Which pedals/cleats to buy for a novice?

IamPlod

Hi,
Sorry if it's a silly question or the terminology isn't correct! I'm buying my first road bike later this week (Connondale Synapse 105) but I don't know what pedals/cleats will suit me best. I haven't used these before and I'm sure I will be off the bike at some point, but I've heard MTB pedals would maybe suit me better as they are easier to click in/out? Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks,
Mike

drlodge

Its a lot easier to walk in MTB shoes as the cleats are recessed within the sole.

CiB

Look Keo are good. Don't buy something that's specifically for novices, buy something decent that does the job. Learning is a piece of cake that you'll soon be doing as second nature and if you have the odd fall, no big deal, you probably will whatever you buy. Once you're past the worried novice stage you'll be riding with what you bought, and you'll be a rider for a lot longer than you'll be a novice. Look Keo are as good as anything.

mrb123

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-pd-m520-pedals/

Hard to see past these for a novice for value, performance, reliability and ease of use.

diamonddog

CiB wrote:

Look Keo are good. Don't buy something that's specifically for novices, buy something decent that does the job. Learning is a piece of cake that you'll soon be doing as second nature and if you have the odd fall, no big deal, you probably will whatever you buy. Once you're past the worried novice stage you'll be riding with what you bought, and you'll be a rider for a lot longer than you'll be a novice. Look Keo are as good as anything.

^^This

coulddobetter

Having tried road pedals that came with a bike I reverted to mountain. I preferred the action and the ease of moving around off the bike. Shimano m520 would be my advice.

OnTheRopes

diamonddog wrote:

CiB wrote:

Look Keo are good. Don't buy something that's specifically for novices, buy something decent that does the job. Learning is a piece of cake that you'll soon be doing as second nature and if you have the odd fall, no big deal, you probably will whatever you buy. Once you're past the worried novice stage you'll be riding with what you bought, and you'll be a rider for a lot longer than you'll be a novice. Look Keo are as good as anything.

^^This

Agreed

norvernrob

I much prefer Time Xpresso pedals to Shimano as they don't tend to hang upside down.

Having said that, I started on Shimano SPD-SL for the first couple of years and managed fine. And I never forgot to unclip, not once. And I'm not sure why 'ease of walking' is a useful feature of MTB shoes, it's a bike ride not a walk. 10 steps at a cafe stop maybe.

fat daddy

I am an spd fan ... Probably due to coming from the mtb world, clips can be double sided, you can set them up to give you a very loose fit if you are going to be putting your feet down a lot, or tight as anything if you need to be locked in .... And you can walk about in the shoes as opposed to waddling like you pooed yourself.

That said I have never tried road pedals, I expect they give better power transfer, more comfortable for 6 hour rides and are half the weight

Ascot17

It is as much about the shoes as the pedals. You are going to need both.

MTB shoes tend to be cheaper and more comfortable for walking than road shoes. Your initial expense for a pair of MTB shoes and pedals will therefore be a lot lower. If you later decide to change to road pedals and shoes, however, you will be spending the money twice.

Some road shoes will take MTB cleats so you could start like this and just upgrade the pedals at a later date (most pedals - road or MTB - come with cleats).

IamPlod

fat daddy wrote:

I am an spd fan ... Probably due to coming from the mtb world, clips can be double sided, you can set them up to give you a very loose fit if you are going to be putting your feet down a lot, or tight as anything if you need to be locked in .... And you can walk about in the shoes as opposed to waddling like you pooed yourself.

That said I have never tried road pedals, I expect they give better power transfer, more comfortable for 6 hour rides and are half the weight

What's spd?

Ascot17

SPD are the mountain-bike pedals.

SPD-SL are road

bungle73

M520 user here too. Pair them with the SH-56 cleats for the easiest release.

NorvernRob wrote:

IAnd I'm not sure why 'ease of walking' is a useful feature of MTB shoes, it's a bike ride not a walk. 10 steps at a cafe stop maybe.

Because normal people like to get off their bike and walk around once in a while?

fat daddy wrote:

That said I have never tried road pedals, I expect they give better power transfer, more comfortable for 6 hour rides and are half the weight

The weight difference is minimal though. Unless you're a top lever racer where every seconds counts I don't think that matters much does it?

IamPlod wrote:

fat daddy wrote:

I
What's spd?

