Shoes and Pedal - are these good choices? What else?

dubcat

Hi, I've been trying to read up on various pedals for the impending arrival of my first road bike. I am used to riding SPD's on my MTB but am happy to learn a new system if needed.

It seems that the following are good choices:

look keo 2 max carbon - single sided and apparently they get noisy after a while
speedplay zero stainless steel - need regular maintenance
shimano 6700 ultegra carbon - i figure they must be ok but don't know anything about them. My groupset is ultegra not that it matters i guess*

Can anyone give me any tips? Are they the ones to consider? Anything missing? They are to go on a Bianchi Sempre.

Shoe wise I was looking at the bontrager rl road shoe based on reviews and the dbh 2.0 carbon road shoe based on price and reviews. Are these good choices? Anything else that is good value and performance that i should consider? I will of course be trying out pedals and shoes in store but I wanted to narrow down the field as much as possible.

My experience with my mountain bike is that it is better to buy right in the first place rather than buy something you end up wanting to upgrade later.

Thanks
Dub

dubcat

Also i noticed that the Shimano 105 pedals are on a large discount at Evans. Would they be a good bet?

ajb72

speedplays are a natural choice I guess when coming from spd pedals. They offer double-sided entry and in IME the easiest/fastest pedal engagement, although anything becomes second nature with practise.

Don't believe all the hype about maintenance. They do need re-greasing every once in a while, but it's a 5 minute job every 6 months unless you are doing high mileage in all weathers.

dubcat

Sorry to keep adding to my own thread - but i also noticed these got great reviews: Time I-click2 racer red

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/b ... als-33045/

Only problem is that the colour is all wrong for me - need black. Even more confused now.

dubcat

ajb even i can do regreasing every few months Thanks for that info. If you forget the 'coming from' part and just picked the best ones which ones would you recommend then? Are there any clear favourites here amongst reviewers and users? Any clear lemons?

Gladiator

Obviously pedals are a personal choice but i'll throw in my two-pence worth of experience :-)

I wouldnt go with Shimano 105's. I bought some of these a year ago and from a lot of posts on here they seem to have been produced with inferior metal these days and not as good as they were. But from my own point of view i never found them the most easiest pedal to engage into. At first i thought it was just me, but rooting around on forums i found the same opinion. A good pedal yes and im sure you wont be down if you buy them but i really didnt get on with them, they wouldnt engage first time (even with me looking at my feet and the clicking in force turned right down) and just didnt find them easy at traffic lights with cars up your backside or on hills where you need a quick connection, so i would avoid.

By far the best pedal i have used its the Time iClic 2 that you mentioned. If you can get them in a deal and/or with a discount code then go for it, by far the best pedal and for someone new coming into SDP-SL's i would say they are so much easier to engage than the Shimanos. They click in first time, even if you miss slightly the design means they catch the cleat and bring it into line, take little effort to push down and engage and i dont feel anywhere near as worried at traffic lights and uphill starts like i did with the Shimanos. They are well made, easy to click out of too.

So i would go with the IClic 2's, as they always get superb reviews too.

thegreatdivide

Never had a problem with my various Look Keo pedals. I find the stupid 'gripper' cleats to be the source of the creak so only use the non grip ones. The cleats will wear more if you walk about too much in them but I've had the same grey set on my shoes since April and covered about 2k on them - they're still going strong.

I was going to try some Speedplays but the idea of strapping anvils to the bottom of my shoes for the sake of double sided entry wasn't appealing - plus one of my riding mates had a complete cleat failure in front of a van. It could have been nasty!

ajb72

Dubcat wrote:

ajb even i can do regreasing every few months Thanks for that info. If you forget the 'coming from' part and just picked the best ones which ones would you recommend then? Are there any clear favourites here amongst reviewers and users? Any clear lemons?

Personally, I am totally convinced by Speedplay pedals, I am on my third set (different bikes, not the pedals wearing out!). Initially I tried them because I was suffering from knee pain and they did help, but after a proper bike fit I now have all the float dialled out. However, I still would not swap them for a Look style pedal for all the tea in China. I tried to go back to Looks but I just hated the faff of single sided entry, having been using speedplay for around 5 years.

Before anyone jumps on that I'll admit that with more use I'd soon get used to Looks again, but Speedplay are just so easy to stomp on and set off - ideal especially if starting on a hill! The Look Keo 2's I tried also creaked like mad from new, even after further greasing. They drove me insane.

