Dear Friends,
Free this holiday season! A drill-filled guide designed to help you discover the technique and style gifts of flat pedals.
I'm NOT trying to convert you to flat pedals. Though if you ride clipless, then you're missing out on the refinement that logging time on flats can have on your technique. You can then carry this style back to clipless at any time you like! Following my curriculum will speed up the acquisition of these, dare I say, transformative flat pedal benefits.
By switching from clipless pedals to flat pedals and following this program, you will improve your riding skills more than with any other method I know of it - though not without some challenge and perhaps frustration.
Riding with flat pedals reveals inefficiencies in your riding technique and forces you to learn and relearn skills in the most effective way. Many skills developed while on clipless pedals are compromised and therefore very limiting for long term skill progression. Our bike and body need to move as one cohesive and connected unit, and flat pedals inspire this.
This integrated movement is also related to style - riders who have spent time developing their skills on flat pedals simply look good when mountain biking!
Claim the course for free before the New Year - there is no expiry once you have it - just in case you're too busy playing in the snow.
Learn more about The 12 Ride Flat Pedal ChallengeA big thanks to
Waki Leaks for the incredible artwork that accompanies this online course.
Happy Holidays!
Sincerely,
Ryan Leech
MENTIONS:
@RyanLeech /
@WAKIdesigns
Yet, watch those who have mastered skills by switching it up and also riding other disciplines, and you can see how the abilities and skills cross over and make them a better rider. They make it look effortless rather then awkward and forceful.
I read all the material and watched all the videos. There's no secrets in there. It's a course for people who can't figure anything out for themselves. I'm glad I didn't pay $12 for it.
To put some background behind that comment. I ride clipless on my road bike and flats on my mountain bike. I ride flats so I can bail out easily and make sure my mountain biking technique is good (not that it matters, thats just my own puritanical BS going on). I guess that's why nothing in the video was a surprise or an inspiration. I already ride flats and pay attention to my technique.
The basis for the video seems flawed to like everyone who is riding clipless didn't start on flats. I'm pretty sure everyone started on flats and moved to clipless for whatever reason. I don't think there's an oppressed race of people with their feet clipped to the pedals who have never known the freedom of not being clipped in. I don't think this video provides any reason to give up clipless. Don't bother, I'm upset with myself for going all the way to the end.
Amen. Riding BMX, Pumptrack / DJ, Cyclocross with or without Flats does way more for improving your bike handling skills. It`s not (entirely) the gear holding back cyclist`s coordinative abilities.
I considered myself a pretty decent rider onroad and offroad for the past 15 years, then started riding cyclocross last year and DJ/pumptracks this year. I have learned more and improved faster since that point than all my full suspension, tubeless, dropper post , aero gear ever did in the last decade. My level of fun on a bike didn`t change a lot but speed and times did.
Went riding at a track (BMX Race) yesterday that has a flat pedals only rule, and found out some of our State and National Champions could not physically Jump or Manual as they had never learnt how to control a bike without having to rely on using a clipped in shoe system.
And yet many others who ride there not only say they feel they have better bike skills, they actually look much smoother when they swap back as they have a much nicer style of control.
I can see other fields where flats would have an advantage, but for riding DH/Enduro, it's clipless all the way for me now.
There have been really slippery rides where I was wishing I was riding flats
When riding clipless and I can't dab as freely as I used to on flats, it just makes me so much more committed to my riding and my lines now.
It's like, you know you're bolted in, so you just have to ride better to accommodate. And you do.
Riding clipless doesn't cost me a thought any more, and I'm far more prepared and confident though sections where I'd previously have lost footing on flats, and had to invest time and thought into getting properly repositioned again.
If I crash, I crash. Happens on flats as well. But I can honestly say clipless has completely changed the way I ride, for the better.
this also strangely was one of the most pain free cuts yet? thanks to Syncros Mental pedals
ep1.pinkbike.org/p4pb3530623/p4pb3530623.jpg
A year ago I bought some 5-10 shoes and a set of Saint flat pedals to give it a shot. I can honestly say, that for the riding I do, I now prefer flats for all the mountain biking I do. I like having my feet on and off the pedals all the time when doing technical riding and would say I am not that much less inefficient when climbing (although I dont really care about that).
Yes my riding is different, but I would say in a good way.
The ONE problem I have with flats (and I am going to continue to work on this) is getting my feet positioned correctly on the pedals. Often, I have to move my foot around a bit to get it where I want it, this requires sitting on the seat briefly and can be difficult when rocks and roots are coming at you quickly. Then I will dab a foot in a sharp turn and have to reset my foot on the pedal. practice I guess.
I've been on flats for over 40 years (BMX in the 1980's through to MTB now). Tried clipless a few years ago - didn't like it one bit. Felt free as a bird when I put flats back on.
I have only tech climbs where I live and I'd rather climb in flats and ride down clipped in
Climbing well with clipless is a technique/skill I suppose some people just don't have in them...
Proper flat pedal technique is the only path to true bike mastery. It is a difficult journey but it is worth every ounce of effort!
All that said, I love clipless now, it was way harder to learn on compared to flats, but no way in hell do I leave clipless unless i turn into a lazy shuttle/lift rider.
Recently I added a hardtail to my quiver and outfitted it with flats just as a different way to keep on progressing. It has been a seriously humbling experience. I had forgotten how much harder technical climbs are on a hardtail, and I think it was magnified for me by ditching both clipless pedals and rear-suspension at the same time. Climbs that I cleaned every single time clipped in on a 5" trail bike were at first making me dab numerous times due to losing rear wheel traction. I've cleaned them on the hardtail since but it required much more precision and timing. Also, I have to bunny hop over a few culverts to get back to my house on local rides which I do almost with my eyes closed clipped in and fully-suspended but even these require serious concentration on flats/hardtail.
So while I probably won't sign up for the course, I am a believer that flats mask some bad habits and once you correct them, clipped-in will be that much better.
This is usually associated with flat pedals. Is it possible that the flat pedals are related to IQ? I do not want to offend anyone. This is just my observation.
PB is my FB, in that it's as close to social media as I get, so I don't know how people are with other things but I suspect it's just more of the same.
The ego's a funny, fragile thing.
Cobblers. Clipless is a skill in its own right, and if you think it makes things "easier", you're deluded - plenty on this thread obviously lack the *skill* to ride clipless.
"More efficient" is not "easier".
Tried to sign up, but its "free" only assuming you're a site member, which is $20 per month.
Still a nice gesture, but "free"?
Clipless is clipped in pedals no?
What's the difference between clipless and clipped in pedals?
I guess I don't know because flats yo.
$20 a month hardly seems free to me. Am i missing anything here?
I rode clipless all through HS and University but I've been on flats for a few years now. I get knocked off here and there so I'm hoping this program helps my technique a bit.
learn.ryanleech.com/p/free