Shimano Pedalling Dynamics. What Shimano call their clipless system, but an initialism that doesn't actually mean anything.

norvernrob

Bungle73 wrote:

M520 user here too. Pair them with the SH-56 cleats for the easiest release.

NorvernRob wrote:

IAnd I'm not sure why 'ease of walking' is a useful feature of MTB shoes, it's a bike ride not a walk. 10 steps at a cafe stop maybe.

Because normal people like to get off their bike and walk around once in a while?

Clearly I'm not normal, when I go out on a ride I have no intention of walking anywhere other than at a cafe.

Why would you just get off and walk around? If it's a ride around the local country park with the family or kids I wear trainers and flat pedals.

Garry H

Just buy anything, they'll be fine. People will just recommend whatever they have.

fat daddy

I use my bike for commuting, doing the shopping etc .... The thought of walking round tesco wearing road shoes and cleats doesn't appeal.

bungle73

NorvernRob wrote:

Bungle73 wrote:

M520 user here too. Pair them with the SH-56 cleats for the easiest release.

NorvernRob wrote:

IAnd I'm not sure why 'ease of walking' is a useful feature of MTB shoes, it's a bike ride not a walk. 10 steps at a cafe stop maybe.

Because normal people like to get off their bike and walk around once in a while?

Clearly I'm not normal, when I go out on a ride I have no intention of walking anywhere other than at a cafe.

Why would you just get off and walk around? If it's a ride around the local country park with the family or kids I wear trainers and flat pedals.

Well a lot of people do; myself included. We're not ones for solely riding around continuously a few hours, then going home. I may want to explore on foot where I've ridden to for a bit. Plus it's a break to be off the bike if you're ridding around for several hours. And i might want to use my bike for a quick trip to the shops or something.

chrisaonabike

MrB123 wrote:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-pd-m520-pedals/

Hard to see past these for a novice for value, performance, reliability and ease of use.

^^ This.

I've had mine for about three years now, still like them a lot.

I was a novice then, but now I'm merely slow.

Anonymous

Garry H wrote:

Just buy anything, they'll be fine. People will just recommend whatever they have.

I have and use both so whilst that may be true of most, its not of me

Pro MTB people often seem to have chips on their shoulders IMO.
They seem to be desperate for other people to do as they do (especially M520 owners!).

Its so funny when people slag off road shoes/pedals and people who use them, then say they have never tried them :roll:

As has been said, there are not really 'novice' pedals/shoes, and how long do you plan on being a novice anyway?
What other novice cycling items do you have?
What other novice things do you have for other aspects of your life?

Do you actually plan on changing them then?
After how long?
If you view MTB as novice, and road as non novice, then you will have to buy new shoes too.

Reality is that you will just keep them for ages (like others that have recommended things for novices :? ) so just get what you want to have post novice.

Personally I would get road for a road bike unless you have a specific reason not to.

chrisaonabike

Carbonator wrote:

Pro MTB people often seem to have chips on their shoulders IMO.
They seem to be desperate for other people to do as they do (especially M520 owners!).

Its so funny when people slag off road shoes/pedals and people who use them, then say they have never tried them :roll:

Not read any slagging or desperation on this thread.

When I was a novice, I went SPD because initially I wanted pedals that were flat one side and cleats the other. So I got some Specialized SPD shoes to go with.

Then when clipping in and out was easy, I got some M520s - they were cheap, and did the job, not for any other reason.

Then when I discovered that I get terrible cold feet, and got some winter boots similar to these, I was pleased I'd stayed with SPD.

daniel_b

For me, when I started road biking, I went for M520's, and carbon soled mtb shoes, so no flex.

Wind the tension right off, double sided, and the cleats refuse to ever wear out, as do the pedals come to that.

That combo was fine for rides up to about 4 hours, after that I might start to get a small 'hotspot' on my foot, but other than that it was fine, probably rode like that for 5 years, and they are stil faultless

I had never ridden clipped in at the time, but have since moved that setup on to my MTB, and have now chosen LOOK pedals as my pedal of choice, and very nice they are.
I have them fitted to all of my bikes in one form or another, and still have the tension wound mostly off, where I have the choice - one pair are preset at 12nm.

For me, M520's make the best starter choice, as they are stupidly cheap, ultra reliable, and you don't have to worry about cleats wearing out, they just work, day after day.

