My experience on SPD Pedals and Shimano Shoes .

blackstick

Hey there ,
newbie wanna share some experience on using SPD MTB style pedals and Shimano MT43 shoes .

Got the pedals + cleats for 20 on eBay and shoes 43.99 Decathlon UK .
Think its a good offer ? Hmmm .

Anyway , first impression . After 2 day usage .
Its not that hard at all ! Surprisingly .
There are 2 kinds of these - roughly , twist only release and all angle release type .

I'am using the twist release . Shimano shoes - About the non accurate sizing , don't really think its true .
I'am a UK10 , bought UK11 due to that reason . But there is at least 1 cm extra space on the shoes . :x
More layer of socks ....since no 45 left for an exchange from Decathlon .
They are quite thick on the soles so you are a bit taller after that < i feel girls are impressed by my height more and more > :shock: And have velcro strap to avoid your shoelaces flying around or get stuck onto the crank .

The cleats need quite a lot of adjustment to be in position and the shoes aren't that aligned for it to be done .
But the pedals are sweet stuff ! You can adjust the tension when releasing yourself from it .
I've not really not remember not to release myself .... yet .....
They look stylish , like lightsabers ! The bearings are smooth and also they are tight so they stay and won't turn on the heavier side which makes clipping in faster .

You feel less fatigue , well I did as I've always used flat pedals . Best is that you won't slip anymore .
And about better power delivery , not really done crazy miles yet . But could have helped , although I've not properly adjusted the position yet .

Since I always do a knee out when cornering , this has limit the angle of it . So need a bit of used to it .
Do anyone do that anyway ? Like leaning on corners .... not till the knee is 1cm away from ground though !


Thanks for reading .

estampida

fyi

stick some shoe insoles in to shim the shoe down to your foot size, better than wearing 3 pairs of socks

unixnerd

My nephew took the plunge with SPDs and had his first ride today. He found them much easier than expected and wishes he'd done it ages ago :-)

tomhowells

Talking of SPD's, I use dhb MTB 1.0's with Shimano A530's, the double sided fellas. Anyway, feel like a proper cyclist, as today I had my first pride-bruiser.
You guessed it, pulled up to traffic lights without clipping out. Performed a full on Del Boy, sideways onto the pavement!! Scratched the bike a bit, bonked the saddle out of alignment, and a couple of scratches to my knee & elbow. About 4 witnesses too :oops:

Initiation over, I cycled off & had a good chuckle to myself.

leshere

Me too!!

:oops:
Well I was going to come on to the forum and brag about never forgetting I was clipped in...until about 30 minutes ago puled up at a junction, nearly homw after 20 miles, and...oh b***** crunch.

Concerned lady thought I had had sudden arrest

tomhowells wrote:

Talking of SPD's, I use dhb MTB 1.0's with Shimano A530's, the double sided fellas. Anyway, feel like a proper cyclist, as today I had my first pride-bruiser.
You guessed it, pulled up to traffic lights without clipping out. Performed a full on Del Boy, sideways onto the pavement!! Scratched the bike a bit, bonked the saddle out of alignment, and a couple of scratches to my knee & elbow. About 4 witnesses too :oops:

Initiation over, I cycled off & had a good chuckle to myself.

leshere

Me too!!

:oops:
Well I was going to come on to the forum and brag about never forgetting I was clipped in...until about 30 minutes ago puled up at a junction, nearly homw after 20 miles, and...oh b***** crunch.

Concerned lady thought I had had sudden arrest

tomhowells wrote:

Talking of SPD's, I use dhb MTB 1.0's with Shimano A530's, the double sided fellas. Anyway, feel like a proper cyclist, as today I had my first pride-bruiser.
You guessed it, pulled up to traffic lights without clipping out. Performed a full on Del Boy, sideways onto the pavement!! Scratched the bike a bit, bonked the saddle out of alignment, and a couple of scratches to my knee & elbow. About 4 witnesses too :oops:

Initiation over, I cycled off & had a good chuckle to myself.

Wobbler72

Good for you fella .... but why on Earth do you stick your knee out when cornering? These are cycles not Superbikes

blackstick

Wobbler72 wrote:

Good for you fella .... but why on Earth do you stick your knee out when cornering? These are cycles not Superbikes

I dunno for sure , but I seem to balance better that way . Gives me more confidence tackling corners ... hmmmm
I wonder if its just me ....

blackstick

Bwahahaha you fell from your shiny bikes !!
Me too .... twice .
Once thinking of something else , forgot to release myself .
Another , released myself both legs but still drop . :shock:

leshere wrote:

Me too!!

