Beginner's Guide To Clipless Pedals | Clipless Pedal Skills

making the leap to clipless pedals can be a scary one and it's likely to come with a few bumps along the way but hopefully not bad enough to put you off forever but i know that does happen so here are a few beginner skills with clipless pedals to help you out [Music] clipless pedals or as most people call them clips do have some advantages when it comes to putting the most power into the pedals to get the bike going but also for riding over rough terrain they can be really good don't get me wrong flat pedals are great as well and many of the world's best riders and racers still love flat pedals so do i still ride them quite a lot but for many intermediate or advanced riders clipless pedals will be the right choice but it can be a rough start even if you're a really good rider you can make a few mistakes and the first few rides can be a bit challenging with clips even if you're really good so here's a few tips learning how to clip in is a starting point of course it is i hear you saying but actually picking the right style of pedal for you will determine or maybe determine how you actually clip into those pedals so first things to look at the available pedals on the market and try and find the right one for you and your type of riding there are different brands and styles of clipless pedals most popular are shimano they're spd they're the originals and crank brothers are super popular as well there are others like look hope all variations of the same theme basically you've got that retention system in the middle uh and your cleats on the bottom of the shoe that will actually engage into that retention system and then you've got different styles of pedals as well so these are the mallet crank bars mallet so they're kind of an enduro style pedal because this cage around the outside with these grub screws as well so they look much more like a flat pedal the extra support around it's that sort of egg beater in the middle crank brothers do their egg beater pedal which is just that alone in the middle so a much lighter weight pedal you find that those styles smaller pedals even the shimano ones just pair much better for cross-country riding we don't need the extra support and extra sort of friction and grip on the outside for if you're riding sometimes unclipped the smaller pedals are lighter of course and you often pair them with a stiffer sole shoes so like the cross-country shoes often have the high-end ones have carbon fiber soles it's super stiff so definitely try and find the one that suits you if you're an injury rider daniel ryder look for ones with a bigger cage there's pros and cons for each brand shimano some people love them they have a really sort of direct engagement you hear a big click when you go in but i find they have less float so i come from riding flat pedals for years i find if i turn too much i actually move my feet around i can unclip fairly easy on shimano pedals but you can adjust how much retention forces with shimano you don't get that option with crank brothers but what i find is these they feel much more like a flat pedal to me the way i kind of can get in and out super easily you can change the amount of degrees by changing your cleats so i have them on the earliest release 15 degrees release so things you can play around with but definitely read up on what pedals and what brand of pedals will suit you and your style of ride in the most one feature i do like of crank brothers is you can go in forwards with shimano you have to clip the front of your cleaton and then push down backwards same with crank brothers but you can also do it backwards so if i've unclipped and got my foot off and a foot back on in a random position you can just sort of shuffle it around and it will clip in eventually [Music] another really important setup thing is to make sure your cleats on the bottom of your shoes in the right position back and forth so that your foot feels natural on the pedal like it would on a flat pedal if you have to sort of search around for that cleats like it's too far forward you'll just find it difficult to clip in and out every time and you don't want to try and get used to it basically especially if you're like me you're sort of experienced with flat pedals for years just play around with these to make sure they're in the same position your foot in the same position and against my backgrounds down in downhill and enduro i run them really far back in my shoe on these shimano shoes this is as far back as they go and that puts me in that same position nice and neutral slightly heel down side to side you can mess around with just really as much as anything is trying to make sure you've got enough space you don't clip your foot on the crank for me so i make sure they're fairly wide so a larger cue factor which i don't mind just feels fine and i can clip in and out nice and easy [Music] clipping in is something that i think you'll learn fairly quickly but it's the clipping output which is a stumbling block for many people when they switch over to clipless pedals and