Advice on clip in shoes/pedals

Puggirl

Thanks to a previous post I ordered a new bike, now it's time to sort out the pedals.

Last year i got some Shimano MTB shoes with SPD clips. I tried them once and sadly ended up lying in the road (fortunately a quiet road) with a bloody knee, scuffed shoe and vowed ever to use them again. I feel the time has come to try again.

Please can you offer advice/recommendations on the best/easiest set up to go for. I currently have the double sided Shimanon A530 pedal and use the flat side with trainers. I would like to utilise the same shoes if possible. My bike is a Roubaix SL4 road bike.

Thank you in advance

DiscoBoy

What has happened to the shoes you used last time?

Anonymous

What shoes are they? Are they fairly stiff soled or bendy lace up rubbery trainer type ones?

Personally I would get Candy One pedals. They have one spring that does the tension for both sides and no tension screw for you to forget to loosen.

Shimano M530's would be another good one if it really must be Shimano, but remember to loosen all four tension screws.

Make sure you tighten the cleats on properly and check them every now and again whichever ones you go for.

Also make sure the shoe does not contact the pedal too much when clipped in.
You can get shims (Candy's come with them) to space the cleat away from shoe if need be.

Forget about duel sided (as opposed to double sided) pedals, they just complicate things.

cattytown

The best thing - regardless of pedal choice - it to spend some time learning them once fitted. Either on the turbo trainer if you have one or just leaning against the wall. Just practise clipping in and out.

Paul.

Anonymous

I am not that sure that practising clipping in/out at home will help that much.
The important things are to get the right shoes/pedals, fit them properly and get used to riding with them IMO.

Sure you need to practice clipping in/out at home, but it is not that difficult (its just turning your heel out if you got the right pedals and fitted them properly) and how many times can you do the same thing?
Clipping in is not a real issue when out on your bike and so no real need to over practice at home, and clipping out is easy at home because you remember to do it.

The problem comes when people forget to clip out and you cannot practice for that at home.
Just go cycling somewhere safe until you get used to remembering.
It becomes second nature after a while and will feel odd not being clipped in once you get used to it.

curto80

Your mistake was to give up after you hit the tarmac. It happens to a lot of people but usually once is enough because you learn the lesson. The three rules are 1) make sure you've got the right set up (including tension on loosest setting), 2) practice a bit on a grassy knoll and 3) concentrate when you're out so you anticipate when you need to unclip one shoe - it's a lot harder to clip out when you're panicking.

I have rubbish co-ordination and it took me half an hour and one fall to learn. It really isn't difficult.

northpole

Pretty much what the last poster said.

New pedals and cleats tend to be a bit stiff which means significant resistance to clipping in and out unless you adjust the pedals to slacken off the tension.

The Shimano shoes and pedals should be fine to experiment with and familiarise yourself with clipping in and out.

The bit about it being easier to unclip when relaxed/ not panicking is very true and the best way to avoid this is to make a deliberate point of unclipping from your left side pedal on the approach to every road junction, whether it be traffic lights, T-junction, roundabout, zebra crossing. Hopefully not too simple simon, but when I say on the approach, I mean while you are still carrying a bit of speed, not after you have applied the brakes and are about to come to a halt. By doing this you benefit from the added stability the bike carries with speed - as you slow down, it gets less stable and you will be more prone to panic wobbles! Do this for the first week or so irrespective of whether you think you need to stop or not. If you don't need to stop at the junction then simply clip back in and continue on. As your confidence is established you can be much more selective about this (some people just do it anyway as a matter of course).

Later on you can have a think about which shoe/ pedal combinations best suit your riding needs.

Peter

Garry H

as has been said above; you gave up to easily.

As for ease of use (assuming you don't have any physiological issue), I don't think they come any easier than Shimano SPD (the MTB pedals, not the road SL version). If you can't use these then your only options are platforms.

lostboysaint

They do. Any of the Crank Brothers pedals are MUCH easier to use. So if you are desperate for ease of use then the Eggbeater and Candy pedals are a great option.

Garry H

lostboysaint wrote:

They do. Any of the Crank Brothers pedals are MUCH easier to use. So if you are desperate for ease of use then the Eggbeater and Candy pedals are a great option.

Didn't find them any easier, or harder to clip than SPDs. Switched from eggbeaters to SPDs on cross bikes because I couldn't be bothered having to clean and re-grease the bearings all the time. Overpriced for what they are.

simonj

Have you tried changing the shimano cleats to the silver/gold SH56 cleats, should cost less than ten pound? These are the multi release cleats and combined with loosening off the pedal stiffness should make it very easy to unclip. Once you've got more confidence you can then switch back to the normal black one if you like.

lostboysaint

Garry H wrote:

lostboysaint wrote:

They do. Any of the Crank Brothers pedals are MUCH easier to use. So if you are desperate for ease of use then the Eggbeater and Candy pedals are a great option.

Didn't find them any easier, or harder to clip than SPDs. Switched from eggbeaters to SPDs on cross bikes because I couldn't be bothered having to clean and re-grease the bearings all the time. Overpriced for what they are.

We'll agree to disagree. I switched the other way because of the better engagement and release (I'll agree there's no "clunk" to say you're in) and more float. Never had to service mine, despite probably being a lot bigger and heavier than you and them doing their work on my MTBs.

Anonymous

I would say the Candy's are easier too.

The mechanism itself is four sided entry and the cleat is the same front and back (you can put it on either way around unlike the Shimano which has a front and back.

To me (and I do not have a Shimano one handy to check) this means that the cleat rotates centrally to the pedal mech and disengages from both front and back at the same time, rather than from the back only on a shimano one.
This seems a much better system IMO.

The upshot of that is that its more of a twist as opposed to heel out movement.
Coupled with having a single spring (so exactly the same tension on both (or all four) sides) and no unnecessary tension screw, I just feel Egg Beaters are a better option.

Shimanos are not that much more difficult to get out of, but why not have the easiest if you are struggling?

lostboysaint

Crank Brothers cleats are the same BUT make sure you get them on the way you want to give the angle of release that you want as there are two options cast in to that "identical" cleat.

Anonymous

I did not say they were identical, I said they released from the front and back simultaneously.

I did not even mention the release angle. I think the lesser is 15 degrees.
Some of the newer Shimanos are about 8 degrees so they might be a good option for the OP. Guessing they may have made the spring a bit weaker too.

Make sure your shoe is fairly stiff and snug or having a shallow release angle will be a bit wasted.