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spd vs spd-sl

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Old 12-03-10 | 02:19 PM
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spd vs spd-sl

My bike come with spd pedals and now i want to buy shoes.
I was looking for some shoes and found this

https://www.sportzone.pt/ProductDetai...|19629|&c=9636

are they compatible with my spd pedals? what's the difference between spd and spd-sl?

thanks in advance
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Old 12-03-10 | 03:35 PM
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SPD pedal:



SPD-SL pedal:



SPD pedals are double-sided "mountain bike" pedals with a small contact area that use two screws maybe 2-3 cm apart to hold the small metal cleat to the sole of the shoe. The SPD-SL pedals are single-sided "road bike" pedals with a larger contact area that use three screws in a triangle about 4-5 cm/side to hold the much larger cleat to the sole of the shoe.

The Shimano SH-R077 is listed as both SPD and SPD-SL compatible and since that's presumably a revised/later model of the SH-R076 that you're looking at, I'd assume the SH-R076 is also compatible with both.
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Old 12-03-10 | 03:41 PM
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And just to confuse things, the A520 SPD pedal is also a one sided road pedal and has a large contact area, at least if your are wearing recessed cleat "mountain bike style" shoes.

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Old 12-03-10 | 03:57 PM
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If you buy an spd shoe it usually includes the cleats. If you buy a shoe that is spd and spd-sl compatible, I imagine the cleats are sold separately.
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Old 12-03-10 | 04:29 PM
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The only SPD shoe I've ever bought that came with cleats was used. But the pedals I've bought always came with cleats.

Go with SPD if you want to walk comfortably off the bike in your bike shoes, and SPD-SL ( or something else ) if you don't. But you'll need to buy pedals if you go SPD-SL, since the ones you have now are regular SPD.
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Old 12-03-10 | 05:04 PM
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Originally Posted by Seattle Forrest
The only SPD shoe I've ever bought that came with cleats was used. But the pedals I've bought always came with cleats.
My bad. I was remembering I didn't buy cleats separately, but they came with my pedals not my shoes.
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Old 12-03-10 | 05:43 PM
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Here's a good article https://www.tenerife-training.net/Ten...ke-review/485/
I'm also looking for SPD shoes for spinning but I would like to to also work on my SPD-SL equiped bike.
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Old 12-03-10 | 05:46 PM
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Originally Posted by JamieElenbaas
And just to confuse things, the A520 SPD pedal is also a one sided road pedal and has a large contact area, at least if your are wearing recessed cleat "mountain bike style" shoes.

By the way, this pedal works pretty well.
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Old 12-03-10 | 09:43 PM
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Is it top heavy and rotate down? say when you unclip at the stop.
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Old 12-04-10 | 04:03 AM
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The shimano R076 shoes ARE compatible with SPD cleats and pedals as they have both the shimano 3 (spd-sl) and 2 (spd) bolts. So they also leave you the option of switching to spd-sl in the future if you wish. But using those shoes with the SPD cleats isn't optimal as every time you walk you will be crunching the metal cleats direction on the ground, whereas the spd-sl cleats have that little plastic bit you walk on instead.
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Old 12-04-10 | 09:48 AM
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Is it top heavy and rotate down? say when you unclip at the stop.
The A520 reliably comes to rest with the front of the peddle pointing up. Basically just push your foot forward and down and you are clipped in. Very fast and convenient. I use them on my road bike and love them. Yes, I lose snob points by riding with "mountain bike" shoes, but walking comfortably is worth it to me.

Anyway, now that it's winter and I always have booties on, no one knows
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Old 12-04-10 | 11:11 AM
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Originally Posted by JamieElenbaas
The A520 reliably comes to rest with the front of the peddle pointing up. Basically just push your foot forward and down and you are clipped in. Very fast and convenient. I use them on my road bike and love them. Yes, I lose snob points by riding with "mountain bike" shoes, but walking comfortably is worth it to me.

