SPD pedals on a road bike?

over-the-hill

I have all the kit for mountain biking including SPD pedals and shoes but i'm on the verge of buying a road bike. Also I like the fact that I can walk around in the shoes. Is it madness to use SPDs on a road racing bike, competition events excluded. Any recommendations as to what pedals to buy to fit my cleats?

topdude

Hi, no problem using SPD pedals on your road bike, i have just fitted Shimano PD A520 SPDs and they are great (look good too). £27.99 from Wiggle.

Bugly

I have spds on my 2 road bikes and 2 mtn bikes, no issues with it in my experience. Generally spds are lighter and have better ground clearance than road pedals. As I dont race and dont ride 100's of Ks per day I have not had an issue with them. Use the XPEDO titanium spds on my xc mtn bike and 'better' road bike.

YMMV

Shadowduck

I'm another one using SPDs on both road bikes, mainly because I like to be able to walk! Works just fine. If you want to keep your options open, you could get "Exustar Dual-sided pedals E-PR77", as available from Surosa for £60 - SPD on one side and Look on the other!

maddog 2

another spud user here. I prefer the float on spuds, and the walkability is obviously an advantage. No problem with the mythical 'hotspots' either - carbon soles, no problem.

Don't rate Xpedos though - light but bushings wear then you have to chuck them. Shimano user here.

Lagavulin

I've been using them for about a year on both road and mountain bikes without any issues. The Spesh Expert Carbon MTB shoes have been excellent. However, my longest ride to date has only been 70 miles so I've not gone out all day.

I've just bought a set of XTR's to mount on my Izoard. Some may say sacrilege. I say bollocks to them.

aracer

I've done a 100 mile sportif wearing MTB shoes - have also done 600+ mile tours wearing them. They work fine - just a little heavier than road shoes.

robbie the roadie

Me to, for training, sportives and racing. The main reason is I only need one pair of shoes to do everything in then. HOWEVER after trying some looks out at the velodrome in Manchester I must admit I did feel they felt better underfoot.

over-the-hill

Bugly wrote:

I have spds on my 2 road bikes and 2 mtn bikes, no issues with it in my experience. Generally spds are lighter and have better ground clearance than road pedals. As I dont race and dont ride 100's of Ks per day I have not had an issue with them. Use the XPEDO titanium spds on my xc mtn bike and 'better' road bike.

YMMV

The lightness of these pedals is appealing.
Are they the R force titanium pedals? Is there any problem with them being made for two different cleat systems? The pics on the website don't look as though SPD cleats would fit.

Bugly

These are the ones I use on my good bikes, Have had no issues so far and they are very light and have good feel (however only 7 months on em) . They take std spd and their own cleats.

http://xpedo.com/pedals/mf1.htm I think the following road pedal is spd compat
http://www.xpedo.com/pedals/rfs1.htm

JonEdwards

As another dyed in the wool MTBer, yup SPuDs are fine.

That said, I gave in and bought some proper road shoes and pedals last year, and they are a very different feel. Both have float, but in comparison to the road pedal, the SPDs feel hugely sloppy and rattly. There's a real feeling of solid connection to the bike as well as instant power transfer. Overall, glad I bought them.

Lucky Luke

You feel a lot more 'connected' to the bike with road pedals and cleats than SPDs in my opinion .

robbarker

Another vote for PD A520s - very stable pedal and hard to tell you're not on SPD SLs. They are also serviceable if you buy the cheap plastic Shimano tool, sowill keep going forever.

z000m

im sure i have heard that saying about being connected with cleats and not road pedals, i connect both ways (not at the same time) so karma is good. mtb pedals with mtb shoes is fine by me, i use Wellgo WPD801 on my roadbike, if its on the trainer i use cleats.

George Murdoch

Go for SPD's - Shimano have brought-out other types of clipless pedals, but the SPD's will always be favoured, and they are the most reliable. (I use SPD's on both my road bikes)

geoff_ss

I've used SPDs ever since they were first introduced on all my road bikes - solo bike, solo trike and tandem with no problems at all. Both my wife and I have often done 200 km plus rides. I'm also a great fan of the A520 pedal which is very comfortable.

