Clipless Pedals Review (if interested)

stephensmiths

Hi all, newbie here - just a very basic review for those considering going clipless.

After much mulling I bit the bullet and purchased a pair of Shimano R078 SPD-SL Road Shoes and the Shimano SPD-SL PDR 540 Road Pedals. 20% off all Shimano products at Halfords currently if anyone is interested.

After fitting them and practising clipping on and off (with a few wobbles) on the grass yesterday, I felt confident enough to go for a ride today. I repeated a ride that I did the other day, just under 12 miles on country lanes on my Triban 3 (which had toe clips on the pedals previously). The only variable was that it was a bit sunnier as I went for my ride around 5pm instead of the usual 7pm.

The feeling of being attached to the pedals didn't feel too strange, I felt I knew what to expect and felt comfortable enough. I practised clipping out at the end of my road just to ensure I still had the nack for it and that went fine. I feel more comfortable unclipping my weaker foot to stand on if coming to a stop. I also found it is a lot easier to clip out when the pedal is at its lowest point.

The one advantage I felt was that I felt I could actually push harder down on the pedals. I felt I could really push down - left, right, left, right - which helped me to keep momentum more so than without the new pedals. This could have been due to being attached to the pedals, or simply a placebo affect of having nice new gear.

Another bonus is that you really don't want to stop at any point, because the hassle of clipping back in or walking on cleats is a last resort, so it could give you that little edge going uphill.

One downside was that I actually seem to have a bit of a bad back since. This may or may not be related to the new pedals - only time will tell. Maybe it is a case of learning to adapt my pedalling technique...

Anyway, my times I felt would serve as a good indicator as to how well the pedals stood up and here they are:

Old Pedals: 11.72 miles. 47.40 minutes. 14.75 mph avg.
New clipless Pedals: 11.73 miles. 45.47 minutes. 15.37 mph avg.

Looking at the splits (using Runkeeper) the total climbs for each mile don't match, so it isn't too reliable. However, it does show that I made 1 minute and 7 secs in the last 3 miles - so while I have gone faster, this might be due to improved fitness, as I am a relative newbie. It does show that I consistently made gains on my previous time uphill though.

So overall, I am pretty happy with the pedals. They felt comfortable during the ride and felt natural enough. I am happy that they probably do provide a better use of energy inputted and believe this will improve once my technique is better tuned to being clipless. I would recommend buying clipless pedals to anybody who has been considering doing so for a while and would suggest practising clipping in and out on grass for a while prior to your first ride with the new pedals. After that though you should be pretty comfortable and hopefully find you are more efficient and maybe a tad faster too.

Hope this might be useful for somebody, somewhere! Sorry for such a long post!!

ct8282

Bad back is most probably because the new pedals will actually have a lower foot position compared to your old ones so you are probably having to stretch just a little more (you may not even notice) so you are rocking your hips with each pedal stroke.

Drop your saddle by maybe 5mm and my guess is the pain in your back will go away.

davidefernandes

How Bizarre! I signed on here to do the exact same thing!!

I bought DHB shoes and Shimano PD-R540 SPD SL pedals from Wiggle last week and gave them a go on Friday, I had always been dubious about the shoes/pedals, for some reason thought they were a gimmick and wouldnt improve myn performance much at all! Wow was I wrong, I'll never not wear them again now! I cycled 60 miles in a time 14 minutes shorter then I did 50 miles a few week back (albeit with a favourable wind this time)

Re seat position, I found that I had to raise my seat a wee bit due to the shoes and extra height of the cleat.

markhewitt1978

davidefernandes wrote:

How Bizarre! I signed on here to do the exact same thing!!

I bought DHB shoes and Shimano PD-R540 SPD SL pedals from Wiggle last week and gave them a go on Friday, I had always been dubious about the shoes/pedals, for some reason thought they were a gimmick and wouldnt improve myn performance much at all! Wow was I wrong, I'll never not wear them again now! I cycled 60 miles in a time 14 minutes shorter then I did 50 miles a few week back (albeit with a favourable wind this time)

Re seat position, I found that I had to raise my seat a wee bit due to the shoes and extra height of the cleat.

The type of pedals you get can help too. I switched from M505 pedals to M980. Straight away was 10 minutes faster over a 14 mile loop with 1000' of climbing. Very impressed at how good the new pedals were and not impressed by how terrible the M505's must have been!

stephensmiths

Thanks ct8282 for the tip re: saddle height, I didn't even consider it would need adjusting - which is quite obvious now. I actually think, like davidefernandes, my saddle probably needs to be a tad higher up.

markhewitt1978

stephensmiths wrote:

Thanks ct8282 for the tip re: saddle height, I didn't even consider it would need adjusting - which is quite obvious now. I actually think, like davidefernandes, my saddle probably needs to be a tad higher up.

I would have thought if anything you'd need to lower it?

stephensmiths

Maybe so. I'll check next ride, like I said I didn't pay any attention to the saddle height yesterday. I would have just thought these pedals with the shoes and cleats would push me up just a bit? I'll have a look later, it might not need any changing at all as the pain in the back left after an hour or so and may not even be related to the ride.

Schoie81

stephensmiths wrote:

I also found it is a lot easier to clip out when the pedal is at its lowest point.

I definitely found this too. Clipping out with the pedal anywhere between 3 o'clock and about 7 o'clock is easy enough, but towards the rear and at the top of the pedal stroke, its still possible, but I find it much harder to do. I also had to adjust my saddle - cycled a mile with my new pedals before I knew something wasn't right, adjusted it a little and all good again.

I echo your recommendations - I was really unsure and nervous about going clipless but I am so glad I tried it and would not go back now. I'm not sure I've found any performance improvements directly from the use of the clipless pedals but they give me more confidence on the bike, feel more secure and they've cleared up a bit of pain I got in my foot before I used them, which I assume was down to poor foot placement on the pedal.