As someone who learned to ride with clipless pedals from the get go, I always scoffed at flats and drank all the marketing cool-aid on clipless. However, I have a Morton's neuroma on my left foot and wide feet, and always had excrutiating foot pain on long rides or rides with lots of climbing. After years of trying numerous shoes and pedals, in recent years I discovered that riding with the Wide Specialized Body Geometry shoes minimized or even eliminated the problem. A little after discovering Rivendell bikes, I tried to drink Grant's flat pedal cool-aid but the pain was unbearable and couldn't find shoes that controlled or eliminated the pain like the Wide Specialized shoes did, so I put clipless pedals back on my Rivs. Not that everything was perfect, but it was manageable in terms of pain. BTW, this pain has always limited the amount of time/distance I can ride. This past summer, I picked up regular mountain biking again, after a year of not doing it at all. Regular mountain biking was how I picked up cycling as an adult in Venezuela some 14 years ago. Most of my current mountain biking friends (riding dual suspension bikes) ride with flats and we always made fun of each other. Then I bumped into the above article a month or two ago, and realized that I want to learn how to do some of the more essential/advanced mountain biking skills like wheelies and bunny hoping, manuals, etc. but don't dare try them on clipless pedals. The author not only made a good case (that I'd already been exposed to) on using flats to learn the skills properly, but opened my eyes (on another of the videos on his site, I believe) to how the foot needs to be positioned on the flat pedals. I had always been positioning my foot on the flats on the ball of my foot, instead of (as instructed) placing my foot on the pedal almost over the arch. I took advantage of Competitive Cyclist policy and tried some 5.10 shoes, discovered that with my wide feet I needed to go up one size and that the shoes that have firmer platforms since they are clipless compatible worked best for me. An Aline insole to replace the stock one improves it even more. I have now done mountain bike rides where my feet don't hurt while riding, no matter how much I climb or stand on the pedals during the descents. It's all about how the foot is positioned on the pedals. As I finish rebuilding my Atlantis, I ordered and installed a pair of the new flat pedals with pins that Riv is selling to give them a try again. Will adjust where I place my foot on the pedals again and see how it goes. These are the little details that seem to always be missed by people who don't have pain problems with their feet. It seems, so far, that a new world of possibilities has opened up since with the clipless pedals I could never position my foot so far over the pedal due to the limited range of the cleat positioning on the shoes. So, for those dealing with foot pain, it seems that the combination of a more rigid soled shoe + flat pedal with pins + shoe sole with extreme traction can provide a combination that improves the challenge significantly. Now if only 5.10 shoes were built in Wide as well... I could use my real size in terms of foot length for an even better fit.
Apologies for the long post! René "who never means his apologies for lengthy posts"... On Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 3:17 PM, Corwin <ernf...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Jim - > > I really liked this paper. Thanks very much for posting it. The only thing > I see specifically limited to mountain bikes is the discussion of > encountering rocks and other technical challenges on the trail. This seems > to have at least some partial application if you are riding a trail > somewhere (e.g., Mt Diablo). > > I found the slides from the Mornieux and Korff studies particularly > intriguing. They seem to buttress Grant's assertions about efficiency in > the pedal stroke. > > Can't say that I agree with his choice of shoes - but that's probably due > to my preference for snug shoes and skinny Tioga (Spyder and Surefoot 8) > pedals. > > Corwin > > > On Wednesday, December 12, 2012 9:21:05 PM UTC-8, Jim Thill - Hiawatha > Cyclery wrote: >> >> This is an impressive document about platform pedals. It echoes much of >> what GP has said about this subject for years. >> https://www.bikejames.com/**strength/the-flat-pedal-** >> revolution-manifesto-how-to-**improve-your-riding-with-flat-**pedals/<https://www.bikejames.com/strength/the-flat-pedal-revolution-manifesto-how-to-improve-your-riding-with-flat-pedals/> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/cNucO61uUU8J. > > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