Oddly enough what I've never used SPDs for is off-road mountain biking. When I built my mountain bike in the mid 80s I was unusual in even having toe clips (clipless hadn't been introduced, then). I use the same bike now as a Winter road hack - with SPDs - as off-roading isn't possible for me now.

Geoff

morxy

Having only used SPD-SL before, I tried SPD for the first time last week, just to see what they're like.

I bought some Shimano M520s and Sidi Bullet II shoes. The M520s are dual sided so you just stamp on the pedal and, hey, you're clipped in. You don't have to worry about spinning the pedal over to get the right surface before engaging your cleats.

I rode for 20-30 minutes and my initial reaction was wow they're so EASY to clip in/out of! You need such little force to twist out. SPD-SLs require a firmer ankle twist to unclip. My only concern with this tenuous connection was, what if I stand on the pedals and sprint? Would I involuntarily unclip, be thrown off balance and fall?

My SPD-SL pedals are back on now. But if I go out on SPDs again I'm definitely gonna tighten the spring tension 5-10 clicks. They're just too lose and easy to unclip on lower tension settings. You wouldn't wanna be out of the saddle if that happened :shock:

Nice things about SPD-SLs - you feel more connected to your bike, arguably better power transfer, larger surface means they're more amenable to trainers, street shoes, for short emergency journeys (e.g. local shop and back). They're also generally a bit lighter than SPD pedals. (Compare weights at shimano.com.)

aracer

Geoff_SS wrote:

as off-roading isn't possible for me now.

Really? Not even easy stuff? You're really missing out on a part of cycling by not at least heading out into the woods on some fireroads - surely whilst you can still ride on the road you can ride on those?

nicklouse

morxy
yes play with tension but also be aware that there are two different SPD cleats single angle release and multi angle release. Which do you have?

re unclipping by mistake dont worry CX MTBers often use the upstroke to pull on the pedals for more climbing power so you should be ok as long as the release tension is not too low and you do actually have the single release cleats.

morxy

Yep. I was using the single release cleats (SM-SH51). Incidentally I did also buy a pair of multi release cleats (SM-SH56) to experiment with. But they remain sealed and unused as a result of finding the single release cleats plenty easy enough!

Multi release cleats are probably good for clipless virgins.

fluff.

Cheap Time ATACs on winter bike/fixed, carbon ones on summer bike, and a pair of spesh expert MTB shoes. I have some spd-sl shoes and pedals but unused, for a start I could never get the cleat back far enough on one foot, and they gave me knee pain after a few hours. ATACs + MTB shoes are a little heavier but my knees are happier, have tried SPDs but didn't care for occasional accidental release I got.

geoff_ss

aracer wrote:

Geoff_SS wrote:

as off-roading isn't possible for me now.

Really? Not even easy stuff? You're really missing out on a part of cycling by not at least heading out into the woods on some fireroads - surely whilst you can still ride on the road you can ride on those?

I suppose very easy stuff but nothing interesting. The last time I tried I ended up in Bradford St Luke's hospital having several hours of plastic surgery on my face after planting it descending Mastile's Lane. I had a mountain bike before there were really any mountain bikes (Mercian built it to my spec) and had to fit it out with what equipment I could find. Had a lot of fun on it but a combination of head and spinal injuries makes it much less interesting now.

Worse - I've had to pack up sailing too.

Geoff

paulwood

I run SPD pedals on all my bikes, no problems so far.

I'm looking to get a lighter more road style shoe for the summer. Any suggestions what is good that will work with SPD cleats.

I know Decathlon have some road shoes that look good velue

doyler78

Bugly wrote:

These are the ones I use on my good bikes, Have had no issues so far and they are very light and have good feel (however only 7 months on em) . They take std spd and their own cleats.

http://xpedo.com/pedals/mf1.htm I think the following road pedal is spd compat
http://www.xpedo.com/pedals/rfs1.htm

Someone else just pointed me in the direction of these on another thread however I can only find the ti/cr version not the full ti version and those pics are of the full ti pedal. Can I ask where you got these? Thanks

simbil1

I took my shimano spd-sl off a couple of months ago in favour of the Ritchey V4's:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ProductDetail.a ... d%20Pedals

They cost about the same as Ultegra spd-sl's but are 100g lighter.

