I use the same Time MTB pedals for all my bikes. Just screw them on to whatever I'm riding that day. I couldn't imagine riding in road shoes, as I bicycle pretty much everywhere, and walking in road shoes doesn't make any sense. My MTB shoes get worn in the grocery store, the hardware store, my friends' houses.... come to think of it, I never took them off at work today. It would hurt to do that in road shoes.

thanks
avid bb road mech disc
135mm spacing
compact 172.5 cranks
cyclocross frame set up as a commuter/occasional off road bike

https://gallery.roadbikereview.com/sh...&ppuser=246067

I'm a little envious of the K2 9k(?) - I had an old Grivin Proflex 550 while I was at school - always lusted after the better girvin/proflex/k2 bikes. Can't justify 2k for an epic marathon at the moment though.

If they laugh at you, just beat them up and remind them you aren't in high school anymore, then apologize for reverting to violence like when you were in high school.



I have SPD Pedals and MTB shoes and am very happy with them. I can walk around and not feel like a total dork. As a bonus I can wear a single pair of shoes to the gym and lift before spinning class without getting weird looks.

The truth is that the huge majority of riders simply don't care what pedals, or anything else for that matter, that you care to use.

There is a minority that is definitely going to laugh at you. I know this for sure because they find a reason to laugh or criticize absolutely everybody. Bike's too good or not good enough. Jersey and shorts mismatched or everything is too matchy-matchy. Too many spacers in the stem, wrong handlebar tape, wrong water bottle cage or even (gasp) a camelback. Don't let them catch you using the big chainring/big cog combination. You get the idea. Just don't take it personally.

I use CrankBros candy SL and SH-M081 MTB shoes. The good thing about these shoes is that the cleats are embedded in the sole so they dont touch the ground when you walk and the sole is very rigid

Thanks! 68 more miles on the roadie-with-mtb-clipless today, and I can walk right into the ice cream shop...

What area do you usually ride in?

Explain please.

Using SPD cleats and SPD road pedals - A515 and A520 for example - the overall platform is just as large as any "road" pedals I have seen. And no matter how much (in my case, limited ) power I apply, I never pull out of the pedal accidentally. Hotspots are a myth unless you don't have decent soles that allow the pressure of the smaller cleat to be distributed well.

What's left in the "efficient" definition???

The eggbeaters let you use either a dedicated stiff carbon soled road shoe with a road specific cleat or a recessed cleat touring shoe with a mtn cleat.

There are eggbeaters with platforms too.

I live in Far West, so I generally loop around there. If I'm feeling the need for hills I'll do repeats on Mesa; if I'm feeling insane I'll climb Adirondack. I do the Shoal Creek->North Loop->Speedway->Campus bit on non-rainy days, and a sad, pathetic number of non-school days too. I should find more routes...

I'm not convinced that road type pedals (i.e. bigger platforms) vs. spd style are more efficient. All of the power is being transferred from the foot to the cleat to the pedao to the spindle regardless.

The hotspot phenonmenon has little to do with the cleat and more to do with the shoes footbed and your own foot and the nerves in it (trust me, I know a little about foot anatomy). If you experienced the hotspot phenomenon and switched the cleat type you changed multiple variables - only one of which was the cleat type.

Anyway. I run single sided SPD's with cheap shimano lace-up SPD compatible shoes. All I can say is get shoes with VELCRO or similar straps - my laces have gotten caught a few times and they often come out of the shoe when I stuff the loops in there. It's also hard to tighten and loosen the shoe while on the bike if you've got laces.

You are correct. It is primarily the shoe-cleat interface that matters. The intent is to make the shoe (or more accurately, the sole) the effective platform. However, some designs of shoes, cleats and mounting pattern lend themselves to doing so better than others. A cleat which is very large and mounts across a bigger footprint against the sole will be able to distribute the load across the entirity of the sole better. A stiffer sole of course means that the integrity of the effective platform is higher and thus makes better use of the entire shoe as a platform. The SPD style mounting pattern is fairly narrow and most SPD type cleats are fairly small so they distribute load to the sole across a smaller area than other cleat-sole interfaces. The sole must be especially inflexible in order to prevent hotspots and be more efficient.

When I put the Shimano 424 mtb pedals on my road bike some of my friends said that I was taking a step backward. But I didn't care because I put these pedals on for me. They were in terms of comfort and performance more suitable for me than any road pedal that I have tried. Everyone is different so do what make sense to you because you have to live with it. And I love mtb shoes you can walk around in them and not have this annoying obstruction at the bottom of the sole while you are walking. One time my friend slipped and fell while walking on his road shoes with spd's, so I am definitely glad to have mtb shoes with my spd cleats.

Hey rmwun54, I totally agree with your post. I use SPD pedals as well, although they are single sided and a bit lighter than the double sided models. As for shoes, Lake makes a couple of shoes that are in between road and MTB, I use a now discontinued model, the CX125. They have very stiff soles and have raised rubber cleats front and read that allow me to walk with impunity.

The CX120 is Lake's current model of what was the CX125. I used to wear CX125 and they were great shoes... very walkable even when I tried them with Look cleats.

Thanks for the heads up! I'm going to have to check the CX120 out so that I'm not high and dry when my CX125's wear out.

EDIT: I went out and found them. Picture shoes the walking surface on the bottom of the shoe.

Hi gmason, as some others have already replied, the main issue is not the size of the platform, but the stiffness of the sole and its ability to distribute the pedaling pressure over the sole not just for efficient transfer of power from the "engine" to your drivetrain, but to prevent the pressure from causing pain to your feet due to repeated stress to a localized area of your foot. As with any general statement, the devil is in the details - road shoes, in general, are designed to be stiff and inflexible for better power transfer. If the shoe is designed to be walked in, there is going to be some compromise in the design to make it more "walkable" (i.e., more flexible).

All true. I just hate to see new riders (and old hands too, I suppose) not even considering SPD setups because of what others think about what they will look like, or through misunderstanding of the issues. The walking safety issue really can be important, especially for us elderly types.

I have only been riding three and a half years (after a 25 year layoff), but I started back with SPDs because of the walking issue. I have had Northwave and Shimano shoes, as well as the Shimano sandal (which was great in the hot weather when doodling around North Holland on my city bike). I have never experienced the "hotspot" issue with any of them.

I originally used Shimano and VP double sided pedals because I thought it would be easier to be able to clip in from both sides. While that was marginally true, I have migrated to the Shimano A515 and more recently the A520 road pedals. They provide much more support - all around the shoe within the pontoons in fact - and they feel more solid as well.

But having said that, I climb every ride here, and have done le Mont Ventoux with the smaller pedals too. No problems at all. Ever. So the real answer is, as always, "do what you think works best for you".