Adidas Velo Sambas

Really hoping that the Primeblue Freerider Pros offer better ventilation that the OG Freerider Pros.

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And then a bike courier dropped them off at my office!

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I’m a little confused by what you mean by casual. At least around these parts, there’s also people on road bikes riding flat pedals if it’s for commuting. But flat pedals are extremely common amongst “serious” mtbers, including myself. It’s much easier to get going and to stop of flats and with the right pedal and shoe combo, you have lots of grip. Clipless pedals are just a preference at this point.

Clipless pedals were just oversold for a long time and people are finally realizing that they aren’t for everybody. The advantages are just so small for most riders.

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I was responding to this thing you’d said - I really don’t know much about competitive or casual mtb, I hit the local trails on a cycletruck with a kid on a very tiny rigid bike, we are regularly overtaken by joggers. I had thought that flat pedals were sort of the rising standard, besides in XC/dirt crit.

I mean, I’m getting all of this either from posts here or from idly scrolling through my rss reader’s “bikes” tab, where I see promo photos of real fancy mtbs with flat pedals. The depth of my analysis is “huh, I’ll be damned, I guess people aren’t using SPDs?”

Metal pins and fancy rubber soles are really good. Even with my vans I have to lift my foot off the pedal to move it.

Some takes on these. I’m not sold from what I see.

My 200lb friend who breaks everything ordered a pair. I’m waiting for his take.

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clipless pedals on a MTB let people that dont really know how to ride their bikes (like me) ride with shitty form and still do trail gaps and little jumps n shit.

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Doing gaps and jumps on clipless imo is a good way to fuck yourself up if you don’t know what you’re doing. Properly doing the jumpz is about pushing into the pedals and not under any circumstances pulling up on them unless you want to flip. The only MTBers using clipless are xc people and folks who are doing competitive DH (like balls out through a rock garden so the feets have to be planted to deal with the hits your solid rubber tires are enduring).

This is my reminiscence from when I last rode my bike like 2 months ago.

edit so in short the answer to @iwillbe 's post from the top of this thread is that lots of mtbers have been riding in sambas all along.

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well now I don’t know what to think.

I’m going to stick to buying increasingly weird hypertech road shoes made out of Dyneema and bioengineered spider silk or whatever.

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Clipless is a lot more common here in the flatland where most of the trails are cyclocross-able. There’s a fair amount of dudes riding fat bikes on dry trails with chunky 5.10s.

I feel seen.
Still not getting back into casual clipless shoes though.

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I’ve been getting back into clipless around town lately, just because it’s nice to ride my Endpoint around and I want that bike to have clippy pedals when I go on longer rides. From a riding perspective, I love the feeling of being clipped in and that attached sensation, but I also love the feeling of putting energy into the bike via flat pedals. Both are great. I’ve done both for years and there’s a time and a place for either. My mountain bikes always have flat pedals.

I have never really enjoyed flat pedals on bikes with a more forward riding position like road bikes. Descending never feels quite right, even with sticky shoes and spiky pedals. I think I like a more rearward weight bias when I’m on flats.

I’ve loved having Shimano T8000 pedals on my Endpoint. The casual side is nice and big for that sort of ride, plus there’s a clippy side for when the ride is more serious. 90% of my rides are on the casual side and the pedals haven’t ever felt like a compromise for the rest.

Like @Crustradamus said, this is the worst selling point of clipless. Allows you to confidently do things with bad form until it finally bites you in the ass.

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Oh, Im not trying to sell it. Im just calling it what it is.

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I can hop curbs with clipless, which is convenient and fun every now and then. I’m never gonna learn to “properly” bunny hop and I don’t see the point. Hopping curbs the way I do now is never gonna bite me in the ass either. I would’t say it’s a selling point of clipless but it’s a little perk. :man_shrugging:

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how did we sleep on these?
https://www.adidas.com/us/the-road-cycling-shoes/FW4457.html

I get that it’s a nylon sole for $150 which is pretty ass but they look super killer.

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I think they got a bit of attention here when they came out. $150 is reasonable for an entry level / novelty shoe, but laces? nah. If adidas is going to get back into cycling shoes, I want a road shoe that’s styled like their modern indoor shoes, the Nemeziz 17.x range had some nice looking models.
And boa dials or huge velcro straps.

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I’d be tempted by vaporwave a e s t h e t i c nemeziz road shoes.

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