Clipless Pedals
 

Hi,

I use Shimano M520 clipless pedals on all my bikes (road and fixed-gear). The only reason I've been using the M520s is because the MTB shoes are great for walking around in, after parking my bikes. However, out of boredom induced curiosity, I've been thinking about trying some more road-bike-specific clipless pedals and shoes. Other than greatly increasing my chances of slipping and falling on my butt, when walking, are there any advantages/disadvantages to MTB specific vs. road specific clipless pedals, in regard to urban/commuting use?

Thanks.

I wouldn't say so.

I use the same pedals (double sided spds) on most of my bikes, even the road ones as it simplifies my shoe choice.

I do have a set of Looks and matching shoes for my roadie, but I find it such a pain in traffic to "look" down to engage properly. That would improve if I used them more, but I don't notice the difference anyway as I use very stiff (Specialised MTB Comp) MTB shoes, which are much easier to walk in, with the spds.

When urban and commuting cycling, it is more likely that you'll be getting on and off your bike more often than during a road race or similar type of event and therefore, because MTB-style shoes are designed for, at least, limited walking, MTB-style clipless pedals and shoes are more suited for urban and commuting cycling. After my ~25km commuting ride during which I may only need to unclip a couple of times for lights and then, only to put my foot down, not to walk, I still need to walk 200m/yd through my building to the bike cage: I wouldn't want to do that with road shoes/cleats on the marble, linoleum and cement floors.

I'm a big fan of MTB pedals for commuting. The shoes' lugs covering the cleat lets me put my foot down easily at long traffic lights or even a stop sign. You can get shoes with stiff soles for MTB pedals, such as my Sidi Dominators, that are pretty close to the best road-only shoes for transmission efficiency. And of course, no worries about figure skating, or losing cleat covers, when I get to work and walk up to my cube.

Road bike pedals (and shoes) are the way to go for road biking, They are lighter stiffer and more efficient and I wouldn't trade them out for anything... on my road bike. But, they are not well designed for in town/commuting/much of anything else. If you need to spend any amount of time walking in them you'll soon understand why, also walking in them wears down the cleats as most styles are not recessed.

Stick with the MTB style pedals, I use them for everything, except dedicated road bike rides.

I use A530 dual SPD/platform pedals on my road bike commuter, along with Bontrager SSR shoes, which look more like regular walking shoes. I've been highly pleased with the combo.

I found that on longer, harder rides, my feet would sometimes go numb with SPDs. Road shoes and cleats seem to help that.

For my commute they don't have any particular advantage except that I sometimes like to commute on my road bike which sometimes has the road pedals on it. The SPD-SL road cleats have little rubber nubs on them so they aren't awful to walk on but they're just plastic and walking long distances on them will wear them out quicker. There are cleat covers which help.

Lake used to make a road shoe designed for commuting. I snagged a pair on Ebay. They work OK but it's a bit harder to clip in with them. Anyway, I did try for awhile to make road shoes and cleats work for commuting but unless you have a specific reason for wanting to use them, I'd stick with SPDs.

Not really. You can get mountain bike shoes that are every bit as stiff as road bike shoes...even ones with carbon fiber soles. You still get the benefit of being able to walk in the mountain bike shoes...sometimes for miles and miles

I use SPDs because of the many different shoes that work with the same pedals. Sandals, MTB shoes, winter MTB shoes. Probably not too many road sandals out there. Also, if you need to walk any distance due to a breakdown or other reason, MTB shoes are vastly superior.

Was very satisfied using Shimano M520 SPD pedals with
Nike Kato MTB shoes for a few years on my roadbike:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFyX...IoDLA&index=50

When my Nike shoes wore out; I decided to try "road" pedals. A fellow club rider gave me his used Look Keo's. They felt nice
with an old pair of SIDI's I had; nylon soles. But I just couldn't get used to the single sided pedals. I was so used to the double
sided SPD where I just stomped on the pedal and go. W/ the Look's, I was always missing the top and was constantly flipping
it every time the light changed green. I got rid of them and tried Speedplay's. Double sided just like SPD; I'm a happy camper
again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-rQ...IoDLA&index=13