Both my stoker and I are in the market for new pedals and shoes as our current ones are well worn and since we are purchasing a new tandem this would be a perfect time. I know everyone has their own preference and favorite set-up but thought I would ask to see what wisdom others have to share with us.
Our current set up for road use are Shimano SPD mountain type pedals and shoes. We have been fairly happy with the set up as the recessed cleats are dandy for walking around when needed. We have done several centuries with them and I am sure stiffer road type shoes and wider contact pedals would have been easier on the feet (at least while riding). I should note also that many, many years ago we use to ride with Look pedals, stiff soles, and had cleat covers when we needed to walk around. The covers did help but the raised cleat still was awkward so then went to the recessed SPD set up we have now.
I see Shimano makes an A520 road pedal using SPD. Looks like it could give slightly more shoe contact to disperse the load. LBS clerks have not been able to assure that they would fit a mountain style shoe with a recessed cleat. Does anyone have experience with this pedal?
Anyone have suggestions for us based on the following criteria?
1. Ease of walking at our stops.
2. Wide as possible support for the foot while riding.
I note that some cyclist carry extra flip-flops to use if much walking is required. While an option, I am not sure I want to do that. Guess we want the best of two worlds which may conflict.
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At first, I got M520 pedals. They are great for commuting and other short distances, but not good enough for touring. So my touring bike now has M424 pedals. Good cage, and the pedals are SPD-ready.
cornucopia72
We have used SPD's before but about a year ago we switched to Speedplay Frogs... we like them much better: effortless engaging and disengaging, two sided, recessed cleats, not heavy.
masiman
I like my Time ATAC Z's. They are very SPD like in the cleat and engagement. In addition to your two requirements, I wanted something that I could ride with a street shoe, i.e. something with a wide flat platform. The Crank Bros. came close but the mount sticks up to far above the platform to make street shoe riding comfortable.
The Z's also have lateral float which I wanted to help preserve my knees. They are very durable and I would rate them average in entry/exit ease. The best part is that I have never had an accidental release. Entry and exit are not mindless but not overly problematic. Not an issue for the non-technical riding we are doing. The Z's have the best platform of any I have seen. If we did not go with the Z's, we may have gone with the Frogs or Crank's and given up the street shoe requirement.
SPD's never had enough contact area for my liking. However, when I race I like to use them. They perform well in all areas except for the hotspots they give me.
cfblue
I like my Bebops, all the same virtues as Frogs, which would be my second choice, but self-clean better after stepping into mud. There is a thread in road cycling about them. My stoker didn't like them and uses SPD's, which would be my third choice.
Hermes
We have Sidi Genius road shoes with Ultegra SPD SL pedals.
lmzimmer
Also consider Crank Brothers -not the original egbeaters but either Candy's or Mallets- These have wider supprot with the original eggbeater mechanism- the ones I have release easily, ride well and work well with mtn bike(not road) shoes.
CGinOhio
We also have had great luck with Crank Bro pedals. I liked the Candy's so well on my mountain bike that I bought them for our tandem. Easy in and easy out. Its great not having to look down to clip in...just stomp and go. The cleat is small and easy to walk on using mountain shoes. I use the sexier Quattros on the single. They come with a plastic platform to allow usage with road shoes. You could use the Quattros with mountain shoes if your leave off the platform and trim some tread where it contacts the inboard bearing.
Carbonfiberboy
Sidi Dominator shoes with SPD-type cleats. The soles are the same as for their road shoes, except they add the lugs on the outside. Very stiff and durable shoes and OK to walk in. I like double-sided pedals for the captain's cranks. Performance Forte pedals work fine. With a really stiff soled shoe, I don't think you notice the size of the pedal platform.
stapfam
Many moons ago I used a NON shimano pedal on an MTB and the Mud shedding was phenominal- which is why I bought them. Unfortunately they gave up on me so I had to look for a replacement. Got M515's- the cheapest shimano ones at the time and were the ones, I later found out, everyone said not to buy. Well 8 years later and they are still in use and have never given any trouble. For the Tandem I got 520's and once again- no problems. Onto the shoes though- and I found that my original Aggressive soled MTB shoes were too harsh if we wanted to walk as Tourists. Got a pair of the Cheap shimano ones again that look like a trainer, and they are fine. Not as stiff soled as I would like for biking , but fine for walking about with. As I occasionally have a new Stoker on the Tandem- I got a pair of the Shimano SPD's- with a cage round them. The actual pedal is a 520, but with a large cage- they can be comfortably be used with a non-cleated shoe.
BloomingCyclist
I see Shimano makes an A520 road pedal using SPD. Looks like it could give slightly more shoe contact to disperse the load. LBS clerks have not been able to assure that they would fit a mountain style shoe with a recessed cleat.
The A520 will work with mountain shoes. It is described as a sport SPD shoe and is intended for regular mountain SPD cleat use on a road bike and is a little lighter than a mountain pedal because it is a one sided pedal like other road pedals. My wife used the predecessor of the A520, the A515, on her single bike for a couple of years (we rode single bikes for many years before entering the tandem life a year and a half ago. It is also a one sided SPD pedal like the A520 but the newer A520 does have a larger frame around the SPD mechanism. As I said, a mountain pedal will work. (I believe what is now called the mountain SPD cleat was the original SPD and what is now called the road SPD being a later development. In terms of support for you foot / shoe; I was surprised when I actually looked under my wife's shoe and saw that the frame of the 515 did not contact the sole of the shoe so the contact area was just the cleat and the mechanism. If the cleat had been recessed a little bit more into the sole then it would have been possible for the frame to offer some more support but if it was recessed too much then one would not be able to engage the cleat.
We thought about changing to A520's because they were lighter and it looks like they would have more support but we thought we might find that the frame on that pedal really didn't touch the sole either. We didn't try it so we don't know for sure. Since we didn't think it would give additional support and we were doing fine, we just switched to a double-sided mtb pedal for the ease of entering on either side
We switched to regular double sided mountain SPD pedals on her single and we've used regular double sided mountain SPD pedals on our tandem since the beginning. We don't use a pricey shoe like the SIDI dominator but everyone I know who uses them really likes them. We seldom have hot spot problems but when we do, we wiggle toes or get off and walk a little bit and they are gone. We use a simple shimano m-038 shoe with laces and one velcro strap - We rode those across America on a 3700 mile / 50 day ride with few hotspot issues. I imagine the dominator has a stiffer sole.
Clearly some of the other designs allow more float and if it is hard for a person to get their cleat positioned correctly on their shoe or if their knee / leg moves in a way that twists more than the SPD float allows, then by all means, get something with more float.