Fairly sure you can pick a pair up for circa £15, and a reasonable pair of ratchet shoes can likely be had for £50 or so.

bungle73

Carbonator wrote:

Garry H wrote:

Pro MTB people often seem to have chips on their shoulders IMO.
They seem to be desperate for other people to do as they do (especially M520 owners!).

Its so funny when people slag off road shoes/pedals and people who use them, then say they have never tried them :roll:

One doesn't need to have tried them, because it's pretty common knowledge, and common sense, that road pedals/cleats/shoes are much more of a pain to live with, unless one never gets off the bike.

And I don't know what you mean by having "a chip on their shoulders" either tbh............

Jayme

I've gone for SPDs on my road bike (m520s). I commute to work on my cycle, and have quite a few stop starts in through the city centre. Once I get to work, I have a bit of walk to my office across gravel and rocks, and spd cleats just hold up better. Longest I've done so far is 40 miles in one go, and I've got a 60 mile ride coming up, and I haven't had a hot spot or anything in my foot.

Garry H

I use both, SPDs for commuting and SLs for just riding. If I'm honest, can't really say I notice much of a difference. Let's face it, if SPDs had come first, we'd all be using them.

ForumNewbie

Even if you don't do much walking off the bike, I find the fact that SPDs being double-sided are easier to clip into without looking down, especially for a beginner. I have SPD M540s and SPD M520s on another bike - they are very similar.

Also, with MTB shoes it is easier to pedal with one foot unclipped when coming up to a junction or in stop/start traffic, as with a completely smooth flat-soled road shoe it is not that easy to keep pedalling as your unclipped foot will probably slip off the pedal.

dj58

IamPlod wrote:

What's spd?

Shimano Pedaling Dynamics.

bungle73

ForumNewbie wrote:

Also, with MTB shoes it is easier to pedal with one foot unclipped when coming up to a junction or in stop/start traffic, as with a completely smooth flat-soled road shoe it is not that easy to keep pedalling as your unclipped foot will probably slip off the pedal.

Indeed. I make use of that aspect a lot.

lincolndave

Whichever pedal system you go for will seem strange to start with, you will need to find some where quiet to practice clipping and un clipping, I am sure you will soon get the hang of clipping and un clipping, it's not as hard has some people will have you think
Good luck

super_davo

Another cyclist who uses both.
In my case my racing bikes are on SPD-SL and my commuting/ winter bikes use SPD (2 bikes using each).
My best bike was out of action for a couple of weeks getting a new groupset fitted, so been training on my SPD equipped winter bike (complete with guards but with the wheels from the best bike). So obviously this has had a detrimental effect on my performance. Actually not at all; my average speed was up compared with the same route, but that is likely to be due to better conditions rather than the bike. I've also done century rides plus on SPDs with no hotspots.
Bottom line is, I don't this it is correct to say SPDs are for beginners and you'll want to upgrade them once you're hardened. You'll want to upgrade every component of your kit and bike once you're hardened, and then your old kit becomes winter or commuting kit. And SPDs make fine winter/commuting kit!

ForumNewbie

super_davo wrote:

Another cyclist who uses both.
In my case my racing bikes are on SPD-SL and my commuting/ winter bikes use SPD (2 bikes using each).
My best bike was out of action for a couple of weeks getting a new groupset fitted, so been training on my SPD equipped winter bike (complete with guards but with the wheels from the best bike). So obviously this has had a detrimental effect on my performance. Actually not at all; my average speed was up compared with the same route, but that is likely to be due to better conditions rather than the bike. I've also done century rides plus on SPDs with no hotspots.
Bottom line is, I don't this it is correct to say SPDs are for beginners and you'll want to upgrade them once you're hardened. You'll want to upgrade every component of your kit and bike once you're hardened, and then your old kit becomes winter or commuting kit. And SPDs make fine winter/commuting kit!

I started using SPDs about 6 years ago and never had the inclination to 'upgrade' to SPD-SLs, so I agree they are not just for beginners. However because they are double-sided I think they would be easier for beginners to use rather than SPD-SLs

glenncz

I certainly wouldn't get MTB cleats. If you are spending money on a bike like that you want clipless pedals to be a real road rider, otherwise you are certainly just a "novice". I bought Look Keo compatible pedals for $29 on Amz and they work just fine, but i see they are not available anymore