SPD'S and footwear question's

fredblob

anyway i was in my local bike shop with my dad he's thinking about getting a new bike anyway to cut a long story short he offered to buy some speed pedals and the some footwear to match i told him not to bother yet.

the question is how exactly do they work does the shoe bolt on the pedals or something sorry if it sounds like a stupid question.

Chunkers1980

A cleat bolts to the shoe and then the cleat attaches by a spung mechanism to the pedal.

fredblob

Chunkers1980 wrote:

A cleat bolts to the shoe and then the cleat attaches by a spung mechanism to the pedal.

so i say i need to stop in a hurry for some reason or other can i quickly unclip shoes to put my feet on the ground etc. are theses any good for mountain bikes

thanks was a bit unsure how they worked.

Chunkers1980

Yes, you unclip via some form of twist which becomes second nature.

Yes they are excellent, but so are flats ;-)

coulddobetter

I use them all the time . It becomes second nature to just twist your heels outwards to unclip from the pedal. Pedals can be adjusted so the amount of force needed to unclip can be low to high . Some pedals have a platform big enough to ride unclipped in ordinary shoes. I often find myself unclipping yet still able to pedal in tricky situations .

Kowalski675

fredblob wrote:

so i say i need to stop in a hurry for some reason or other can i quickly unclip shoes to put my feet on the ground etc.

That's the theory, but I saw someone crash three times on Saturday while clipped into SPDs, and all three occasions if she'd been riding flats she could've ended up on her feet, rather than in a heap on the floor under her bike...

fredblob

atm i have cannondale flats which came on the bike there okay my feet keep slipping loads thou. just considering SPD's
but i dont want to end up on the floor in a heap under the bike

mcnultycop

Stock pedals are usually poor. Buy some better pedals and you feet should stay on more.

fredblob

Kowalski675 wrote:

fredblob wrote:

so i say i need to stop in a hurry for some reason or other can i quickly unclip shoes to put my feet on the ground etc.

That's the theory, but I saw someone crash three times on Saturday while clipped into SPDs, and all three occasions if she'd been riding flats she could've ended up on her feet, rather than in a heap on the floor under her bike...

the same girl crashed 3 times thats probably bad technique not bad gear thou

fredblob

mcnultycop wrote:

Stock pedals are usually poor. Buy some better pedals and you feet should stay on more.

might look into it thanks ideally some metallic green would be gr8 match the rest of the colour scheme

Kowalski675

fredblob wrote:

atm i have cannondale flats which came on the bike there okay my feet keep slipping loads thou. just considering SPD's
but i dont want to end up on the floor in a heap under the bike

You won't believe the difference a decent set of grippy flat pedals with pins make, especially with some flat soled grippy shoes (even cheap skate shoes). I was slipping all over riding trails on my OE Wellgo pedals, but my B-54s grip like a very grippy thing - if you want to move your foot to adjust position you have to actually lift it up off the pedal. You wouldn't want one scraped down your shin though.

Kowalski675

fredblob wrote:

mcnultycop wrote:

Stock pedals are usually poor. Buy some better pedals and you feet should stay on more.

might look into it thanks ideally some metallic green would be gr8 match the rest of the colour scheme

Superstar Nanos are very good, not stupid money and available in green.

fredblob

Kowalski675 wrote:

fredblob wrote:

atm i have cannondale flats which came on the bike there okay my feet keep slipping loads thou. just considering SPD's
but i dont want to end up on the floor in a heap under the bike

You won't believe the difference a decent set of grippy flat pedals with pins make, especially with some flat soled grippy shoes (even cheap skate shoes). I was slipping all over riding trails on my OE Wellgo pedals, but my B-54s grip like a very grippy thing - if you want to move your foot to adjust position you have to actually lift it up off the pedal.

atm i use running shoe's for everything mainly because i find there most comfy. tryed some biking trainers on there surprisingly okay. for some reason they have Velcro on reminds me of primary school

skating shoes make my feet sweat and rot :oops: . running trainers are full on little holes so your feet can breathe. :P

Kowalski675

fredblob wrote:

Kowalski675 wrote:

fredblob wrote:

so i say i need to stop in a hurry for some reason or other can i quickly unclip shoes to put my feet on the ground etc.

That's the theory, but I saw someone crash three times on Saturday while clipped into SPDs, and all three occasions if she'd been riding flats she could've ended up on her feet, rather than in a heap on the floor under her bike...

the same girl crashed 3 times thats probably bad technique not bad gear thou

I didn't say that the crashes were caused by her being clipped in (they weren't), but if she'd been riding flats she would've been able to land on her feet, rather than in a painful heap.

Kowalski675

fredblob wrote:

Kowalski675 wrote:

fredblob wrote:

atm i have cannondale flats which came on the bike there okay my feet keep slipping loads thou. just considering SPD's
but i dont want to end up on the floor in a heap under the bike

You won't believe the difference a decent set of grippy flat pedals with pins make, especially with some flat soled grippy shoes (even cheap skate shoes). I was slipping all over riding trails on my OE Wellgo pedals, but my B-54s grip like a very grippy thing - if you want to move your foot to adjust position you have to actually lift it up off the pedal.

atm i use running shoe's for everything mainly because i find there most comfy. tryed some biking trainers on there surprisingly okay. for some reason they have Velcro on reminds me of primary school

skating shoes make me sweat and rot. running trainers are full on little holes so your feet can breathe.

