Hi everyone,

Great forum! I'm returning to cycling after about 10 years away, and I recently purchased a Diamondback Century (basically an entry-level aluminum road bike with straight handlebars--used to ride a mountain bike, and wanted the familiarity). Anyhow, I'm really, really loving the bike and riding about 20 miles per day.

The only thing I want to change soon is the pedals. Currently, I've got fairly low-end pedals with toe clips. I want to move to pedals with cleats, and I can't seem to get a handle on the various cleat patterns. Also, any advice on a decent, fairly inexpensive pedal and a fairly inexpensive shoe I should look into?

Thanks for any and all help!

Sorry. I've only one pair of shoes that work on two sets of pedals, so can't make a comparison. You are going to love the clipless though - once you get used to them. My only regret is that on my hybrid, I got platform on one side and clipless on the other. For me, clipless on both sides would have been a better choice, and that's what I have on the newer touring bike.

How do you like the Century? I've been considering moving up from a Diamondback comfort bike to the Century for better road performance on my commute to work. Tiagra derailers sound good for the price. My only concern is the aluminum fork. A lot of vibration?

Cant tell you about the Road specific clipless- but MTBs mainly use SPD compatable pedals. SPD's are shimano and the cheap one is at an economic price. That is waht I have fitted and the SPD cleats have worked with Wellgo- Ritchey and Onza's.

The Shimano 520 pedal is cheap and I have them of all my bikes- Road- MTB and Tandem. I changed to them 8 years ago when My Onza's packed up and still use the Onza cleats on one of my pairs of shoes. As to cheap shoes- Go to any Large Bike shop and shoes can start off fairly cheap. Best I have found for reliability and cost were the Shimano ones again.

I really, really am satisfied with the Century. I rode the Specialized Sirrus, a couple of Gary Fishers, a few Konas, and some others around the same price range before I ended up getting the Century. I feel like I really did my homework, speaking to people at local shops, talking to people who ride, and, more than anything, taking some good test rides on a lot of bikes. After a lot of time (and a lot of rides), it turned out that the Century felt the best and was the perfect fit. I'm loving it more and more every time I ride.

As for the aluminum forks, vibration honestly isn't an issue. I live in New York City, so I ride the hell out of the bike on graded pavement, over (and through) chips and small holes in roads, and I have no complaints at all. And when I ride in Central Park or on the river (where it's mostly very smooth), it's excellent. If you're really small, you might think twice about the aluminum forks, but in this average-sized guy's opinion, the bike's excellent.

Thanks for the pedal info, everyone! I'm still investigating, so any additional info is great!

Depends on what's important to you.

Broadly, there are walkable systems that are designed for mountain biking. They have a cleat that is recessed into the sole, so you can walk on them normally - well, as normally as you can on a shoe where the sole doesn't bend. Lots of people use these on road bikes as well. Shimano SPD is one of these systems.

Then, there are the road systems. On these systems the shoes just have a flat plate on the bottom, and the cleat is mounted so that it sticks out underneath. None of these are great to walk in, but the SPD-SLs are somewhat walkable, while the looks are fairly slippery. Then there are speedplays, and several other systems.

The chief advantage of the road systems is that the shoes are a bit lighter, and the pedal is bigger which gives you a broader area over which to spread the force. Some people have problems on the mountain-style systems because of the smaller area.

You need shoes that are compatible with the cleats that match the pedals you buy. Generally, shoes fit either road or mountain cleats, but some fit both.

You can do two solutions:

First is to get some pedals such as Mallets or M324s that work just as well in flats as clipless. As another alternative, Performance has the Forte Campus pedal, which can use clipless cleats, as well as support flats or toe clips.

Second is to go for a walkable mountain bike shoe. Lake shoes are good, Nike has some SPD compatible as well.

Thanks to both mlts22 and ericgu! Sounds like I need to sort the pedal thing out before the shoe. I was told by a guy at work (I don't know him well, but he rides quite a lot) to get the entry-level Speedplay pedals, because of the float they offer. He mentioned that any other clipless could be rough on the knees.

I think I'm more into the larger surface road pedal (and I don't care about walking much) that's lighter. Sounds like a great combination.

Is my coworker right about float? I'm searching and reading all I can, but I'm not grasping the float thing.

Thanks again...

Well, float lets your feet pivot in and out a bit as you pedal, and speedplays do have a fair bit of float. SPD-SLs also have a fair bit with the stock cleats.

Float also lets you ride without perfect cleat alignment.

I'd start with SPD's - Shimano 520 pedals and Shimano RT-50 shoes(recessed cleats & 3 velcro straps). There are a lot of viable options out there, but I think you'd be happy with these.