:oops:
Well I was going to come on to the forum and brag about never forgetting I was clipped in...until about 30 minutes ago puled up at a junction, nearly homw after 20 miles, and...oh b***** crunch.

Concerned lady thought I had had sudden arrest

tomhowells wrote:

Talking of SPD's, I use dhb MTB 1.0's with Shimano A530's, the double sided fellas. Anyway, feel like a proper cyclist, as today I had my first pride-bruiser.
You guessed it, pulled up to traffic lights without clipping out. Performed a full on Del Boy, sideways onto the pavement!! Scratched the bike a bit, bonked the saddle out of alignment, and a couple of scratches to my knee & elbow. About 4 witnesses too :oops:

Initiation over, I cycled off & had a good chuckle to myself.

Raffles

tomhowells wrote:

Talking of SPD's, I use dhb MTB 1.0's with Shimano A530's, the double sided fellas. Anyway, feel like a proper cyclist, as today I had my first pride-bruiser.
You guessed it, pulled up to traffic lights without clipping out. Performed a full on Del Boy, sideways onto the pavement!! Scratched the bike a bit, bonked the saddle out of alignment, and a couple of scratches to my knee & elbow. About 4 witnesses too :oops:

Initiation over, I cycled off & had a good chuckle to myself.

Tom, there are loads of riders that have done exactly this, count me in. Unfortunately it happened to me in front of a pack of 15 yr old schoolgirls, you can imagine how I felt :oops:

thefd

I've had this too. Came up behind a queue of traffic and expected the car at the front to move away as the lights had changed to green, but the car stayed on its spot until I was upon it and I wasn't in the mindset to react. Managed to somehow get my foot out just before I hit the tarmac.

Recently I had another embarrassing situation where my bottle cage was loose and as I was pelting along past a bus stop, I hit a minor pot hole, which was enough for my bottle to shoot straight out on the road and stop right by the bus stop, with a long queue waiting. I had to stop, dismount and walk back with bike about 25 meters and squeeze past everyone in the queue and collect my bottle. Majorly embarrassing!!! I have now replaced the bottle cage!

tomhowells

LOL, the bottle in the bus stop! That gave me a good chuckle .
A pack of schoolgirls, Raffles - there is no more vicious collective in the known world!

Cheers guys.

ukmkh

First post on this wonderful forum. Very informative and inspiring. I am hoping that when I upgrade my bike this weekend to put on my SPD pedals and my Specialized RIme Shoes that I won't fall - it something that scares me since I have only used flat pedals so far.

Of course it appears that we need to think 5 seconds ahead when using SPD shoes so we know when to unclip. Question is, do the more experience riders have a trick they can share with us newbies?

smidsy

The nack to unclipping is to make sure you drop your heel and then twist out. The tendancy is to pull up and this does not work.

You need to conciously tell yourself (not in your outside voice) to drop your heel and then twist.

klep

smidsy wrote:

The nack to unclipping is to make sure you drop your heel and then twist out. The tendancy is to pull up and this does not work.

You need to conciously tell yourself (not in your outside voice) to drop your heel and then twist.

It'll go automatic after a week or so though...

jonomc4

I remember when I started using SPD's - I was cycling down a hill and the lens of my glasses flew off! In all the confusion I forgot to unclip when I stopped so a weird situation turned into a painful one.

I use look clips now - more firm and a wider platform.

The best bit of advice I can offer is - when doing a comedy dismount, please try and fall to the left and not to the right and into the path of cars (I have done this also BTW).

ukmkh

Well I had an interesting experience yesterday on my first day with SPD pedals. I had a harder time trying to figure out how to clip in while leaning against the wall. On the road however, the pedal just comes up naturally and clipping in was easier. Was proud that I did not manage to fall since I decided I would always unclip the left foot when coming to a stop. This worked well until I tried to take a right at a roundabout. As the bike was facing to turn right , the bike automatically leant to right and that was it . Lost it. Embarrassing but a good lesson. Will try to ensure that I lean towards the unclipped side now.

