Quote Originally Posted by Irulan View Post
I disagree. Having attending, and then coached many clinics, I strongly suggest flats. In addition, the professional coaches I work with strongly recommend flats. You can't force someone to change their pedals.

If you are trying something new, the last thing you need to be doing is monkeying around with clipping in to get started. In a clinic setting, there's a lot of sessioning, stop and go, and messing with clips can really affect initiation and suck away mental focus. That's the initiation part. Then there's the clipping out part. If you are trying something new: maybe a low skinny ( straight line riding) or a low teeter ( just for fun) or a descent that's more that you are used to... you might want to bail, FAST. Clips will keep you from doing this. You care going to be more injury prone with clips trying new things.

I ride clips normally, but switch out to flats for clinics.
Agree... One thing that's worked well for me is to install a set of pedals that have an SPD clip on one side and flats on the other, rather than plain double-sided SPD or some other device. Shimano M-520s, I think they are. At any rate it makes it easier for me to ride in either regular shoes or bike shoes, and as Irulan points out, there's lot's of times when life is a whole lot easier with flat pedals.