Pedal/Shoe advice please

Slapster_UK

Hi,

I hope tho is deemed to be in the right forum.

i have an MTB with flat pedals.

i am about to buy a road bike which is going to be used as a commute bike. It comes complete with Shimano R540 pedals.

I will therefore need to buy some shoes, but as i want to use MTB shoes on the commute, for ease of walking and i am hoping to use the one set of shoes for both bikes:

1. Will the cleats for the R540 pedals fit an MTB shoe?
2. What pedals are suitable for MTB use that will also fit those cleats (if any)?

Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to give.

DrLex

R540s are SPD-SL; all the MTB shoes I've seen take the smaller SPD cleat.
Why not get a pair of Shimano A520 (£30+) or similar for the road bike to start off with, and then look for a pair of road shoes with SPD-SL cleats later on?

Slapster_UK

Sounds sensible.

From what you are saying, you seem to be confirming what I think i knew.......

I was considering buying two sets of Crank Brothers Egg Beaters (for no reason other than these were the pedals i used a few years ago to good effect) and one pair of MTB shoes.

Thanks,
Steve

godders1

Some will tell you that MTB pedals on a road bike is sacrilege.

I say do whatever works for you.

whitestar1

Godders1 wrote:

Some will tell you that MTB pedals on a road bike is sacrilege.

I say do whatever works for you.

I agree with that! I will be moving my SPD M520 over to my road bike until I can get a decent pair of road shoes.

Slapster_UK

Agreed.

After taking a lot of advice, i invested in two sets of M520's and a pair of Specialised Body Geometry MTB shoes.

OK - there are probably better (and lighter) pedals out there.
There are probably better (or more aesthetically pleasing) shoes out there.

But they do the job for me, and importantly (as someone returning to cycling after a heart issue), they let me walk my road bike up hills whilst my fitness levels increase to where they were and i can spin up them.

Thanks all for the help.

godders1

Good choices I think (I have those shoes and those pedals on one of my bikes).

esspeebee

Slapster_UK wrote:

I will therefore need to buy some shoes, but as i want to use MTB shoes on the commute, for ease of walking and i am hoping to use the one set of shoes for both bikes:

Just for clarity, as you seem to have reached the right conclusion already, it's mostly the smaller cleat that makes mountain bike shoes easier to walk in. Even if you could fit a road cleat on a mountain bike shoe, you'd lose that advantage completely.

And yes, M520s are a fine choice. They do the job perfectly well with no hassle.