I still have almost every pedal and shoe combo I've ever ridden. They're all in the shop, lined up like a timeline I never planned on keeping. The S-works road shoes with the boa closure. The black cyclocross pair. The various 5.10's that have been thrashed on flat pedal pins over the past five years and the fresh green fox kicks I just paired up with the new Crank Brother Mallet DH's. They're all there.
It's not sentimentality, per se. It's just that I'm hard on gear and there's so little life left in each of them that they're not worth selling and I've yet to find a good home for them.
It Started on the Road
I grew up pedaling around the neighborhood, but didn't really get hooked on bikes until being a teenager, just commuting to and from work on ratted out home brew fixies in around 2007 or '08. In college, I was always raiding the parts bin at my local bike shop, Boone Bike, for miscellaneous bits and bobs for my commuter and they eventually offered me a job. Boone Bike is primarily a road oriented shop and wrenching under Sam, the head mechanic was an absolute privilege and an incredible learning experience. Around that time, I saved up for my first proper road bike and wound up having some buddies rope me into the collegiate race team for Appalachian State University—which is how I started riding clipless pedals, looking for power transfer and efficiency. Sometime after graduating from ASU, In my mid 20's, I got my first mountain bike, a cross-country rig and I just ran the same setup I used for racing Cyclocross. Same shoes, same pedals, same logic. XC is close enough to road and CX riding that it made sense at the time. I was still tracking metrics like power output, cadence, heart rate and mileage - clipped in and seeking maximum efficiency.
What I didn't know then is that my relationship with two wheels would be ever evolving and moving towards the gravity based side of the sport over nearly the past 20 years.
Dirt Bikes Changed the Equation
Around 2021 I got into riding dirt bikes. That's a whole different relationship between your feet and the bike—you're standing on sharp pegs, weighting and unweighting the suspension and constantly repositioning each foot to shift gears and access the rear brake. There's no clipping in. Your feet just live on the platform and you move them when you need to.
I was still clipped in on my mountain bike, and figured I'd finally try flats and see what happened. It felt good immediately, and brought a lot of excitement and novelty back to pedal bikes for me. I realized that a lot of the same instincts that work on a dirt bike transferred. You could move your feet depending on if you wanted power transfer vs bike control, and it felt good being able to throw a foot out in a last second corner if I had to.
For the past 5 years, I've really enjoyed riding flat pedals but have felt the need to switch it up, once again.
The Problem: Aggressive Pins on Flat Pedals
The case for flats on trail bikes is real. Riding flats requires some fundamental skills that can't be faked or overlooked as easily as with the clipless system. To boot, the stability of a large pedal, the ability to move around on the platform, and don't forget about the peace of mind that comes from not worrying about clipping in or out during a sketchy moment—all of it is legitimate.
But aggressive flat pedal pins are a double edged sword - they provide a secure feel, but eat up the soles of your shoes. The combination of metal pins and repeated loading on technical terrain just grinds through soles. I went through pairs faster than I wanted to, and the cost of replacement started adding up in a way that was hard to ignore.
The other thing I noticed on longer rides was efficiency. Flats ask you to push down on every stroke. You don't get the pull. On a short, punchy loop that's fine—but over a longer day in the saddle, the difference is real.
The Bridge Back to Clipless
I didn't want to go back to my same old clipless setup. I tried it and the connection to the bike felt wildly off after being used to riding flats. The Shimano pedals I ran in the past had no pins, the cleats were positioned for pedaling efficiency vs bike control, and the amount of float in the system was not giving me much confidence after the planted feel of running flats.
After chatting with pals about their preferred setups, many YouTube videos and internet searches later…I sprung for a set of Crank Brothers Mallet DH, seeking a clipless pedal with more of a flat pedal feel. It's a DH oriented clipless pedal with a solid platform, adjustable pins and reversible cleats for two different float settings. Cleat positioning has been something I've played with a lot, seeking that balance of bike control and efficiency with the new clipless setup.
Honest Verdict
I've already had a handful of comical tipovers relearning how the clipless engagement works. All low-speed, and totally the kind of thing you expect when your feet have been free for five years and now they're not.
I'm still dialing it in. The engagement feels muddier than it should—I'd like them to have a more solid click, and right now it doesn't quite feel as dialed in as I would like. I'm thinking a thin spacer might help. I haven't committed to staying on clipless long-term. There have been some moments on trail where I've spooked myself a bit being locked into a corner or unable to reinstage the clipless instantly in a spicy bit of trail where I have managed to be 'foot out, flat out' so to speak.
I am enjoying the added challenge of relearning and adopting a new system and like that my feet stay where I put them and the pedaling efficiency has been welcome.
I keep all my riding gear packed and ready to go in a dedicated gear tote from Thornhill.bike, so when someone calls with a ride plan, or conditions are prime and I can get out for a rip, I'm ready to say yes to that last minute outing. No digging through the garage, or dresser drawers—the KITLOADER has made it easier to get out and actually test all of this in real terrain rather than overthinking it at home.
Maybe I'll go back to flat pedals. Maybe the spacer fixes the engagement and I stop second-guessing it. Either way, I'll still have every setup I've ever run lined up in the shop, just in case.