Originally Posted by
spcialzdspksman
Thanks for the pics. They don't seem too bad, but everyone's b*tching about it not being comfortable, so I'll actually just go ahead and bring a pair of sneakers, which i planned to do anyway.
I mentioned it being too late because I actually bought SPD SL pedals already, and about to buy some road shoes real soon.
My only other option would have been to return my pedals, and get a MTB setup, which Carleton had told me is not as a good setup for road biking because it's not very efficient.
If I'm going clipless, might as well go all the way.
One more thing, does anyone know if there are MTB shoes that fit 3-bolt LOOK/SPD-SL cleats?
no. not that i know of. I can take some pics later of my shoes
but the advantage of road shoes is that you get a big ass cleat. this helps disperse pressure over a larger area and allows for stronger clamping i think. it's a better design for a long distance ride on pavement. it also allows for a lighter shoe
mountain bike shoes have a lot of rubber for traction on dirt and gravel. in turn this makes walking on pavement easier because you're walking on these rubber nubs (not great, it's kind of similar to walking around in soccer shoes with rubber cleats). the shoe is more level (road shoes you're walking mostly on that cleat, so your toes are pointed up and you have to kinda waddle). disadvantage of mtb shoes is that the rubber forces you to use a smaller cleat, which can create hot spots on a long ride. there simply isn't enough space for a look delta cleat with all that rubber around it
edit: here's a pic comparison between road and mountain shoes. look cleats on the road shoes (i think, i picked them up used but i'm waiting on my time cleats) and spd cleats on my mountain shoes. in the side profile you can see you're walking on those rubber tread blocks, which are arced to make the walking motion more fluid. on the road shoes the front of your foot walks on the cleat, and you can see you foot leans inward off the cleat by all the scratches on the inside front