Flats vs Clips for downhill

[Boardman]

Clips or Flats.
At the moment I ride with five ten impacts with flat pedals and i have seen a few people running clips, just wondering what is better preferably for Tasmanian tracks.

[ferntreekid]

surely there are five million threads around the place on this topic...

depends on lots of things, one is not 100% the better option:

Riding style: If you're a feet up clean rider then maybe its easier to transition to clips than someone that loves throwing a foot out and getting super loose.

Tracks: Pedally vs tech. A big chunk of the bonus of clips is the extra pedaling power, so on a track that you won't be pedaling so much, there's less advantage. Once you get really used to clips and unclipping fast they can no problem on tech as well, but not being about to get a foot off in a hurry can be a problem, especially when you're not used to it.

Racing: If you're not racing, then the little bit of extra speed that clips might give you is maybe not worth it. If you look at the pros, how many big mountain guys ride with clips? even the guys that aren't throwing down massive tricks still ride flats. It's another thing to maintain, more gear to have, extra complication and so on.

But, best way to find out is to give it a go. I had DX shoes and M647 pedals and they worked really well.

[Boardman]

Thanks for that, I think that I will go with clips.