Pedals with float for road bike

woodchips69

I'm currently running Crank Bros. Candy pedals on my mountain bikes and have also got a pair on my road bike. However, I decided recently that thick treaded mountain bike shoes on a carbon road bike looks wrong, so I bought a pair of road shoes which also fit 2 bolt cleats.
The reason that I use the Crank Bros. pedals is that I ride "heels in" and need quite a bit of float to help my knees.
My problem is that it just doesn't feel right, in that it doesnt feel like there is enough support for my feet, they feel like they are rolling from side to side.
Are there any road pedals that offer the same amount of float as the Crank Bros. or am I better off just sticking to using the mountain bike shoes?

rake

i like time atac spd on my road bikes. no problem to knees. also some carbon soled mtb shoes look idenetical to road shoes but with some moulding for walking if need be which is why i use them.

crankycrank

Speedplay pedals have about the most free-float of any pedal. You won't have the "roll" problem with them either. They give a good amount of support with any reasonably stiff, or better, road shoe.

sungod

speedplay zero will let you adjust float to match what you need, and, as crankcrank says, you won't get any roll

you mention you ride heels-in, have you had a check to find out why? it can put a lot of strain on your knees

maybe you need footbeds and/or wedges to correct this (i needed them, getting it sorted made a massive improvement and solved a nagging knee problem)

Pokerface

Most pedal systems will have different cleats for different float. Both Shimano and Look pedals have different cleats that allow more float.

Speedplay is always mentioned in these threads as they allow the most float of all - but you may not need that much - or want to spend that much.

You can get what you need with a cheaper pair of Look pedals and get the Red (max float) or Grey (Medium Float) cleats with them.

woodchips69

Thanks for all the replies. I've looked at the Speedplays, but they do seem to be on the expensive side.
Riding heels in doesnt seem to affect the way I ride on the mountain bike, so to be honest the problem seems to be more about the lack of support between the pedal and the cleat. When I look at the cleat on the road shoe, it doesnt seem to lie flush to the sole of the shoe which is a convex shape, whereas on the mountain bike shoe (Specialized BG Expert) it is. I think this is more down to the shape of the road shoe which is basically designed just for riding opposed to the mtb shoe which has to be able to used for walking in.
Seems like my options are basically keep the mtb shoes and live with chunky look or try some Time road pedals.

Pokerface

Again - you don't need TIme pedals.

You can attach the road cleats in any orientation you want (within reason). You can use Look, SHimano, Time, Mavic, etc, etc pedals - and attach the cleats in a 'heel-in' position AND have extra float.


In addition, many people use their MTB pedals and shoes on a road bike - some people even race this way!

Road shoes are designed to be lighter and transfer power to the pedals more efficiently than MTB shoes. But that may not be a concern for you.


Don't limit your choices - there is no need.

satanas

Speedplay Frog cleats will fit 2 bolt shoes, the pedals weigh little, are super easy to enter/exit, durable, light, etc, etc. They offer lots of float and the pedals have a (removable by filing) inward rotation stop. I use them for everything these days, but also have a pair of Speedplay X-series pedals and shoes; however, it's handy to be able to walk.

Bear in mind that most pedals except Speedplay will have spring-centred float - this can be very annoying and bad for your knees; I gave up on Time pedals for this reason. While you might be happy with a limited-float pedal, or one which constantly tries to re-centre your foot with a spring this is by no means certain, and IMO plenty of free float = lees likelihood of knee problems. FWIW, I've ridden PBP 3 times, so have some experience with this. However, YMMV (as always).

As for sungod's assertion that riding with heels in is somehow "wrong," I would respectfully suggest that this is h0rsesh1t. How *your* feet line up on the pedals depends on your individual biomechanics, flexibility, etc. Whatever is comfortable is right for that person; QED. :roll:

sungod

satanas wrote:

...