Anyway, now that it's winter and I always have booties on, no one knows
Have you ever used spd-sl pedals? Wondering how they compare as far as engagement and retention.
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Old 12-04-10 | 12:54 PM
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Originally Posted by sharp.point
Is it top heavy and rotate down? say when you unclip at the stop.
No. It's well balanced, and doesn't spin unless you spin it. If I pedal with one foot and watch the other pedal, the clip stays on top all the way around as I pedal. Same thing if you flip platform side up. After you get used to it, it's very easy to clip in without looking, even if you start off on the platform side. A quick flick to spin the clip side to the top and I'm in.
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Old 12-04-10 | 02:25 PM
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Originally Posted by JamieElenbaas
The A520 reliably comes to rest with the front of the peddle pointing up. Basically just push your foot forward and down and you are clipped in. Very fast and convenient. I use them on my road bike and love them. Yes, I lose snob points by riding with "mountain bike" shoes, but walking comfortably is worth it to me.

Anyway, now that it's winter and I always have booties on, no one knows
Off-topic, but if walking is important and you do it a lot, I've found that booties don't survive long when you do that. It actually turned out to be cheaper for me in the long run to buy a pair of winter MTB shoes. And the way I was wearing out booties, that "long run" turned out to be only a few months.
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Old 12-05-10 | 01:52 AM
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Another vote for SPD road -style pedals like the A520 shown above. Shimano also recently released a better model, the A600, which they say is Ultegra-level - It gives an even larger platform and is slightly lighter than the A520 but is otherwise similar.

If I was racing seriously then I would consider using road shoes and pedals. Since I'm not, I cannot see any advantages of them and will stick with MTB-style shoes because I like still being able to walk when off the bike, plus having the same shoes work on all of my bikes is more convenient and cheaper than having multiple pairs.
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Old 12-05-10 | 01:57 AM
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SPD pedals are a less effective alternative to SPD-SL's/Look/Speedplay.

If you intend on walking around, sitting at the coffee shop with your friends, and going to the grocery store, then get the SPD pedal.

If intend to ride your bike, then get SPD-SL/Look/Speedplay style pedals.
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Old 12-05-10 | 05:03 AM
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maybe i'll buy spd-sl pedals since they give more performance and i don't want to walk that much during my rides

So now i need to buy spd-sl pedals. What do you guys recommend? I want some cheap ones with some quality too
I have to buy shoes and pedals so i can't really spend much

thks

Edit: i was searching and found these

https://www.bikezone.pt/?1&it=produto...=1174&ctd=1174

what do you guys think? They cost 56€, it's really max i would give for pedals, are they good?

Last edited by plx; 12-05-10 at 05:12 AM.
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Old 12-05-10 | 07:14 AM
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I'll open with the caveat that, except for a few rides on SPDs and a short experiment with retro Campy SGRs, I've only ridden Looks or Look equivalents since I switched from clips and straps in the later 1980s.

A wider platform just makes more sense to me. The brand of that platform is negotiable but I want my feet on a "bigger" pedal. Go with the SL.

(Or Look, Campy, Time, Ritchey, Sampson and I'm sure there's others and that's not mentioning the generic Looks)
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Old 12-05-10 | 07:57 AM
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Originally Posted by Chris_W
Another vote for SPD road -style pedals like the A520 shown above. Shimano also recently released a better model, the A600, which they say is Ultegra-level - It gives an even larger platform and is slightly lighter than the A520 but is otherwise similar.

If I was racing seriously then I would consider using road shoes and pedals. Since I'm not, I cannot see any advantages of them and will stick with MTB-style shoes because I like still being able to walk when off the bike, plus having the same shoes work on all of my bikes is more convenient and cheaper than having multiple pairs.
Here's a pair of SPD road pedals I use:



When I first jumped on to the Wellgos from my MTB SPDs, it was much better.
But as I began to ride more aggressively, I found myself wishing I had more contact area.
I'm going with SPD-SL's next for the benefits that they provide over SPD's.
Debating between Shimano 7900's VS 7810's.

While I was hell bent on getting a set of 7810s initially because of their great reputation and IMO,
I find them to be the most beautiful pedals I've ever seen (like the rest of the 7800 group sans crankset),
the 7900's would just totally complete the "look" of my BBQ CAAD w/Ultegra SL crankset and since pedals
are those items that are most transferred to the next bike, I might as well get them now. No reason to wait.
(Then again, a black set of 5700 105 pedals would also look slammin' on my rig as well, but they wouldn't be "the best".)



When I ride, the only time I stop is at a light or to turn around at the end of a loop and catch a breather.

Idea for a new thread...

Last edited by 2ndGen; 12-05-10 at 08:11 AM.
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