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Originally Posted by
Vaportrail56
I guess it depends on what kind of shoe you want to wear. I`m kinda new to road cycling and I was riding with a friend who used SPD pedals on his road bike and really liked them. So I went to the LBS to get some and the guy there told me I should go with speedplay pedals which I did. I really like `em. I believe they are designed more for speed over the SPD`s which are used more on mountian bikes, at least thats what I was told.I guess if you like to walk around alot it would be better to go with SPD pedals though.
What Speedplays do that no other road pedal can do is allow the cleat to be positioned a lot farther back on the shoe. Some Pro Tour riders are using them for this reason, even as far back as midfoot. You're going to have a heck of a time mounting Shimano/Look/Time cleats or SPD cleats that far back.
Long writeup here:
http://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/...leat-position/
Cleat position aside, what makes more of a difference for me is not the pedal itself, but the shoe. I've got stiff Sidi MTB and road shoes, and once I'm on the bike (MTB and road bikes), they might as well be the same shoe. The practical difference is that I don't have any other shoes that will attach to the road pedals I have now, but I can use any kind of SPD-compatible shoe on the MTB pedals.