Originally posted by Guillermo
So do you think that mtn bike shoes are a good idea on the road then?
That depends. I'm a pretty hardcore roadie, and I do a lot of miles and a lot of very long rides. I like having the super-stiff road shoes and the road pedals with the big cleats and wide contact area. For the kind of road riding I do, they're the best choice. Of course, i don't normally stop and walk around when I'm on a ride, except sometimes to duck behind a bush for a nature break.
Having said that, road shoes/cleats are really unsuited to walking more than a few metres at a time. Some call it duck-walking, but I like to think of it more as hoof-walking. In fact, I wear MTB shoes on my cyclocross bike [with SPD pedals] because I do spend time portaging the bike on too-gnarly-for-me descents and runups. I coldn't imagine doing 'cross with road shoes.
So... the question comes down to "how do you ride?" If you
do get off and walk around, or you want to have a pair of shoes that will allow some walking around, should you choose, then you should go with MTB shoes/pedals. If you think your riding style will be like mine -- get on the bike, ride for four or five hours, get off the bie -- then go straight to road shoes.
If you're not sure, then MTB shoes and pedals are a good place to start and are typically a little less expensive than their roadie counterparts.
If you're looking for road pedals, your choices boil down to Look, Shimano SPD-R, Speedplay and Time. They're all basically the same in terms of quality [at equivalent pricepoints], but all work a little differently. Look and Time are very similar; Speedplay offers the greatest amount of "float" [how much you can rotate your foot in a horizontal plane]; Shimano SPD-R is reportedly easier to release.
If you're looking for MTB pedals, you're most likely looking at Shimano SPD and SPD clones [though Time's and Speedplay's MTB pedals have very good reputations]. You should probably stick to known brands, like Shimano or Ritchey. You can find cheap no-name brand pedals, but you really do get what you pay for. Don't go for the cheapest, no-name pedals, they can often fail catastrophically. You'll probably look at the Shimano M515, which is a pretty good pedal [I have them on my 'cross bike] for the money, and not a bad place to start.