Originally Posted by
John_V
I agree if he was only riding off road. From his quote below, it looks as if the only thing that resembles dirt road riding are the fire roads. I know of several people that use Speedplays on all their bikes, including cross bikes only because they are cheap and don't want to have more than one pair of shoes. They say that they don't have any problems with gravel roads using Speedplays.
Quote from original post:
Originally Posted by
FestinaLente
...an old set of speedplay x5s which are both pristine along with their cleats. I have an old pair of road shoes in great shape that I can dust off and use with the speedplays...
If I have the model number right, the x5's were the pair I owned and they were absurdly terrible at handling any sort of dirt. I couldn't walk across dry grass without them getting sticky and having trouble clipping in. They were awful. I threw them out in exchange for the next version, the next version was much better, walking across dry grass or walking slightly off pavement no longer gunked them up.
I wasn't riding dirt roads, everything I road was pavement, and I still had issues.
Originally Posted by
FestinaLente
Personally, I use SPD pedals on my road bike and it doesn't go off road. He already has a new set of shoes and pedals that he likes. If that combination doesn't work well for him then he has the option of getting some MTB shoes to go with his Eggbeaters.
If he already had a pair of shoes and pedals he liked, then they'd probably be worn. It sounds like he liked the mtb stuff better, so he wore it, so it's worn out.
Sure, if he had a newer pair of speedplays it would be a dilema. But the older pair as terrible and I definitely would not ride any dirt roads with them.