Originally Posted by
Weakbikr
They are road pedals, they came on the bike. I put some platforms on it because I've never used clipless pedals and I needed shoes and cleats. Also just wanted to get used to the bike as is. So now I'm gonna be nervous as all get out on my next ride. Getting clipped in is a challenge. I know I'll get accustomed to it though.
I use to use clipless and switched back to flats, five ten flat bike shoes with flat pedals with pins. They've done studies on pro racers in the lab and found they're the same speed with clipless as they are wearing basic tennis shoes (some people argue they give an edge in racing where you're sprinting but I'm not racing). Most of the real advantage of clipless is in foot retention, keeping a racers foot on the pedal as they all out wildly sprint, it's not in speed.
I just say this because I spent years trying to make clipless work, then realizes it was greatly diminishing my enjoyment of biking, when I switched back to flats I started enjoying biking a lot more again.
Clipless is a perfectly good system, but if you end up in the situation I did where it was causing problems that kept me from biking it's not worth it. It's the "stick shift vs automatic" of the biking world.