I'm about a month into my first road bike and I have been able to ride quite regularly. I believe I am getting ready to clip-in to my pedals. I have read through several forums, but have not been able to completely figure out how it works. Is it as simple as buying the special pedal and then buying shoes? There are also a few acronyms that I am unsure of like STD, etc. Can anyone please help me with what I should know before I begin searching for the pedals? I would like to know what are the good brands, styles, and what all goes into to the pedals and shoes?

I just rode with mine for the first time today. I would recommend going to a shop and looking at your options. Thats what I did, first we picked the pedals I wanted to go with, then the shoes. We then go the cleats mounted and adjusted while I was on a trainer. It was much eaiser than me trying to do it myself, expecially since I do not know what I am doing :-)

FWIW, I went with Shimano SPD's with Specialized Comp shoes.

If you have a shop you like, I would seriously shop/buy from them. It was painless for me to do it this way. Plus I bought my bike from this shop and he did not have any of the lower grade shoes in my size so he knocked off $70 on the Comp shoes and now I have a really nice shoe to start with.

BTW, I will NEVER go back to riding without them. I also rode with shorts for the first time today, WOW what a difference.

I would add that first you need to decide if you want a dual sided pedal that you can ride with tennis shoes. Once you decide that, then go from there. I asked questions such as cleat prices/durability. Difficulty of clipping in/out of different pedals. I then used the info to whittle down the choices from there. I liked the SPD's as it was easy to adjust the tension on them.

Pedals are a hotly debated topic. You will get opinions across the board.

First, do you road or mountain bike pedals? Will you be doing a lot of walking in them? I ride with road pedals so that is what I know. If you want mountain bike pedals I am sure someone will speak up.

The most common pedals are Look and pedals that are based on the Look cleat like Shimano SPD-L pedals; Speedplay, Time and Crank Brothers.

I use Speedplay because they are double sided and easy to clip in and out. I love them but some people do not. They tend to like Look pedals. You could Google them and find reviews on these pedals. If it were me, I would stick with ether Look or the Shimano equivalent or Speedplay.

I am looking for road pedals to answer your question carbon unit. But I do not plan on walking in them to much, just riding and racing when I get into it. Also, I would probably love to have the double sided pedals, since I do use my bike occasionally for traveling to friends house or around campus.

Road + double sided = Speedplay

i think he ment dual sided as in a platform pedal on one side and a clipless pedal on the other.

Well, if you are looking for road pedals and you want double sided, then Speedplay is the logical choice. If you plan on racing, buy Zeros. If not, then consider Light Action.

If you buy them, be sure to put Locktite on the the screws. If you want to walk in them, you could put Shoe Goo on the cleats which makes them real easy to wallk and they grip the road much better too.

you're going to want to steer clear of STD's

Just go to a nice bike shop near you and have them show you what's available... it's difficult to explain the various advantages or disadvantages of various pedal systems... and it's probable that you'll find something you like or don't like and you'll upgrade in a year or two.

But go for it, clipless are great in general.

I originally bought a pair of SPD's because they were dual sided and cheap. The ones I have are mt. biking pedals and I want to switch to road pedals but honestly after 6k miles they still are trucking. I do recommend a dual sided at the very least for your first pedals. It helps the learning curve.

I wrote up the following on how I got used to speedplay zeros on my new roadbike. Might be useful to you.

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...=#post10547815

So it seems like speedplay is the most common favorite among new riders and riders not looking to break the bank? Compared to other cleats, how easy in the actual clipping in/out process with say the speedplay zero or speedplay light?