About 6 months ago I purchased a Trek 320 road bike and I have been loving road cycling! I'm about to sell my Trek 320 and I'm purchasing a used Specialized Allez. Unfortunately the seller is keeping his Egg Beater Clipless pedals....which means I'm without any pedals.

On my Trek 320 I have regular pedals with Cages and I really like them fine. Should I stay with this style or should I make the change over to clipless?

If I stay with pedals/cages what should I get that is affordable?
If I go with clipless what should I get that is quality and affordable??


Thanks for any help!

Shimano R540's from PBK

If you're happy with platform pedals ( $15 ) and cages ( $10 ), that's a small investment, and you should probably stick with it. This has the benefit of letting you wear whatever shoes you like.

The speed and power benefits you get from the cages over the flat pedals ( ie what you'd have with just the pedals alone ) is the sort of gain a lot of people see going to clipless pedals. You're more connected to the bike than with cages and straps, so you can pull upward and get more go from that. It's easier and faster to get in and out, etc. Clipless is like toe clips on steroids. But the downside is that it's expensive, and also that you suddenly have to wear bike shoes, which tend to be hard to walk in.

The SPD system is the easiest to get used to, after toe clips. Mountain shoes have recessed cleats, making them easier to walk in. They're not quite as comfortable as other options like Look, etc, but they're cheaper.

SPD and Shimano A520 give you the best of both worlds: easy to walk in shoes and pretty good support on the pedals.

Its a hard call to make for someone else. I guess it depends on the kind of ridding you like to do. With me it was a slow progression, adding one thing at a time till people now refer to me as that bike guy. Good luck, half the fun of it is looking at all the options and trying to make up your mind.

Platforms and clips are better than just platforms.

If you ask me you're lucky he is taking the eggbeaters. I've tried eggbeaters and I hated them. Others like them though and will disagree (pedals are a very personal thing).

My suggestion would be skip the SPD mountain bike style pedals if you're going to go clip-less.

Get the Look or SPD-SL style pedals. Shimano makes some cheap ones, as does Look. Speedplay also has some nice pedals.

So that would be my advice to you on clipless pedals. Shimano SPD-SL, Look, or Speedplay.

https://www.amazon.com/Shimano-SPD-SL...7012336&sr=8-1
These are $47, entry level but will work fine (if not a little bit heavy).

Sometimes you can find a good deal on eBay. I have Shimano Ultegra SPD-SL pedals on my bike. They retail for around $180+ (Amazon has them for $108) but I got them brand new on eBay for $90.

Good luck.

I did a century (had to mention it) this weekend, used Sidi Bullets (a mountain biking shoe) with yellow Superfeet footbeds, with SPDs and A520s. No hot spots, no sore feet, and it made the ice cream break a lot easier when I walked around a bit.