First Road bike.....which pedals/ shoes?

gingerslippers

Hi there,

Am training on a Tacx Fortius to climb up Alp D'Huez next May. Have recently bought a Felt bike and havent a clue about which pedal/ shoe combo to go for? Have a budget of around £100 and wondered if anyone could point me in the right direction?

Many thanks

smidsy

First decision is do you want road shoes (which have a protruding cleat making walking difficult) or MTB type which have a recessed cleat and are much better for off the bike time.

Once you decide that you can then look at the specifics.

Entry level road (SPD-SL) pedals are around £35 (with cleats) and shoes start at around £70 for something half decent. Yellow cleats give maximum float and you can get more fixed versions if you prefer ( but you need to be confident with your bike fit to go fixed cleat).

MTB (SPD) can be had for similar start costs.

ForumNewbie

MTB SPDs are easier to start with as they are double-sided and easy to clip into without looking down and wobbling. I still use them on my road bikes as I see no need to move to one-sided road pedals.

hixstar

Hi, for what it's worth. I bought my first road bike a few weeks ago and couldn't decide what shoes to get. After searching everywhere on the net, I ended up buying theses shoes from the shop I got my bike from -

http://www.cyclesuk.com/product/Sport_R ... 101-5039-1

And I got these pedals -

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-pd-r540 ... rt-pedals/

And I think they are great, I've only ridden flat pedals on a MTB in the past and was unsure about SPD, but they really are good, and haven't taken long to get used to.

simon_masterson

If you have ANY intention of walking during or at the end of your ride (most commuting that involves more than walking from the bikeshed into the office), or riding somewhere and then going exploring, or whatever, then get recessed SPD cleats on MTB or touring shoes.

You have nothing to lose at this stage. It's true that road shoes are more suited to road cycling (funny, that), since you don't need thick tread or any flex if you have no intention of walking in the shoe, and it can be optimally stiff, lighter, and the sole can be thinner. The cleats are also larger, giving a bigger contact area. All of these are good things, of course.

I personally use Shimano SPD shoes and they are fine. When I buy an ultra-racey sort of bike that won't be used for commuting I will put road pedals on it.

It's a matter of buying the most suitable for the job; buying a steel tourer or audax bike is much more sensible for all-weather commuting with luggage than an out-and-out racing machine and you won't go 30% slower for buying it, but you may as well buy the racing machine if you only use the bike for club runs in the summer and that's the bike you want.

meursault

Recently switched to cleats too.

I went

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-pd-r540-spd-sl-sport-pedals/

Good entry level pedal, and cheap enough to upgrade in future. So far tho, don't feel the need, they are doing fine.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/dhb-r10-road-cycling-shoe/

Again, no problems at all, comfortable, look pretty cool. Just put Wiggle eg.'s cos that's where I got mine from.

doublem_1

If it helps I bought Shimano SPD pedals, they already came with cleats in the box, they were about £19 on wiggle. They look great on the bike too. I also bough some NorthWave MTB shoes. I loosened the pedal clipping resistance and I couldn't be happier, within my first ride I feel I have mastered them. Total price came in around £65 too.

meursault

doublem_1 wrote:

If it helps I bought Shimano SPD pedals, they already came with cleats in the box, they were about £19 on wiggle. They look great on the bike too. I also bough some NorthWave MTB shoes. I loosened the pedal clipping resistance and I couldn't be happier, within my first ride I feel I have mastered them. Total price came in around £65 too.

Good luck with them mate, just a word of caution about 'mastering' them, they have a way of humbling you, when you are not looking/thinking... :oops:

doublem_1

meursault wrote:

doublem_1 wrote:

If it helps I bought Shimano SPD pedals, they already came with cleats in the box, they were about £19 on wiggle. They look great on the bike too. I also bough some NorthWave MTB shoes. I loosened the pedal clipping resistance and I couldn't be happier, within my first ride I feel I have mastered them. Total price came in around £65 too.

Good luck with them mate, just a word of caution about 'mastering' them, they have a way of humbling you, when you are not looking/thinking... :oops:

Hah, I have heard the stories. I know they will catch me one day. But what I meant was that I surprised myself because I was remembering to clip out, they must be well setup because as I set off with only one foot clipped in, the other clips in itself as I start pedaling. They feel very comfy too and you can really feel the difference.

I advise going for MTB shoes, they are a few grams heavier than road shoes I know but being able to walk up a steep hill is comfortable, not so much for my friend with his road shoes though. They clipped in easily too (which was my main worry before buying them).

secretsam

I use Shimano M520 pedals, you can get them from Wiggle for about £19 at the moment (just bought another pair for the hybrid) - cheap as chips. Shoe-wise I use the basic Specialized MTB shoes, which look like road shoes but you can walk in them. One option might be to get some road shoes that take both 3 bolt (road style) cleats and 2 bolt (mtb style) ones, then you can pick and choose - I'd start on the MTB style ones (double sided) then move up to roadies if you want.

Note that road shoes will be more difficult to walk in.