How To Choose Mountain Bike Pedals For Beginners?

Like every sport, mountain biking has its own unique set of equipment and tools. One of these is the pedals on mountain bikes. This of the more underrated components of the mountain bike. One of the particular advantages of the mountain biking pedal is that it is easier on the knees and ankles compared to running.

They can play a big role in the quality of your ride and improve your speed and efficiency. This makes it important to understand the different pedal types and what each is great for. This might involve a little bit of trial and error, but it is about the experience.

In this post, we will go through how to choose mountain bike pedals. Let’s get started!

Mountain Bike Pedal Type

Regarding pedals on bikes, there are 3 main types of mountain bike pedals these are as follows.

Clipless pedals.
Flat pedals.
Cage pedals.

Clipless Pedals

The clipless pedals refer to the style of the pedal. Which has a mechanism that allows special cleats fastened to the bottom of the biker’s shoes to attach them firmly to the pedal. The cleats make it possible to put power to the pedal on any part of the cyclist’s complete circular pedal stroke.

Clipless pedals also provide stable connections which result in performance in terms of speed, and efficiency, and make good use of your leg muscles to generate a powerful crank and get good power and speed while riding.

They also allow the biker to easily get off the bike and even to stop or rest by putting a foot down on the ground. The biker using clipless pedals just needs to snap his foot into place on the pedal and do a quick side rotation of the foot to enable the connection to release.

Cage Pedals

The cage pedals are those that you see in the gyms. The toe clips and toe cages are small frames that attach to the front of platform pedals and surround your toes. Simply, it secures your foot to the pedal that will allow you to pedal as well as push down.

The cage pedals can be very useful for beginners who are just in the learning stages and who do not use their bikes on difficult terrains.

Flat Pedals

These are also known as platform pedals. They are good for learners since they can easily put their foot down to the ground quickly to avoid a fall or to balance themselves during the ride.

Flat pedals are not normally preferred by experienced or professional mountain bikers because they do not have any attachment between the foot, the shoe, and the pedal. This results in a good grip that these pedals can not be used for mountain bike races or on treacherous terrains.

How To Choose Mountain Bike Pedals?

Simply different riding styles mean different pedals that are better suited to certain terrains.

For Clipless Pedals

Great for commuters, bikers who use the road, and cross-country mountain bikers.
Mades great use of your leg muscles and improves ride efficiency.

For Flat Pedals

Works with any type of footwear.
It makes it easier to get on and off your bike.

For Cage Pedals

It’s can difficult to use cage pedals when out biking, as it can be hard to foot your foot onto the ground quickly.

Do MTB Pedal Matter?

For most people, the pedals on a bike do not seem very important. The pedals are a very important part of the bike, the difference between a good quality pedal and one that does not suit the terrain or does not work properly can be the difference between a good riding experience and a bad experience.

Are Wider Pedals Better?

Simply the wider the pedal gets there is increased the risk of ground clearance concerns. In other words, you have a higher chance of hitting obstacles or dragging your pedal in the dirt around tight turns.

Wrapping Up

Finally, in choosing which mountain bike pedals there are two main options. These are flats and clipless pedals with cage pedals not really suitable for road bikers or for mountain biking on trails. To learn which one suits you will involve a little bit of a try-and-error approach.

And that’s it for now! I’d love it if this post on how to choose mountain bike pedals for beginners was helpful to you. Let me know if you have any questions and let me know if there is more to add.