As for sungod's assertion that riding with heels in is somehow "wrong," I would respectfully suggest that this is h0rsesh1t. How *your* feet line up on the pedals depends on your individual biomechanics, flexibility, etc. Whatever is comfortable is right for that person; QED. :roll:

oi!

can't see where i said that heels in is "wrong"

what i said was...

that it *can* put a lot of strain on the knees - fact, doesn't mean it does for everyone, simply that it can

...and that *maybe* footbeds could help - maybe they could, maybe they couldn't, without having a proper check up, there's no way to know

satanas

^ The way I read it, you at least strongly implied that riding with heels in would strain the knees. I don't know whether this might strain *your* knees or not, but it is a massive, and in my opinion, unfounded generalisation.

In the (now somewhat distant) past, books were published that said ones feet must be aligned in a certain way. Anything else was wrong, and possibly evil. Since then we've had Andy Pruitt, the Fit Kit, Time, Speedplay, orthorics/footbeds, cleat spacers and wedges, etc, etc. However, I'm still somewhat sensitive to suggestions that there's only one correct way to do anything. In reality, people's physiology and preferences vary massively.

woodchips69

This is getting a bit heated!
To clarify, the reason I ride heals in, is that is the way my feet naturally are when they are hanging down, for example sitting. I did used to get occasional pain when cycling, but then switched from Shimano to Crank Bro. pedals a few years ago and haven't had as many problems since. I think my feet just didn't like being held as firmly as Shimano pedals seem to hold. However, the problems with my knees stems from 9 years in the Marines cross country skiing for 3 months of the year with 100lbs on my back, than from cycling!

My cleats are angled slightly so my heels are in and I find this more comfortable. My original question was more about whether road pedals/cleats would hold my feet too solidly, or is it better to just stick with what I am familiar with? Sorry for any confusion.

satanas

Okay.

Will road pedals and cleats hold your feet too solidly? Maybe. (Sorry!)

Really, it depends on what you use. If you were to use a pedal/cleat with insufficient float for you, or you misaligned the cleats, or you used a very "roll stable" system but needed wedges for correct alignment (but got away with MTB pedals because of extra slop from the much narrower cleat), then the answer could perhaps be yes.

I suspect the problem may well be that with MTB pedal systems, part of the lateral ("roll") stability generally comes from the parts of the shoe sole outside the cleat sitting on the inside and outside edges of the pedal, sometimes with a bit of compression of the sole too. If you have now switched to a flat sole where the only protruding part is the cleat, then this support will be gone. With many pedal systems the result will be much reduced stability in "roll," that is, rotation about a fore-aft axis. You may be able to fix this problem by using the (much bigger) Crank Bros road cleats, but I've had nothing to do with the system so have no idea really; I'd ask whoever the local agent is. Another option might be to get the local bookmaker to glue something to the outer edges of the soles near the cleats, in effect adding back the "missing bits" of the MTB shoe soles where they would do the most good.

Good luck!

John.T

I find it is almost imposible to ride 'heels in'. My ankles just bang on the cranks. My cleats are set so my feet are straight ahead but I only clear the crank by about 1 cm. At full float they rub.

Pirahna

If you want to keep using the Crank Brothers with road shoes get some 3 hole cleats.

http://www.bike24.com/1.php?content=8;n ... id=0;pgc=0

John.T

The cleats Piranha shows are your only real option for the Candy pedals. Your shoes would have to have the 3 hole Look type fixings as well as the 2 hole SPD ones. Shimano offer SPD cleats with 'pontoons' to prevent the rocking sideways movement on the pedal similar to the ones on these CB cleats. They are not good to walk in and are not a complete success.
Personally I like the Spec BG shoes. I use the road version with SPD-SL for racing and general summer riding but use the MTB Expert with SPD M520 on my MTB and road bikes for winter. (Until the cold and wet drives me into my Northwave Celsius ones.)

Pirahna

The cleats I linked to above are now about as easy to get hold of as rocking horse poo. I emailed them yesterday to make sure they were in stock, they replied they are so I've ordered a few sets.