On the downside the cleats need looking after as they cost £30+ to replace, but as long as you're not pushing your bike up too many hills they should last you a couple of years!

dubcat

it's starting to look like it's coming down between the time i-clic 2 racer and the speedplay zero stainless steel now. The ultegra carbon is still in the running. Still a bit clueless on the shoe front.

Cleat Eastwood

Gladiator wrote:

Obviously pedals are a personal choice but i'll throw in my two-pence worth of experience :-)

I wouldnt go with Shimano 105's. I bought some of these a year ago and from a lot of posts on here they seem to have been produced with inferior metal these days and not as good as they were. But from my own point of view i never found them the most easiest pedal to engage into. At first i thought it was just me, but rooting around on forums i found the same opinion. A good pedal yes and im sure you wont be down if you buy them but i really didnt get on with them, they wouldnt engage first time (even with me looking at my feet and the clicking in force turned right down) and just didnt find them easy at traffic lights with cars up your backside or on hills where you need a quick connection, so i would avoid.

By far the best pedal i have used its the Time iClic 2 that you mentioned. If you can get them in a deal and/or with a discount code then go for it, by far the best pedal and for someone new coming into SDP-SL's i would say they are so much easier to engage than the Shimanos. They click in first time, even if you miss slightly the design means they catch the cleat and bring it into line, take little effort to push down and engage and i dont feel anywhere near as worried at traffic lights and uphill starts like i did with the Shimanos. They are well made, easy to click out of too.

So i would go with the IClic 2's, as they always get superb reviews too.

Just clear it up - the 105's are spd-sl, spd-sl are shimano pedals (spd = shimano pedal dynamics). I found no difference between the 105's and ultegra and dura ace pedals. Getting in and out is all about technique and the spd-sls have quite a wide platform. By all accounts though in terms of float and foot range, as well as for ease of engagement the speedplays come up trumps; they are pricey though.

wishitwasallflat

Speedplays every time - free float and you can control exactly how much or how little you want. If its your first set though why lay out for the SS ones the Chromoly are just as good and a fair bit cheaper.

Also get yourself a tube of grease and a 50p plastic 5ml syringe from Tescos and grease once every six month or so - takes 5 mins

For Shoes - fit is everything - if you are comparing carbon soled shoes its the only thing that matters as well. If you do decide to go for Speedplays make sure the shoes are compatible (nost are but check here ...

http://www.speedplay.com/index.cfm?fuse ... earchstart

ajb72

wishitwasallflat wrote:

Speedplays every time - free float and you can control exactly how much or how little you want. If its your first set though why lay out for the SS ones the Chromoly are just as good and a fair bit cheaper.

Also get yourself a tube of grease and a 50p plastic 5ml syringe from Tescos and grease once every six month or so - takes 5 mins

For Shoes - fit is everything - if you are comparing carbon soled shoes its the only thing that matters as well. If you do decide to go for Speedplays make sure the shoes are compatible (nost are but check here ...

http://www.speedplay.com/index.cfm?fuse ... earchstart

If I had the budget I would go stainless not chromoly. I've owned both and the stainless keep their looks, the chromoly have a painted axel that starts to wear off very quickly and looks a little scruffy. That won't matter to everyone of course, but it will help if they ever end up going on ebay somewhere down the line.

marin_maniac

Speedplay for me. I've got both stainless and cromoly and if its your first set i'd probably go with the cromoly's

Setting up the cleats are POP. Bases plate sorts out the fore/aft, and unlike the SPD-SL's or the Looks you don't have to worry about the rotational float nicking some of the fore/aft adjustment.

Maitenence is easy. I've had my two pairs for about six months and I've just re-greased them. I got the grease gun, unscrewed the grease port boshed the new grease in and when fresh grease is ejected, job done. One minute job.

Once a week put a bit of dry lube on the metal circlip on the cleats. Buy the cafe covers and when off the bike use them religiously and your cleats will last a long time.

The long and short of it is, look after them and they'll look after you.

rozzer32

Another big +1 for speedplay.

Had used SPD-SL in the past, moved to Speedplay, then moved to Look and after about 5 rides switched back to Speedplay. Will never use anything else now.

letap73

There is nothing wrong with using mtb spds - especially if you are happy with them, saves on the cost of new shoes!

dubcat

After reading lots of reviews and experiences around the web I decided on the I-clic 2 racer. Then I noticed chain reaction have the carbon version in sale and ordered them. Hope they are good.

The search for shoes goes on