedals (a longer cage around the eggbeater) and Candy (slightly smaller cage). I like both. Allows working the pedal even when you can;t get clipped back in. Often the case when you have to Dab and then put pedal effort quickly, and not be able to clip in quickly.
I tried SPD (mtn) pedals. But for me, too difficult to clip in quickly and no real shoe support to make pedaling secure, without being clipped in.
'Gravel' for me is mostly MTB lite - same type of terrain, excluding the real heavy chunk/rock and life-threatening stuff. LOL! If it's gonna be serious, difficult, I'm gonna ride my FS Stumpy.
But gravel is mostly conditions technical, as opposed to terrain technical (but with some butt-clutch moments) and speeds are mostly within the 10-15 mph range. So Clipless is perfect.
The newer Eggbeater Candys fit that bill for me. Solid performance, light and good show support when I'm not clipped in. WIth XC comp shoes, I don;t feel any 'bump'.
The 'match' is that I use stiff sole XC comp type shoes for gravel - not expecting to be walking much, if at all. For real mtb, I often find myself dismounting and having to 'carry' the bike around/over/ dry heavy chunk riverbed, rock fall, steep scree... for that kind of riding a good hiking sole is a must.
I think tuning your gear to the type of riding will determine what works for each of us. I'm all about 'survival' these days... LOL !
Ride on
Yuri
v-late EDIT: The Eggbeaters always bring a smile to my face... They remind me of Cubco bindings... (another thing... another era on the 'way-back' machine... LOL!)
Last edited by cyclezen; 12-06-22 at 11:27 AM.