But concur with everybody else - why did I wait so long before making the switch!!

sarm34

This has also happened to me TODAY in fact , yesterday i fetched my first road bike from the shop, spd pedals , new shoes, lid , glasses the whole lot. Today was my first ride out on a propper road bike using these dam pedals, so i chucks the bike in the back of the van and off i go looking for a nice quiet spot to have a blast on my bike, i find a nice hill that i thought i would tackle. BIG mistake , i gets half way up this hill lungs screaming at me and without enough breath to go any further, i stops at a halt, and could i hell as like get may feet out these dam pedals, within a millisecond i'd tried every way possible to twist, pull, yank these shoes off my pedals althought i had spend ages trying it and succeeding while stationary, anyway needless to say i "did a delboy" into the side of a headge and down into a ditch, i landing on my back , bike in the air still attached to me feet. I got up got out and tried again, only fell over 3 more times before i gave up, am i doing something wrong? Im now feeling very nervous out going out again, spend a few bob on the bike (Cube agree GTC) i would like to see it go to waste, certainly as the missus dont know i bought one, (its kept at work)

smidsy

sarm - you said you practiced it prior to the ride with no issue so you know you can do it. The action needed to release is no different during the ride as it is if stationary so in theory if you can do it then you can do it while riding.

If they are road shoes (flat sole, no tread with a three screw cleat) the key to the unclipping is to drop your heel and then twist out. Twisting or lifting will not work, you need to drop your heel then twist (away from the bike i.e not inwards).

What shoes and pedals do you have?

Mikey23

Done the delboy thing here a couple of times. I guess it's a rite of passage. I was getting all kinds of mentally confused till I realised that I need to clip off the same lead leg as I normally dismount with ie the left which is strange because I am left handed and should favour the right. Then I realised that when coasting, my left leg is raised and that won't let me unclip. So I now approach potential hazards extremely slowly and so far not had a fall for a while. I think if something happens unexpectedly I will go again ...

sarm34

My pedals are the 105's same as my group set , shoes are specialised BG sport road shoe , been having a play all day with unclipping in my shop at work, and even though the spring tension is turned right down , it hurts my ankle to twist and unclip such is the force I have to use to unclip,
So what the poster above said goes for me too , as I need to unclip with my left leg (right handed) and unclip early. TBH I'm getting a little bit paranoid now , but tomorrow I've about 3 hours spare so I'm going out on the road to try and get this thing nailed

Ka12

I had a near mishap a few days ago on the bike, got all the way home then couldn't unclip at the top of our crescent, it is uphill and ran out of room at the top and was still clipped in - fortunately I managed to stop myself next to my car and lean on it until I unclipped!

I decided to swap my new speedplay pedals for look keo classics and am finding them brilliant, easy to clip in and out I have bad knee problems and found it difficult unclipping from the speedplay pedals.

Millerman007

LOL I've not done a del boy on my road bike (touches wood) as i find the SPD's very easy to get in and out and i have mine quite tight too ,thats not to say i have not had some near moments with em , the best advise has been said heel down and twist out .
once you get the hang of it its easy and you will just do it easily

smidsy

sarm34 wrote:

even though the spring tension is turned right down , it hurts my ankle to twist and unclip such is the force I have to use to unclip,

If that is the case there is something wrong. Even on the tightest setting it should not be causing pain.

On the lowest setting the only issue I faced was that the foot would sometimes release prematurely - such is the slackness of that setting.

What cleats to you have - I assume Shimano ones with yellow on (floating) - Yes?

Remember Drop your heel slightly then twist away from the bike - simples! No lifting up.

andy46

I am thinking of giving SPD's a try and have some double sided mtb (M505's I think) in the shed. I was going to try these first to see how I get on.

Do you need to drop your heel with the mtb style pedals as this could be quite hard for me with my left ankle the way it is :roll:

Someone suggested I try the multi release cleats, would this help with the dropping the heel problem.

Sorry for slight thread hijack.

Millerman007

andy46 wrote:

I am thinking of giving SPD's a try and have some double sided mtb (M505's I think) in the shed. I was going to try these first to see how I get on.

Do you need to drop your heel with the mtb style pedals as this could be quite hard for me with my left ankle the way it is :roll:

Someone suggested I try the multi release cleats, would this help with the dropping the heel problem.

Sorry for slight thread hijack.

i could not get on with the MTB shimano cleats as they are fairly tough to get out of !
i now use crank brothers and candy 2 pedals and they are soooo much better and very easy to get out of

sarm34

smidsy wrote:

sarm34 wrote:

even though the spring tension is turned right down , it hurts my ankle to twist and unclip such is the force I have to use to unclip,

If that is the case there is something wrong. Even on the tightest setting it should not be causing pain.

On the lowest setting the only issue I faced was that the foot would sometimes release prematurely - such is the slackness of that setting.

What cleats to you have - I assume Shimano ones with yellow on (floating) - Yes?

Remember Drop your heel slightly then twist away from the bike - simples! No lifting up.

Went out today, for an hour and i think i have it sussed, but still pretty tough to get out of, because its brand new its going back for a free service in 5 weeks so ill quiz them then , and yes the cleats are the ones that came it the shoes , black with yellow tips.