Went to the bike shop again this a.m. and checked all the pedals and shoes out. I tried on a bunch of shoes. They had my size in all of them, so that was great. They had the 530 pedals in black and silver. The 520's are not really for dual use, so I ruled those out. They also showed me the mountain bike dual use pedal, which has more grip on the flat side, but it was noticeably heavier on my hand and not nearly as good looking as the 530. Since I am changing out my wheels for the black Mavic's I think I will wait to decide whether I want black or silver pedals.
My husband has been drooling over my shiny Mavic Elite wheels. He has the stock wheels that came with his Giant. The mavic's were stock on my Felt. I don't get the wheel thing, but he IS a tire and wheel salesman. To him, the Mavic's are cool. They will give him my shiny wheels for about $250 and put the black ones on my bike. sigh.
Shoes: The mountain bike shoes have rubber soles you can easily walk around in. Some of them even look like tennis shoes. The guy said on long rides on a road bike they can cause a hot spot on the ball of your foot because the soles aren't hard. The road shoes are very light and airy in comparison. With the hard sole, you don't get a hot spot when riding, but off bike use is difficult. BUT, the clips on the 530's are very shallow and have rubber grips on each side so they aren't a giant knob on the bottom of the foot. It would not be impossible to walk short distances in them.
If I bought a full road bike pedal, I would have a much larger contraption on the bottom of the shoe. I ruled out those S Works shoes ($$$). Not yet for me. I think the Shimano shoes are good enough for a beginner.
I want to decide by Saturday when we take the bikes in for the fitting. My wheels should be in by Friday, so we can get it all done then.
I walked away confused about what to do.
Thank you everybody for helping me figure this stuff out. I had no idea when I rode around Germany on a bike a couple years ago that I would be doing this! Next thing you know I will be buying those butt hugger shorts with the diaper built in.
Last edited by outwest5; 02-16-11 at 03:39 PM.