I had vague fears, but after starting with road bikes, I rode with flat pedals as a hobby for 3 years, but...
I was worried about falling, but then I thought, if I'm going to fall anyway, it hurts and I'll get injured whether it's flat pedals or cleats, so I might as well spend the money. That was my miraculous logic for starting.
The more I searched for what product to get, the more my head hurt, so I thought let me just reduce the probability of failure. I started with Shimano 105 pedals + Shimano 105 shoes and have ridden about 200km now. I tried to follow along with the fitting after watching YouTube, but I'm not sure if it's correct ㅎㅎ;;
I rode 4 times at 50km, 50km, 40km, 40km each, and I never unclipped even once, and the reason is
As long as I don't forget that "I'm currently clipped in" when I need to get down somewhere, and if I unclip in advance, I won't fall... There was one time I got so tired that I decided to stop without thinking, and I became aware of the cleat too late, but fortunately it came out well and I managed to avoid falling ㅎㅎ;;
I realized that I used to slide my shoes on the pedal surface more often than I thought, and with this being fixed, I felt that the energy spent sliding would be saved. As for the efficiency and hamstring usage that people talk about besides this, I'm still a beginner so I don't know much.
I have some pain in the center of my knee and the front part that I didn't feel with flat pedals, so I'm wondering if I should get a fitting... I live in Namyangju City, and I would appreciate it if you could recommend a cleat fitting.
To those of you who still use flat pedals but are worried about cleats: Just buy them. Whether this way or that way, falling and getting hurt is the same anyway. Even when I dress up completely for cycling and ride my road bike, I can get rid of that crumpled feeling of sitting in a corner thinking "Still, I'm the flat pedal guy,,,ㅠ,ㅠ", and I can have the pride of being a proper road biker who goes clickety-clack when walking.
