frey

Howdy,

After biking for years on a cementish Jeep mtb, I've finally bought myself a road bike (Kona Kapu 2009 ). Now's the problem with which pedals to choose. I'll be using the bike mainly as a commuter to school and our local gym (both are at a distance of ~5 km). When biking to school, carrying around a second set of shoes seems impractical, however, why I'm a bit hesitant to go clipless. On the other hand, I do realize that using platforms will significantly lower my cool factor (!)

The ideal solution would be some kind of platform adapter for road pedals that I could simply put on when biking to school, kinda like these, but for SPD-SL. If anyone knows about anything of the like, I would be very happy to hear about it! Or, better yet, could it be possible to just use normal sneakers directly on the SPD-SL pedals, seeing as they are quite large, after all?

I know about the dual-sided pedals, and I know I could just use mtb pedals instead. But, mind you, loss of cool points is not something I fancy

xtrajack

I don't know anything about cool points. I quit worrying about them many,many moons ago. I roll with platform pedals with toe clips. I couldn't justify buying special shoes for riding my bike.

PaulRivers

If you're looking for platform adapters for a road shoe, Speedplay's have a platform adapter -
https://speedplay.com/index.cfm?fusea...zero_large.jpg



(They used to make clear ones, but they were terrible, if you get them make sure they're the newer black ones).

Zizka

You can wear your normal shoes. Just be aware that they will slip off the pedals easily. If you are standing on the pedals when that happens, it will be painful.

tatfiend 

Take a look at Shimano A530s. One side is a mountain SPD and the other side is a platform. Versatile and IMO not that bad looking but for me practicality is the deciding factor. Do not be influenced by noobs opinions.

frey

Thanks for your advice, guys/gals! Unfortunately, the Speedplays, despite being just what I was looking for, are a tad beyond my prince range atm. I think I'll go with tatfiend's suggestion of the A530s. Although dual-sided, they aren't any bear cages (like the Shimano M324), so I guess I wouldn't loose all my cool points were I to participate in a club run :F

PaulRivers

Huh. If you're buying brand new pedals either way, Speedplay Zero's are $125 for the base version (ie, the version everyone actually buys, lol). I suppose the covers are another $25, so $150 vs $100.

Though on the other hand, doing any sort of commuting at all in my mountain shoes is way easier on either end (easier to walk around in) than my Speedplays.

Several people have talked about how much they like their a530's, or similar pedals. But personally, when I had (a slightly different) pair, I couldn't stand them. You could never be 100% sure which side of the pedal was up, so I had to look down every time I wanted to put my feet back on the pedals, so I always ended up looking down at intersections, which was the poorest part of my ride to be taking my eyes off the road. And I had to do it whether I was riding clipless or riding with regular shoes. If you're on the wrong side, you have to reach down with the front of your foot and flip it over.

I've seen some quick release pedal system as well, though I haven't tried them -
https://thehubbikecoop.blogspot.com/2...-gadgetry.html

Of course, if you aren't actually riding clipless very often, you could always just change the pedals yourself. It's annoying to have to do if you would have to do it regularly, but it's not terribly difficult. The pedal just screws on and off like a big screw -





The instructions are a bit wordy, but describe all the steps -
https://bicycling.about.com/od/allabo...ess_pedals.htm

Though it could be summed up as "Bike pedals are attached to the bike like a big screw. You take a pedal wrench and unscrew them (in the direction opposite the way they rotate when you're pedalling) to get them off".

frey

Wow, PaulRivers, you sure are good at making me feel ambivalent! Many thanks, though, for your exhaustive replies - they do indeed help a lot!

I've found a quite good deal on the a530s though, for just a shade above $55, so I guess I can hardly go wrong with them, even if they don't work out. If I find that I can't stand them neither, I'll be sure to check out those speedplays. One thing, though, the contact area seems terribly small in comparison to the Look or Shimano road pedals, won't they get very uncomfortable on longer rides? Then again, what do I know, I have never even ridden clipless

Thanks again for your answer! A quick release system would be great btw, but I don't like the idea of locking myself in to a certain brand.

PaulRivers

haha, lol, that's certainly fair. The ambivalence is true - I don't have a perfect solution or I would own it myself. :-D The best I know of for me are those 2 sided pedals with a flat-pedal surface around them. They don't look particularly cool, and there's a lump in the middle of the pedal, but that's what I use. Can't stand the 1-sided thing. That's true for my serious road bike where I have Speedplays on it - I won't try another road pedal system (Speedplay is the only one that's 2 sided) because of that.

Back in the day, shoes with flexible soles meant that a smaller cleat would lead to hotspots, and they developed road shoes. In modern day, shoes with carbon soles are so stiff you can't even bend them, and people generally agree that stiff carbon soles have either dramatically reduced or simply eliminated the hotspot difference between difference sized cleats. As long as they attach, with a carbon sole shoe contact area hardly matters. It probably doesn't even matter with stiff, non-carbon shoes, they're still pretty good.

And I'm talking road vs mountain cleats, which are like 25% the size. The contact area different speedplay and, say, spd-sl's is not a very big difference - there's only so much room on the bottom of the shoe. And if you're worried about top-end performance, carbon-soled shoes are the way to go with whatever pedal system you're using.

(I should add, though, that I've never seen a thread where someone didn't claim that they switch pedal systems and it eliminated their hotspot problem. Thing is, that happens for *every* thread. I bet someone has switched from spd-sl's to speedplays and eliminated their hotspots, I bet someone else switched from speedplays to spd-sl's and eliminated their hotspots. Every single thread I've read on it, seriously. I personally think that it's just that putting the cleat in a better position eliminated their hot spots - plus often they get a new shoe which can make a dramatic difference.)

frey

Ah, okay, that makes sense. When I get hooked on road racing and become one of them weight weenies, I'll keep those Speedplays in mind Thanks again for your help!