The feeling of power is much better for me with these though they do not have the feeling that they are supporting your foot like spd-sl's which is also good for me but I can see that it would feel all wrong to many.
I use a carbon soled road shoe rather than some of the softer MTB shoes.

steve_pushbiker

This is a vote for someone going the other way. I fitted Shimano M520s to my road bike a while back and have been very happy with them. I ordered a second set to replace caged pedals on my touring bike, but wiggle sent me more expensive SPD-SL pedals. I've switched the SPDs to the tourer and put the SPD-SLs onto the road bike.

As others have said it depends on how much walking you need to do.

daniel_b

M520's here as well, with Diadora carbon soles mtb shoes, that don't look that MTB to be honest - always think it is worth buying shoes with a decent ratchet, rather than just velcro.

Cheapest place I can find is Ribble: http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/ProductDetail.asp?ProductID=2460

Dan

blorg

simbil1 wrote:

I took my shimano spd-sl off a couple of months ago in favour of the Ritchey V4's: [...]

The feeling of power is much better for me with these though they do not have the feeling that they are supporting your foot like spd-sl's which is also good for me but I can see that it would feel all wrong to many.
I use a carbon soled road shoe rather than some of the softer MTB shoes.

Simbil1- how do you find the Richeys- do they present the right way up by default or do you have to flip them? You think power transfer is better than the SPD-SLs? I'd be coming from double-sided SPDs but with stiff carbon-soled shoes. How is retention- ideally I am looking for something that would hold my foot very firmly and not allow accidental release.

biondino

I have just bought some Eggbeater SLs and some Specialized BG mtb shoes to fit to my new road bike (should it ever arrive), so that will be interesting. The functionality of MTB shoes when you're off the bike makes them a must - I've never ridden competitively so the hundred grams or so extra on my soles counts for pretty much nothing.

For the last three years I've ridden SPDs on my Trek 1200 and they've been great - I've never come out of them when riding hard. The only pain has been turning the buggers over, and I have a big old gash in my right shin from slipping off the wrong side of the pedal in the rain a couple of weeks ago. I am hoping the Eggbeaters will solve these problems - and certainly they've been raved about by fellow cyclists and dealers alike.

simbil1

blorg wrote:

Simbil1- how do you find the Richeys- do they present the right way up by default or do you have to flip them? You think power transfer is better than the SPD-SLs? I'd be coming from double-sided SPDs but with stiff carbon-soled shoes. How is retention- ideally I am looking for something that would hold my foot very firmly and not allow accidental release.

They do not necessarily present the right way up, but if you set them the right way up they will stay there rather than swiveling around. They will not be as useful as double sided if you want to commute in them - they suit applications where you will not be often clipping in and out.
The power transfer is very good - it feels like you are right on the pedal axle with nothing in between. It feels much better than the 105 SPD-SL's I was using but I need to do some road tests to verify this. In theory, they should be better than SPD-SL's as there is a very small distance between cleat and pedal axle which I understand is important.
Retention is looser than SPD-SL's and more like standard SPD's. I always had my SPD-SL's set quite loose, but have these done up most of the way. Once tight, they feel secure and I have had not had my foot come out in a sprint or uphill honk. This will depend on your pedalling style though - if you are messy, they may not be for you, but if you are fine with SPDs these will also be fine as they are basically just single sided SPDs.

If you want a light dual sided SPD, the xpedo look good and have been mentioned recently in other threads:

http://xpedo.com/pedals/mf.htm

blorg

Thanks for that; this would be for my road bike where I wouldn't be unclipping so often. I'd keep double-sided on my tourer and commuter (and SPD+platform on the hack!) I have double sided Xpedos on my commuter (SL-CR, unfortunately permanently seized on) and really like the retention on them, foot would not be coming out accidentally. Can you compare the Richeys to the Xpedos in this regard?