Which SPD Shoe for Beginners
 

Hi, just bought a Trex Hybred bike Valencia and had SPD/normal pedals fitted, and the wife wants to get me some cycling shoes for xmas, problem is i have never used SPD and was wondering what would be a good shoe to start with ?

I will only be riding on the roads and i,m planning to do a Coast to Coast ride in June 2011 (total of 135 miles over 3 day)

Have a budget of around £70

All advice will be greatly appreciated.

i'm currently shopping for these as well.

will you be doing any walking in them or just riding? personally, i need something with a recessed cleat to walk through office lobby without clacking/scratching the floor. so that narrows down my choices a bit.

try on as many as you can, lots of shapes/sizes/styles to choose from. that's where i currently am in the process.

after you get them, i've heard it is a good idea to practice clipping in and out in a parking lot until you figure it out.

yes there will be walking involved so recessed is what i,m looking for.

I like Shimano Shoe SPD M076 but not sure if there is something better

I have Shimano all-purpose shoes with recessed cleats. They are not as stiff as a road shoe and are very easy to walk in.

http://bikepartsmanila.com/prodimage...0SH-MT42NV.jpg

I highly recommend looking at "mountain style" shoes. The recessed cleat makes them much easier to walk in off the bike. Brand is a lot less important. I'm rocking a pair of Shimano branded SPD shoes that I purchased roughly a decade ago and although they are showing their age they still perform their function admirably.

I think a lot of it is going to depend on how your feet are. My wife has wide feet so most brands don't work well for her. I'm pretty average as far as feet so just about any brand works for me.

I've been using some Pearl Izumi brand mountain bike shoes for the past 4 years and they still look like new. Great price as well. For Christmas, I've asked Santa for these:

http://www.rei.com/media/qq/20ffd0b5...b5318e7a1f.jpg

I like the Lake SPDs a lot. Very comfortable shoe and they put up with a lot of wear. My Shimanos wore out in about 1.5 seasons. Three seasons and the Lakes are still going strong.

(to me, "coast-to-coast" is a lot farther than 135 miles.. hehe ;))

Two options, IMO:

1) As stiff of a sole as you can find in your budget, or

2) Make sure the pedal itself has a big platform.

Shoes with soles that are too soft will let you feel the pressure from a small platform after a while. I had some low-end MTB shoes that gave me hot spots. They didn't start bugging me until after 30-40 minutes or so, but beyond that, stiffer-soled shoes are a lot nicer. An alternative is to use pedals with a wider platform to distribute the pressure across a larger area.

Don't forget that SPD shoes will work with any clipless system that uses 2-bolt cleats -- not just Shimano's SPD but also Time ATAC, Crank Brothers, and surely a few others. Others have said that SPD cleats are thicker than Time's and CB's, so they click and crunch more often as a result. I haven't owned SPD, but my CB cleats didn't contact any floors indoors, although they'd crunch on sidewalk debris.

Yup. Hopefully there are enough options locally. Aftermarket insoles can help, too, as long as the shoe's upper fits well.

Get any mountain bike type shoe that suits your fancy, the only really important thing is that they fit YOUR foot. Decide your price point then try some on, no substitute for that, none. Unfortunately, this doesn't help with your wife getting you a gift to put under the tree, but what she should probably do is to pick a budget, buy a pair of shoes she thinks will fit you from a local store with the understanding you can return to the store and pick some out that you like and that fit.

IMHO you can get into a good shoe for anywhere between $75 and $150 depending on what you want to spend. Many of us knuckleheaded fanatics spend $300+, but what can you say...

That said, my strong recommendation is that you buy as good quality as you can afford (i.e. price point). Within that price point, quality will be roughly equivalent (unless you find a higher quality shoe on close out or something). Therefore, again, you're looking for fit first and personal style preferences second.

My personal style preference is to get a shoe with NO LACES, just velcro. Laces are unnecessary in bike shoes, a PITA, and look exceedingly bad (because of the first two reasons). I'd also get black shoes instead of red, orange, white or whatever, again personal preference.

I'm really partial to Specialized Tahoes. They're a lot more like a sneaker than most SPD's. While I have a nice pair of Shimano's also I find they're a bit clunkier, especially in the heel area and i tend to ping the chainstays with my heels.

+1. If the shoe fits, wear it. (And the crowd shouts: "DUH!")

A reminder: SPD pedals can be adjusted for release tension. Also, Shimano makes "single release" and "multi release" cleats. "Multi release" will allow your shoe to come out with an upwards pull- "single release" takes a more definite sideways swing of your foot. Either way, practice clipping in and out a couple times before you go for a ride. You wouldn't be the first person to do an "Artie Johnson" at a stoplight.

I recommend going for velcro closures rather than laces. I speak as someone whose laces got caught in a pedal once, nearly causing a nasty accident.

finally bought a pair of M075
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=181719
final decision was based on what was available in my size, for the cheapest price. december isn't the time to expect stores to have these stocked. but i feel i was lucky to get these, rode clipless for the first time this morning and loved it!

Just wanted to add that I don't like velcro -- but that's mainly because I usually wear full-finger gloves, and the "hook" side of velcro loves to eat the fingertips out of gloves.

Those Pearl Izumi shoes in post #6 have a little loop to tuck the laces under so they don't get caught in the chain. The Shimano shoes just above them use the velcro strap for the same thing (obviously ;)).

The closure I like the best, though, is a ratchet. I've got road shoes with two velcro straps and a ratchet for the upper strap. I don't even undo the velcro straps when taking them off -- I just pop the ratchet loose. You don't usually find ratchet straps in lower-priced shoes, though.

i don't think i've ever taken off a shoe before taking off a glove

My preference also. I'd not go so far as to totally limit things to mtn shoes, but that is where I'd start.

FIT, FIT, FIT. Does no tmatter one bit how god a show is otherwise if the fit is poor, and the width can vary widely between different shoes.