After lots of procrastination regarding setting my bike up for my preferred riding style (read: trying to make it more like my old XC hardtail when I was riding in BC pre-2011), I finally embarked on a few adjustments.

First, I got my handlebar cut down. The stock Rocky Mountain AM had a 780mm width and this was way too wide for me. I constantly felt like I was bashing into stuff and navigating between tight trees was challenging. I had moved all my levers inwards a few weeks back but wanted to get the bar itself cut at my local bike shop. Might have been able to do it myself but felt better to let someone who had previous experience tackle it.

After really focusing on the length the last few rides, I had an inch taken off of each end. That makes the current length roughly 730mm and it felt a lot better on today’s ride. I could much more easily navigate through trees and around tight switchbacks, while still feeling like I could have control on descents and open my chest while climbing.

The second change was I finally (finally!) switched my pedals to clipless. I rode Shimano clipless during my first go around with mountain biking, so that’s what I learned on. Whether a chicken or the egg, I really enjoyed the ability to attack the climbs at Burnaby Mountain – especially when on the access roads or graded walking paths. Certainly the summer I traded my knobby tires for semi-slicks to commute home from Coquitlam Centre, clipless pedals were a big part of my ability to be faster than previous transit options.

When I first got my bike, I had ordered clipless pedals but threw on some temporary OneUp Composite Pedals. After a few months of riding them, I found them decent but between the composite materials and using old running shoes, they were definitely lacking in stability and power transfer.

Taking my bike into the shop to get my handlebar cut was the push to finally also switch my pedals. Talking pedals with the guys when I first got my new bike in April, Eric had shared that he really liked the Chromag Pilot BA’s and I kinda fell in love with the gold colour and bought them on impulse.

I spent about 30 minutes pre-ride adjusting the tension and the cleats on my shoes before I felt like I could reasonably pop out and feel comfortable. Then I headed out to my local trails, ensuring to have an Allen key easily available to adjust as needed. As I did my first climb into the trail system, I made a quick minor adjustment to the tension but otherwise left them alone for the ride.

General impressions.

Definitely going to be an adjustment. Got my foot off later than I’d like in a few technical flat/uphill sections (washed out roots going around trees) but only one time (so far) that I thought I was going to do a header in a technical downhill section. Between proper gear selection, adjusting my dropper post height on the fly, and getting used to being clipped in, there was a lot to think about.

Overall, though, I liked the efficiency gains with the constant up and down of local trails. When I wasn’t thinking about my feet, I liked the contact and solid stability that being clipped in provided. Only being my first ride with them, hopefully they will quickly become second nature and less of a constant thought in the back of my mind.

Specific impressions.

Having a downhill clipless gives so much platform, that riding unclipped is easy if a section feels sketchy. Conversely, somewhat more challenging to clip in or feel clipped in. Again, some of this will hopefully get ironed out the more I use them. Later in the ride, I also started consciously clipping in with my left foot and not with my right when approaching technical areas. This gave a balance of a little more efficiency and stability, while also the confidence I could put my foot down, if needed.

That said, local trails and my riding style might not be suited to the BA platform. Depending on how I feel after the season, I might look at getting the non-BA version to get a slightly smaller platform (87mm width instead of the 105mm of the BAs). Having the Pilot BAs on my XC bike is just overkill.

That said, I also really appreciated the much more solid fill of the metal pedals and it’s clear that the Chromag’s are beautifully constructed. Riding with the clipless pedals, it’s easy to see that they could make me a bit lazy and able to cheat on skills.

Definitely thinking that I should buy some metal flats and proper shoes to work on skills training, both on my own but also on family rides where everyone else is focused on learning to ride a bike.

But for now, I really just want to get back out and do another ride with my current pedals and keep breaking them in.