First time using spd-sl having been used to spd's.
Just gone from spd to spd-sl (Ultegra 6620) and the up side is that they definitely do make a difference to my speed as both my journey to and from work were above average. On the downside the whole way of clipping in is completely different. On the spd you stomp on them and on the spd-sl I have to slide my foot in toes down. I kept getting this wrong and my foot would go skidding off the top and this meant then that my balance would go all over the place as my foot went carrering downward towards the ground and then my foot would inevitably be flailing around as I would try and regain a bit of control. It was an absolute nightmare in the heavy traffic on the way home as I left at rush hour (I normally leave after the worst of it is over). I guess it will just take a little getting used to. Felt at times like I had never ridden a clipless pedal in my life :oops:
Will be sticking with them though as they seem to have a couple of advantages for me. Firstly and most importantly my knees seem to like them better. I didn't have any probs with them today at all which is unusual for me. Usually I would at least get a few jags that tell me that I have been out on the bike. I did though get a numb left foot towards my big toe and given the bigger contact area on the spd-sl cleat I wasn't expecting this. If anything I would have thought this should have helped them. I think a pair of carbon road shoes would perhaps help this as I had a pair of el cheapo shimano road shoes as I didn't wish to invest too much if it turned out that I couldn't use the pedals. Secondly they seem to make me faster which is always a bonus, especially on a lower effort.
I thought the conventional wisdom was that changing the type of clipless pedal wouldn't really make any difference to speed so this was a surprise to me, especially considering that I have found very little benefit from moving to spd's from flat pedals. Yeah there was a bit but not nearly as much as a lot of people would suggest. It made my best times my average times but I was expecting more.
Will be sticking with them though as they seem to have a couple of advantages for me. Firstly and most importantly my knees seem to like them better. I didn't have any probs with them today at all which is unusual for me. Usually I would at least get a few jags that tell me that I have been out on the bike. I did though get a numb left foot towards my big toe and given the bigger contact area on the spd-sl cleat I wasn't expecting this. If anything I would have thought this should have helped them. I think a pair of carbon road shoes would perhaps help this as I had a pair of el cheapo shimano road shoes as I didn't wish to invest too much if it turned out that I couldn't use the pedals. Secondly they seem to make me faster which is always a bonus, especially on a lower effort.
I thought the conventional wisdom was that changing the type of clipless pedal wouldn't really make any difference to speed so this was a surprise to me, especially considering that I have found very little benefit from moving to spd's from flat pedals. Yeah there was a bit but not nearly as much as a lot of people would suggest. It made my best times my average times but I was expecting more.
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I'm surprised you noticed a speed up. That being the case and given your previous knee complaints I would suspect that your pedaling action is not ideal. On an SPD if you have a loose cleat and/or a soft soled shoe, your foot can loose alignment and you waste energy and grind your knees. The SPD-SL pedals are as big as barn doors so will catch your errant efforts.
With a stiff soled shoe and a tight cleat, I cannot tell the difference between an SPD and SPD-SL to be honest.0 -
simbil1 wrote:I'm surprised you noticed a speed up. That being the case and given your previous knee complaints I would suspect that your pedaling action is not ideal. On an SPD if you have a loose cleat and/or a soft soled shoe, your foot can loose alignment and you waste energy and grind your knees. The SPD-SL pedals are as big as barn doors so will catch your errant efforts.
With a stiff soled shoe and a tight cleat, I cannot tell the difference between an SPD and SPD-SL to be honest.
Yeah that's what I had always read from other people that use both. I don't know the reason why. Its not lose cleats on my spd shoes. They are as tight as you can get. I have carbon soled and the cheaper spesh sport shoes and to be honest I don't really notice the difference. I had problems getting a perfect position for my left foot and I think that might have been part of my problem. With the spd-sl there is so much more room for moving the cleat around that I just found a perfect position almost immediately.
I was just looking at spesh carbon shoes however they are all this seasons and they aren't discounted so I will not be buying given that there will be a new model out in a few weeks. If I'm going to buy this late in the season I want a discount
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doyler78, glad it isn't just me who found the spd-sl's hard to engage to begin with. my first few trips were spent with my unclipped foot sliding off the pedal half-a-dozen times before i got the stop right. a couple of times i felt like i was going to come a right cropper, and as for trying to clip on hills :shock:
i went back to using the airnimal today, which has spd's on it, and i couldn't believe how loose they felt. i definitely need to tighten up the cleat tension because they felt so loose compared to the -sl's. a couple of weeks on the allez make the airnimal feel all weird!
i didn'f find a speed increase with -sl's but i do find them very comfortable, the float is less which i think i prefer now that i've had the experience.0 -
doyler78 wrote:. I didn't have any probs with them today at all which is unusual for me. Usually I would at least get a few jags that tell me that I have been out on the bike.
With a properly set up pedal / cleat you won't get any problems. There's an article on here telling you how to set up pedals, it's easy enough to follow.
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