Road vs MTB pedals

boyse7en
boyse7en Posts: 59
edited June 2013 in Road beginners
I'm riding a Specialized Tricross Sport, but only on the road. I do about 40-50 miles per week, all on very hilly terrain (I live in North Devon!)

It's currently got Shimano SPD pedals fitted, which I swapped over from my mountain bike. Are there any advantages in swapping pedals/shoes to a road-type clipless system, or is there not really much difference between performance?

Comments

  • t4tomo
    t4tomo Posts: 2,643
    not much difference, except aesthetics. Biggest difference /gain is from changing from flat pedals to some sort of clipped system.
    Bianchi Infinito CV
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    Gary Fisher Aquila '98
    Front half of a Viking Saratoga Tandem
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    There's the advantage that there's a bigger area to push down upon so in theory slightly more efficient. The trade off being that the shoes are really difficult to walk in. I'd say if you want to do any walking off the bike without changing shoes, stick to the SPD.
  • iPete
    iPete Posts: 6,076
    If SPD are comfy, I'd stick.

    The only reason I went to SL was the wider availability of stiffer shoes for racing. I'm temtped to get some Bont XC SPDs and go back. I'm not sure where people get the notion that they are more efficient or give more power...
  • slowbike
    slowbike Posts: 8,498
    There's the advantage that there's a bigger area to push down upon so in theory slightly more efficient.
    Bolx! So long as you have stiff soled shoes there is no difference.
  • simon_masterson
    simon_masterson Posts: 2,740
    Loads of advantages... abysmal cleat life is the obvious one. If I had to buy again then it would be the best shoes I could afford; whichever of the two systems. Ideally I'd be spending enough to get some good quality MTB racing/CX shoes; aside from the greater power transfer/efficiency nonsense, I don't know why (some) road cyclists seem to think that they are the only ones who want stiff shoes.