My wife bought the Sidi Dragon 5 SRS MTB shoes yesterday, they were $250 instead of $450.

they have nice stiff carbon sole and carbon toe protection for gravel and MTB riding however they are SPD compatible.

My wife has 2 bikes and I have 3 bikes which have all Shimano SPD-SL pedals. What are my options here?

Throw SPD MTB pedals on your wife's bikes? Changing pedals is a snap.

Would you recommend any?
had SPD pedals 20 years ago and haven’t followed the performance improvement in them

https://www.bicyclesquilicot.com/fr/...-noir-epded500

https://www.bicyclesquilicot.com/fr/...-noir-epdm540l

I can't make a recommendation, though I can't imagine the tech has changed a lot.

I'm sure there are others who will see this post and chime in with experiences using MTB SPDs on a road bike, which I've never done. Weight differences, feel differences (cleat size, platform width, etc).

Basic pair of Shimano 520’s, $45.

I have xt spd pedals on one bie and spd sl ultegra on another both are great and it is seamless going from one to another.

Isn't there an adapter that can be used to use 2-bolt cleats on 2-bolt shoes? I seem to recall that it is a plate with the drillings for both patterns. Bolt it to the shoe and the cleat to it. (But it does add stack height. How much I do not know. I've never seen them. I have heard their were well made and worked well, if you could live with the stack. The name? No clue. Sorry.)

For some of us there is a huge difference between SPD cleats and SPD-SL (and all the LOOK systems and a few others) and that is the inability to lock out float. Float would have had me on knee replacements decades ago.

Lake used to make their less expensive shoes with the bolt patterns for both. (In those days I was cash strapped and the expensive ones were out of the question so I never looked.) Now it seems it is either/or. I have two pairs of their best of two years ago, 3-bolt, really nice leather, dual BOA and as comfortable, at least on my feet, as shoes can get. (Nice big toe box!) These shoes cost between the OP's wife's sale and retail, so not cheap but if my experience with LAKE hold true, they should hold up and be joys to wear most of the rest of my life. (Oh, the burgundy red goes wonderfully with my freshly painted Mooney and Hermes Red Saphir shoe polish 1) make that leather come alive and 2) is color perfect!)

I believe there are adapters to put 2 bolt cleats on 3 holed shoes, but not vice-versa which is what the OP wants.

Agree best option is try SPD pedals. Plan B could be return the shoes for a model that takes 3 bolt cleats.

Looks like there is and adapter for this. While there are many, many to adapt a SPD cleat to a 3-bolt shoe, this one looks to go the other way around, what the OP needs. Looks like it's going to add significantly to the stack height.

https://www.amazon.com/CyclingDeal-C...c1df98776&th=1

Thanks! That looks like a good unit.

Now, if my shoes looked like that one and the adapter was sitting on the sole lugs and not the flat in the area around the SPD cleats, I wouldn't think twice about cutting or grinding the lugs until the adapter sat flat. (I use 1/4" plate s under my right cleats to make up a right leg that came from the factory short. I do exactly that to get the adapter plate to fit in some of my shoes.)

In addition to Shimano, you may be able to find Look X-Track SPD pedals as well. Their entry level models are often cheaper than Shimano 520s, and their higher end models have a bit of extra platform around the cleat that might add some stability to the pedal.

It may be an opportunity to try Time ATAC or Eggbeaters, too.

I like these

That pic doesn't say but those pedals take the 2-bolt SPD cleats despite looking like a 3-bolt cleat style pedal. (No experience here on how they work. I just went on-line to verify the cleat type. Being Shimano, they are probably rock-solid boring.)

Curiious why you would recommend a single sided entry pedal that is twice as expensive and more difficult to use then the 520/540 pedals that are dual sided entry and easier to use and cost half as much?

+1. Have those Sidi shoes and use them with my several bikes, all of which have SPD compatible pedals of various designs. So much easier than juggling shoes among bikes having different pedal standards.

Yes, 2 bolt SPD cleats, compatible with OP's shoes. It's a road-ish single sided pedal. I found them to be more comfortable on longer rides than the traditional double sided SPDs. Shimano used to also have a less expensive version (A20?) but the 600 seems to be the only current model.

1) I made no comment at all on how good they are or why anyone would of should use them. 2) Many singe-sided pedals have far more pedal clearance cornering. Some of us like to optimize our opportunities to pedal without unpleasant strikes. (Pedals like these can also allow lower bottom bracketed bikes to be ridden strike free and take better advantage of the cornering edge of the lower center of gravity.) 3) Some shoes offer less than full support across their widths and benefit from a wider platform.

Edit: "rock-solid boring" In my book: very good

Agree with you on foot support. I prefer dual sided SPD pedals for ease of use, but did have many foot pain issues using them with mt bike shoes with less then good stiffness. Thus I used SPD-L pedals for many years, generally hated them as I would struggle getting the cleat engaged (foot issues). Thus went back to regular SPD md carbon soles shoes which solved the pain issue. He OP mentioned his wife was using carbon soled shoes so I assume the shoes will provide plenty of support.

He didn’t recommend them. Someone else did.

They have more of a platform/distributed support to reduce hotspots (although the Sidi soles probably do a good job of that anyway)

Personally I wouldn’t use mtb shoes and cleats on a road bike but plenty of people do.

While this obviously achieves the required bodge, it adds a load of stack height and 260g of weight. I know the shoes were a bargain, but using road shoes in the same price bracket would be a far better solution here ie no bodge required to fit cleats.

I sure do. No disadvantages that I can see to using SPD shoes / pedals even on a road bike. With good shoes hot spots are not an issue, double sided entry, and they don't make you walk like a duck when you're off the bike. Plus the cleats are far more durable than SPD-SL cleats.

I run the aforementioned M520 pedals on both of my main bikes and they are fantastic - great quality at a low price. Can't beat them, IMO.

I just prefer the look of them (Keos, not spd-sl), the profile, weight, 3point adjustability and the stability/feel over long distances (I have a couple of SPD equipped bikes too and they certainly have their advantages)

cleat covers are essential to walk on them more than a couple of yards though.

While not popular among roadies, I switched to SPD pedals on my road bike years ago and haven't looked back. I always hated walking like a duck when wearing Look-style SPD SL style cleats and shoes. Modern carbon sole shoes are so stiff, one doesn't notice or feel what pedal is attached (i.e., no "hot spots"). The only downside to using SPD pedals is likely the weight of the shoe and pedal combination, but if one isn't racing, it doesn't matter.

Thanks everyone for the advices
really appreciated

Ordered some classic double sided SPD for $35 on sale online with free shipping. She did 3 spinning sessions on Wahoo and no foot pain whatsoever from the cleats since the carbon insole are really stiff.

She had terrible foot pain on my sidi T3 triathlon show using SPD-SL cleats 4 years ago before switching to Fizik shoes. Doesn’t seem to be a problem with the SPDs with those shoes.

I have carbon soled Sidi MTB shoes and use them with Shimano XT and XTR pedals on all of my bikes (road, CX, MTB).

I stopped using road specific shoes/pedals many years ago, finding no benefits vs running MTB shoes. There's a slight weight penalty I think, but beyond that I notice no difference in stiffness/support and enjoy being able to walk into coffee shops.