gooner04

Hi, I'm a 5'5'' female who does a lot of city riding and the occasional non-paved trail. I'm also thinking about doing some touring this summer. any advice on some not-so-expensive shoes/pedals? or certain features i should be looking?

tsl

For similar usage, I settled on Shimano A520 pedals, marketed as their "road/touring" SPD pedal. SPDs are typically sold as MTB pedals, but the shoes permit normal walking. As a city rider, this is a key benefit for me. I run all my errands and do all my shopping in my SPD clipless shoes. My current shoes are a Bontrager model that's no longer made, so I can't make a recommendation.

If you think you may still want to use regular shoes occasionally, the A530 pedals offer a platform on the other side. However, while some people think double-sided platform/clipless are the greatest thing since sliced bread, I found they were a pain. It seemed like no matter which shoes I wore, the wrong side was always up--which is frustrating in the middle of a busy intersection. Within a couple of months I found that I strongly preferred clipless, and switched to the A520s.

More importantly, I followed the advice frequently given here to get my first clipless at the LBS. At my LBS, they swapped the pedals, did a cleat fitting, and gave me lessons for the (MSRP) price of the shoes and pedals. I was out the door for about $170. They also made me practice for a half-hour in the parking lot before sending me on my way. As a result, on my first ride in traffic (home from the LBS) I was confident. And four years later, I've still not had my first clipless fall.

abarth

The most common clipless is SPD pedals and shoes, I use it on all my road, touring, mountain bikes. I even use SPD shoes for spin class at the gym. A decent pair of SPD shoes are around $50. Check with your local bike co-op, they may have used SPD pedals for $5-$10 a pair, just make sure there is no play on the spindle.

plodderslusk

The 520 pedals is my recommendation also. If you are unsure of the safety you could ask at your LBS if they have som sh55 cleats lying around. They are multirelease cleats that makes it easier to get out of the pedals than the regular ones. As long as you do not jump with the bike they are fine.

mulveyr 

I've been very happy with the A530 SPD/Platforms for touring. During my last tour, the only shoes I brought along were Shimano SPD sandals ( https://www.zappos.com/shimano-spd-cycling-sandal-brown ), and they worked fantastic. The sandals were very walkable off of the bike, even more so than the mountain SPD shoes I normally wear. One thing you may want to look out for is that the footbed is pretty long, which is great for protecting your toes, but you may encounter toe-overlap issues with small framed bikes.

Unlike the other posters so far, I would definitely stick with the dual-sided platforms for touring. After being in the saddle for 6-8 hours a day, I found that being able to swap to the platform side and move my feet around completely eliminated any issues I had with being locked-in for that long.

fietsbob

only clipless feet stuck in pedals fall I took was stopped. no mo, no go, fall over.

gooner04

thanks! you guys have been really helpful