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Never used to have a problem switching between flats and clips, and it's not an issue with confidence in them, I've been swapping between them since toe clips were the alternative to flats!
Even as recently as last year my old-school XC 29er, I was fine riding that. And have no issues with the gravel bike even on trail center trails at trail center speeds*!
But I can't ride my new-ish Scandal with them! Either it feels like I can't turn fast enough, of the front wheel just isn't gripping, or I feel like I'm perched up in the air in danger of going OTB. On flat pedals it's none of those things. But every time I thought I'd got it sussed today, it tried to kill me.
Anyone else found this with modern geometry? I presume its something down to foot positioning. I'm going to give the other #enduro trend of putting the cleats right back a go to see if it weights the front a bit more.
*beyond the nagging feeling that if the front wheel does slide whilst in the drops there would be no saving it.
FWIW, going in the opposite direction...
Back in 2018 I was in La Thuile and I snapped the main pivot out of the carbon frame on my XL enduro bike. I was also riding clipless at the time - CB Mallet DH.
I flew back to the UK and picked up my old size L aluminium frame (same make and model that I hadn't sold on) and transferred all the components onto it and then had to reacclimatise to the shorter reach.
I couldn't get it to gel until I moved my cleats further forward.
Neither of these bikes would classify as modern geometry (my XL and L would be equivalent to Scandal L and M respectively) but my belief is that foot position is a useful tuning tool. I did revert back to flats shortly after which remains my preference.
Yea, I've also got a preference for Singlespeeding though which is hard work on flat pedals!