clipless pedals
 

I am new to mountain biking and am considering clipless pedals. I want to spend as little as I can and still get
well working pedals and shoes. What should I get and what are the advantages of clipless pedals?

Depends on your style of riding as to the 'advantages'. As a newbie, I'd recommend sticking with regular "platform" pedals for at least 6 months. You need to know your bike, how it handles, what you can and can't ride away from. You don't need to be "attached" during this learning period.

If you find that you are riding mostly cross country (XC) type trails with some technical sections and some small jumps, then clipless would be an advantage. www.pricepoint.com has some good deals on shoes/pedal combinations.

If you find that you are more into "agressive" riding, technical descents, lots of jumping, perhaps riding stunts and elevated trail sections, you'll find that you'll probably want to stick with platforms.

I am litte more than a newbie myself, I've been on clipless pedals about a month. Here are the advantages I see.

1) My feet never slip off the pedals now. - That was a problem mountain biking.

2) I can get more power by pulling back and up o the "off" pedal instead of only pushing down on one pedal.

3) If I find that I had to stop unexpectedly - usually due to traffic. I can change gears by lifting the wheel and pedalling with just one foot clipped in while I stand on the other foot.

Disadvantages - I'm not that good at mountain biking yet so I have to step off the bike more than most. Once or twice or a half dozen times, I've fallen as a result of not being about to clip out fast enough. Truth be told, in many of those cases I suspect I would have fallen regardless since I was awkwardly balanced at best.

Sometimes I've had trouble clipping in. Partly due to inexperience and partly due to a loose clip - Keep those clips tight!!

As far as what kind - I have mks ez cube QR pedals since I have two folding bikes and the ability to remove the pedal helps with folded size. I've been using them on all my bikes for the past month. nice pedals but I would not recommend them if you don't need the quick release function. There are much cheaper solutions.

I have purchased crank bros mallet pedals for my mountain bike. It's a big platform pedal around a eggbeater 4-way entry clipless pedal. I figure I can use the platform when I miss the clip in. Or if I'm nervous and want to be free to step off the bike. I'll be putting them on this evening.

time or crank bros are the champs. crank bros pedals are easy to learn on, start with the candy and upgrade to the egg beaters when you learn the ropes. word of warning: brass cleats need to time to break in, and they also get sloppy fast, ie under a year, so replace the cleats, not the pedals, when they start feeling like there is too much play in them. i also like the cranks bros cause they have a grease port for easy maintenance. lite as well. figure about 100 dollars for the candy C model

I am a beginner but I have fallen down only once since I got my bike. I have been riging my new bike almost every day for about 2 to 3 hours for 3 weeks and have gotten pretty used to it. I could really use clipless pedals for the insane amount of roots i come across! What are the cheapest pedals and shoes I can get that work reasonably well?

I started on clipless pretty early on & yes had some silly falls while not unclipping quickly, but this will happen even if yr riding 10 years & go to clipless.. if you come off at speed, if yr clipped or not - yr going down & yr feet unclip when you fall anyway, well for me so far they have.....

I hired a bike on weekend without clipless pedals and hated it - feel kept bouncing off....

as for what to get, I picked up cheap Shimano SPD's pedals and Shimano trail shoes when I started & they served me well for a good while - upgrade to the multi-release shimano cleats if you do choose shimano though..

I think the campus style is the best of both worlds. SPD on one side and platform on the other. On those hairy sections, I just flip the SPD over to the platform side & keep on going. I have the Performance Campus pedal on a few bikes and it has worked flawlessly. Cheap too. Wait until it goes on sale for about $33 if you choose to buy these:

http://www.performancebike.com/shop/...e.cfm?SKU=2275

You could buy the Shimano ones, but I see no avantage.

Hmmm....
 

So you like having to fuss with the pedal direction in order to clip in? This is why I ditched the cagegs and straps.

Try an Egg Beater Mallet or Time Z instead for platforms and clips on BOTH sides of the pedal.

Your opinion.

Don't be shy ...
 

You have another opinion skeeter? Please share it. What is your preference and why?

I recently bought the cheapest wellgo clipless pedals that pricepoint sells. They were fine for a time and I had to move up to SPD's. In my experience, I would go with a higher quality pedal right off the bat. The wellgo's are inconsistent; a little harder to get clipped in and sometimes come out without much warning. Other times I have gotten the cleat stuck in them. Overall, they were a great value (being 40 bucks or whatever they were) but get quality if you can afford it. JMHO...

And mine also.

I changed over from SPD to Crankbrothers and never looked back. Much easier to get in and out of, not to mention to get rid of globs of mud.

Nashbar had Eggbeaters on sale for $50... not sure if they're still available....

I recently decided I wanted to get in to the clipless game. I picked up a pair of Nashbar's house brand ATB SPD pedals and a pair of Diadora Gekos. I'm sure there are better shoes and pedals out there, but for my budget and needs, they are perfect for the time being. I got the pedals for around $25 and the shoes for $40 (both on sale and ordered on a 20% off day so they were even cheaper than this). They seem to be holding up well.

Starting off, they were a bit challenging to get used to. They definitely feel much different from platforms and mentally, I kept wondering if I could get out of them in an emergency landing. So far I've only wiped out once because I couldn't get out of them. It was this last saturday in a rock garden we were riding through. The only times I had trouble getting in to my pedals was on the steep climbs where there were rocks everywhere. I finally realized that the tree is my friend. I ended up cheating and using a tree for balance to click in, and then I was on my way up.

Overall, I'm glad I transitioned even though it was a bit of a challenge at first.

I only have a couple of recommendations. First, I would recommend that you pick up some cycling socks. I got a black pair of DeFeets and they are TONS better than a cotton sock. Well worth the $5 you'll pay for them. Also, you might consider one of the clipless / platform combo pedal that have entry acess on both sides of the pedal. I sort of wish I had gone this route so that I wouldn't have had so much trouble on the steep rocky sections when I was trying to click in. With those, you could just use the platform to get out of the hairy stuff and then click in on flat ground.

Good luck getting your new shoes and peds!

OH, and one other thing. If you order from Nashbar, upgrade your shipping to 2 day at least. Trust me, it's worth the extra $5.

my opinion? what else is reasonably priced, light weight, has 4 sided engagement, no mud clearance issues, grease guard injection, good float ect ect.... crank bros destroys shimano, xpedo, bebop, ect ect.