it's something that i definitely made all those mistakes and fell over and i still do it now definitely uh occasionally if i've not ridden them for a while i've put them back on and i'll kind of forget i'll just go to lift my foot off the pedal but what you have to do is actually twist your heel out like i said before i've got these on the earliest release so i don't have to twist too much and they'll come out but it takes a lot of getting used to whilst it's definitely worth sort of leaning against the wall or something and practicing this i think really you've got to get out right to mellow trails to begin with yes you can clip out early to begin with and just get your foot down but actually that's not very practical because you don't want to be riding trails with your foot unclipped get ready to stop so really it's just a case of repetition keep riding ride the meadow trails for me i was racing world cups you know winning british national daniel races so i was a good enough rider but when i went to clips i felt like i went backwards massively and i'd go and write something a bit technical a bit scary and i would absolutely crap myself because i didn't want to be attached to the bike so it's definitely a case of just putting in the time and eventually you'll get used to it another really easy way of getting some practice in is to stick them on your commuter bike if you ride it to work just don't fall off in the middle of town [Music] once you get used to the feel of riding in clippers pedals you'll probably notice that's all feel of extra power especially climbing it just feels like you can spin circles a little bit better it's marginal but you do get a little bit more of a pull and that can really help on tactical climbs as well to begin with you might feel like actually your hamstrings get a bit sore afterwards they're not used to pulling up as well but hopefully they'll get better stronger for it and you'll be faster for it as well so step one and getting comfortable with clipless pedals is definitely spending as much time as you can riding mellow trails and just time on the bike again just clipping and clipping out all the time making sure you're twisting your heel and then once you get used to this you'll then really start to feel different when it comes to riding rougher technical terrain i've had some big crashes over the years cranking along on terrain especially if it's a bit flat and it's rough you could be pedaling hard on flats hit a bump that you haven't seen and the foot comes off and then disaster so getting used to riding mellow then starting up in it and it'll feel so much better on the flat rough stuff once you're used to it [Music] also when it comes to clips and i've talked about the extras or pedaling power and control you do get on the rougher stuff i think it can really help we're moving up the scale here into sort of the intermediate and advanced skills because this trail is definitely advanced but you just get the extra little bit of wheel placement skills that you don't you can do with flats which is harder you've got to be much more precise with flat pedals with clips you can cheat a little bit and you can just pull up a little bit and make all back wheel light when it comes to riding the more technical stuff where sometimes wheel placement is really really important it's just that bit easier on clips and you can really see that at the highest level if you watch a bit of world cup downhill racing you can see some of the world's best riders are so precise with their front and especially with their back wheel it's the back wheel i really find with clips you can just move it around that much easier there you go there's some beginner tips hopefully to help you if you're going to switch over to clipless pedals start with getting the right equipment i would just kind of look at what the pros use style wise if you're a cross-country rider look at the type of shoe and pedal they use not necessarily brand but you know what i mean size build especially with pedals make sure you get the right size you know if you're super cross country rider get a super lightweight one um then practice riding on mellow trails get used to twisting your heel it'll take ages you will fall over but you'll get there eventually and then get used to the tech control of lifting that back wheel to move it around to exactly where you want to get it have a go stick with it you'll get it eventually

Channel: Global Mountain Bike Network

Views: 123,641

Keywords: clips, clip pedals, clipless pedals, clipped in, clipless, shimano, spd, beginner's guide, guide, skills, how to, how to ride clips, pedals, tutorial, clip in, clip out, shoes, riding shoes, what pedals, GMBN, Global Mountain Bike Network, mountain biking, mountain bike, Bicycle (Product Category), MTB, Bicycle, Downhill, XC, Cross Country, Enduro, MTB skills, bike skills, mountain bike skills, bike, bike riding, cycling, gmvn, neil donoghue, sec-top-10, scany15, ᐶ, ߚ‎, 1k, 1o, ᢜ, ኽ, ᢊ, 1w, Ꮖ, ꔇ, ፕ17

Id: PjcQnx0RQVs

Length: 9min 13sec (553 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 03 2021