New to the forums here. Thought I would add my 2 cents to the clipless thing.

I've been riding mtn bikes for a while now, started out with SPD's and liked them, switched to CB eggbeaters, like them too probably better than the SPD's, although they were a bit hard to get used to - took a bunch of low speed crashes. Just switched to CB 50x/50x platforms about a month ago. Like them the best of everything I've used, I do loose a little pedal power but the convenience of wearing my light hikers and being more comfortable far outweight whatever loss of pedaling power I lost. I'm 52 years old and more interested in comfort and fitness (fitness comes 1st) than burning up the trails. If I had to evaluate myself using clipless compared to platforms I would say that I actually ride better and with more confidence with platforms.