Running shoes are made for running, which has completely different requirements - their soles are too flexy for pedalling (and shaped wrongly). You want a stiffer, flat, grippy sole.

fredblob

SPD's sounds gr8 but also decent flats sound gr8 as well

jus gonna check chain reaction see whats prices are like

Kowalski675

Both have pros and cons. Flats for me (maybe I'd try SPDs for XC riding, but not more technical terrain).

fredblob

Kowalski675 wrote:

Both have pros and cons. Flats for me (maybe I'd try SPDs for XC riding, but not more technical terrain).

i like in suffolk so there's very little technical terrain theres lots of XC farm tracks and forest's.

Kowalski675

I live in Yorkshire, it's hilly and rocky up here.

fredblob

Kowalski675 wrote:

I live in Yorkshire, it's hilly and rocky up here.

i was born in a place called whitehaven up north near carlisle its very hilly and stuff up there.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shim ... -prod67249 (cheap and good reviews on chain reaction)


http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... edal-45093 (good reviews bike radar)

Kowalski675

I've been to Whitehaven. It's the arsehole of Cumbria, lol. Like a wart on a supermodel.

fredblob

Kowalski675 wrote:

I've been to Whitehaven. It's the arsehole of Cumbria, lol. Like a wart on a supermodel.

its a proper little chavy shit hole i wouldn't recommend visiting enless you have family there like me

Kowalski675

fredblob wrote:

Kowalski675 wrote:

I've been to Whitehaven. It's the arsehole of Cumbria, lol. Like a wart on a supermodel.

its a proper little chavy shoot hole i wouldn't recommend visiting enless you have family there like me

I didn't intentionally visit it. I was hooning up the A595 coast road and missed the Cockermouth turning at Egremont, so we ended up in Whitehaven. I pissed off the harbour wall into the sea to demonstrate what I thought of the place, before we headed off down the mucho scenic A66 over to Keswick and beyond. I love Cumbria - stunning scenery and great riding roads. The water in Ullswater's bleedin' cold for swimming though, lol.

fredblob

Kowalski675 wrote:

fredblob wrote:

Kowalski675 wrote:

I've been to Whitehaven. It's the arsehole of Cumbria, lol. Like a wart on a supermodel.

its a proper little chavy shoot hole i wouldn't recommend visiting enless you have family there like me

I didn't intentionally visit it. I was hooning up the A595 coast road and missed the Cockermouth turning at Egremont, so we ended up in Whitehaven. I pissed off the harbour wall into the sea to demonstrate what I thought of the place, before we headed off down the mucho scenic A66 over to Keswick and beyond. I love Cumbria - stunning scenery and great riding roads. The water in Ullswater's bleedin' cold for swimming though, lol.

keswick is a nice area.

fredblob

while researching pedals ive found

thats SPD's pedals don't cost that much but the shoes to clip them into cost a alot alot more also seems to be a lack of metalic green SPD's.

superstar nano's look decent and i have some flat sole trainers all ready

YeehaaMcgee

Don't get too hung up on SPDs. I rode them for several years, but then got back into riding flats.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, even though I thought SPDs were the most amazingest things EVAAAR when I first switched to them, I found that when I got back on flats, I wasn't actually missing anything. So, it's been flat pedals ever since.

croptonboy

I'm the same. Always rode with SPDs (still have my Shimano LX M535s) but after getting back into MTBing recently, and not being able to find my SPDs I've been using flats, and with the offroad sections I've been riding so close to home, and with there being a lot less steep uphill sections now I don't ride the Yorkshire Moors, I'm not missing the SPDs

Found my SPDs while clearing out the garage on Sunday, but I'm not sure I'm going to put them on the bike. Might give them a try but I think I'm going to end up sticking with the flats

YeehaaMcgee

There's no caveat to my spd rejection, no "but". I still ride up and down hill, I still ride XC, and the occasional DH track.
I don't miss anything, by not having them.

mac-cos

There seems to be a trend here, I used to use SPDs exclusively then had a break from MTB'ing for a few years, got back into it last year, returned to SPDs but didnt find that I was that great/or confident on fast technical stuff with them, resulting in an OTB as I was too slow into a wallow(well thats my story and I'm sticking to it) so just recently converted to flats and its a revelation. Decent shoes seem to stick (like poo to a blanket) to the flats and I can ride the technical stuff with far more confidence.

welshkev

to even it up, I ride SPD's have for as long as I can remember. I went to fl;ats for about 3 months when my main bike was off the road. hated it and have been back on spd's ever since...on my trail bike and on my DH bike

jim610

I prefer riding with spd's feel like i have more control an find the climbs much easier.i have them set loose always manage to get my foot out when iv lost it just becomes second nature.all i would say is if you do fancy trying them just pick up some cheap shoes first just to see how you get on for a while some people just carnt get on with them.