Road pedals or spds

bmxboy10

just got a new bike and need some pedals. i was going to stick with spds like the shimano A600 but thought i would try 105 SL SPD pedals and get some new shoes. having bought the 105s and shoes i now think road shoes are a bit dodgy with the whole walking and slipping issue. should i give them a try or stick with what i know. i can return the 105s and new shoes for a refund if i want.

Grill

Do you spend more time riding your bike or walking around in your cycling shoes? MTFU.

bmxboy10

Please dont tell me to MTFU. i know a guy who broke his hip wearing road shoes indoors!

Grill

solboy10 wrote:

Please dont tell me to MTFU. i know a guy who broke his hip wearing road shoes indoors!

I know a guy whose wife left him while he was wearing road shoes. Sh!t happens.

I've done my ankle in wearing trainers. Doesn't mean I'm going to wear flip-flops for the rest of my life.

You can't seriously tell me you're going to live your life scared because of someone else's experience. Now MTFU and use proper pedals and footwear.

loismustdie

It's up to you really - if you do any amount of walking, then stick with MTB pedals, otherwise the road shoes/pedals are the better choice.

Put another way, I have Speedplays on my summer bike as I need the comfort of a road pedal for the 5 hour + rides I tend to do. I avoid walking in my shoes, not because of safety, but because (not unreasonably) Speedplay cleats wear out very quickly if you walk a lot on rough surfaces. In winter, I use Shimano MTB pedals because I'm riding shorter distances, the pedals are less likely to get clogged and being able to walk around is useful.

So, it's really down to you to make a a judgement...if you're waking around in road pedals enough to worry about safety, you're walking in them too much.

Bobbinogs

There's quite a few of us on here that use SPDs on road bikes and quite like them. I have some excellent Spesh MTB shoes that are blinking stiff and, combined with some M540 pedals, work great for me. I also use the Spesh insoles. As a combo it all gels and is absolutely great for short or long distances (I regularly do 200k+ rides in the summer and haven't had any problems). Pick what you want, yes the pros wear SPD-SLs but you ain't a pro

northpole

As others have indicated above, spd-sl's are awful things to walk in. On my daily commute, when I get to the office I have an old pair of timberlands to walk from the bike store to the shower area - walking on a painted concrete or tiled floor in spd-sl's is verging on dangerous and wears out the cleats in a short time.
When I'm out for a ride on the road bike, the only walking I tend to do is to either go into a coffee shop or loo, or both! SPD-sl's are no good for sight seeing walks around destinations you may set as a focus for a ride. If you want to do this, stick with SPD's. If your pattern is more like mine, then you may well prefer the sl's - I certainly do.

Peter

unixnerd

I have SPD-SLs on my road bike and SPDs on my commuter and mtb. I prefer SPDs as they're easier to clip into and the shoes are better suited to our cold climate. I don't like the fact that with SPD-SLs if you don't clip in right first time you're going to be stranded half way across a junction.

My place of work put the bike shed a few 100m from the main building and I have to walk up three flights of stairs, I'd not want to do that in SPD-SLs. I also like the fact that my SPDs have a plug in with orange reflectors, as I do a lot of night cycling in the country I think is important (and a legal requirement).

JamesB

IMO unless you are racing and you`re happy with a SPD -MTB pedal setup then why change? A while ago I was thinking of changing from SPD to a raod shoe / SPD-Sl etc setup and advice from LBS was that as I`m already using a very rigid pair Spesh BG shoes with carbon soles it wasn`t worth the change unless racing. So i`ve stuck with teh SPD / MTB pedal setup and am happy with it for general riding, sportives etc

bmxboy10

unixnerd wrote:

I have SPD-SLs on my road bike and SPDs on my commuter and mtb. I prefer SPDs as they're easier to clip into and the shoes are better suited to our cold climate. I don't like the fact that with SPD-SLs if you don't clip in right first time you're going to be stranded half way across a junction.

My place of work put the bike shed a few 100m from the main building and I have to walk up three flights of stairs, I'd not want to do that in SPD-SLs. I also like the fact that my SPDs have a plug in with orange reflectors, as I do a lot of night cycling in the country I think is important (and a legal requirement).

Can you expand on your comments about being stranded half way across a junction?

rnath

FWIW, used to use MTB shoes (Time ATAC) on all my bikes. But having experimented with SPD-SL's on the road bike I've definitely felt the benefit, especially on longer rides.

So SPD-SL's on the road bike, MTB pedals on the commuter where I'm clipping in/out much more frequently and may need to nip into Sainsbury's on the way home. In hindsight, just seems common sense really?

unixnerd

Can you expand on your comments about being stranded half way across a junction?

With SPDs even if you fail to clip in you can push down on the pedal. SL shoes have a shiny sole with no grip and if you don't clip you have no grip to push the pedal. Can make life interesting if you're trying to get out into a gap in a stream of traffic.

If you watch the pros racing they'll get a push start in the mountains if they puncture. This is partly because it's very hard to start on a really steep section with SLs.

bendertherobot

I've cycled for 5 years with SPD-SL.

In order to ensure maximum convenience on my commuter for winter/rain etc I switched to SPD's on that.

I can perceive absolutely no difference between SPD and SPD-SL so, on that basis, swapped my Canyon CF Ultimate to SPD as well.

I have two pairs of MTB shoes, one black, one white, which can be worn as the weather dictates and swapped between bikes.

Maximum convenience, no loss, laugh at people who want you to use grown up pedals.

bendertherobot

Incidentally, these are the shoes I had:



and now I have these: