A question for those that use bicycle shoes.
Do any of you use some other brand pedal other than Shimano for touring? Speedplay frogs come to mind. Anything else in a walkable shoe? I recently bought a pair of Look cleat covers I'll start using when on my road bicycle, should protect the cleats but pretty awkward to walk in though. I bought a nice pair of MTB shoes with SPD pedals for the touring bicycle, so far so good. Fairly okay to walk in. Still tweeking the cleats.
My experience with Spd is poor. I bought a cheap pair of road shoes, not a stiff enough sole for me. Too much pressure on the ball of my foot, pain involved. I do have a foot problem to complicate the situation. I switched pedals.
So I'm curious what pedal and shoe you use, and how well it works for you.

Sounds like your experience with those shoes was poor, not your experience with SPD style cleats.

If only you had started a thread and asked this earlier. Oh, wait. https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/10...s-touring.html
And this. https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/10...ss-pedals.html


And here is a related thread on what shoes posters use. https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/10...k-ability.html

Campagnolo ... I dont use Spud Pedals .. not even locally any more .. did use Time-Atac 'alium'
(liked they went on/off with 15mm pedal wrench, for packing to tour abroad)

I see people using Look type road shoes and pedals, On Bike tours coming thru town ..


one issue I see .. rubber soles.. the pedal ends sits on the edges of the pocket as much as the cleat.

rubber compresses , so pedal force is higher on the cleat.

but its the rubber that makes the shoe more walkable,, off the bike.

Look at Five Ten Freerider Bike Shoes

https://www.fiveten.com/

I am using MTN bike type shoes with the recesses for SPD cleats, and using SPD's. To distribute the pressure over a larger area and avoid pressure "hot spots" I am using arch supports, and it does make a huge difference.

I use Time ATAC Cleats with MKS pedals, they have more float, but that won't fix your flexy shoe issue. Either get a pedal with a bigger flat area or a shoe with a stiffer sole.

That is Road clip-less.. 3 bolt cleats.. 'Look' compatible..


NB: if its recessed in the shoe and uses 2 bolts to fit the cleat, it is a use of the SPD design standard

so largely this is about market share of other competitors using shimano's standard..

for mounting the shoe cleat.

I have used Look pedals and cleats since they came out in the 80s. However, in about 2011 I switched my wife's and my pedals over to SPD pedals. The Look cleats wore rather quickly for touring, and I have actually broken two while on tours. Speedplay pedals are not very walkable.

I believe you have a shoe problem, not a cleat problem.


This was an excellent shoe for Look's 3-bolt cleats. The sole was designed to recess the cleats, making walking easier. However, any good mountain bike shoe, and SPDs would be better.

I like using Crank Brothers pedals. I have egg beaters on my mountain bike and Candy 3 on my commuter/gravel/adventure bike.

I'm still using the first and only clipless pedals and shoes I've had, purchased on the recommendation of my LBS a long time ago - 10 years? More?

Anyway, they're Speedplay Frogs and Louis Garneau road shoes (I think they were the cheapest shoe he had). It all works great on the bike, and is comfortable, but the cleats are not recessed at all on this shoe, and I wince at the crunching sound when I walk on any hard surface.

It doesn't look like the Freerider has any way to mount cleats. Am I looking at the wrong shoe?
Five Ten | Freerider Mountain Bike Shoe | Grey/Black

Doug's Shoe example was market aimed at Spinning class riders , that had Look type Road pedals on the indoor Spin class bikes.

Bob, those are Lake CX 125 shoes designed as a road/touring shoe. I've never seen Look type pedals on a spin bike, at least during the 15 years I've been going to my present gym. They are the best touring shoe I have used. I only wished they still made them,and on a SPD platform.

I just read the Press .. I havent dropped my steel quill Campag toe clip pedals Ive used for decades for touring ,

though I really have stayed Put in order to keep the VA Pharmacy prescriptions of Glaucoma suppressing prescxription Eye Drops
available to not lose my sight, entirely.

so instead am greeting Touring Cyclists in Astoria , and Putting the Bikes they Ship ahead , together at the LBS, and tying is a small way to keep the Petrochemical and DESTRUCTIVE CORPORATE forces from Fing up the Columbia River.

So far we have defeated 2 LNG pipeline / terminal Schemes , Because we as a Community,

did the work and put the stupidity and Careless exploitation of this Beautiful River, front and center for the past 12 years .

The freerider is non-SPD and look at five ten Maltese Falcon is SPD Shoe!

Until last year I has always ridden in SPDs. Last year I made the switch to Look pedals and now I have switched back to SPDs and think I have come to notice the value of proper equipment selection, including pedals.

After I got back from the trip last year I had to buy new shoes as the old ones were trashed, poking out through the toes and the heels were starting to come apart, way over 20K miles on them. I hadn't did any kind of long rides with the new shoes until late last fall and then I started noticing toward the end of any long ride I was experiencing pain right below the ankle, ringing around the bottom of the ankle. As winter progressed and spring started to arrive the pain was even working its way up into the lower calf area. On one of the 100 mile ride back in April I looked down at the foot trying to figure out what the heck was causing the problem. It looked like my foot was turning out, instead of sitting flat on the pedal. I was figuring giving the time frame that the shoes were trash shoes and didn't have kind of arch support. I tried switching out to the old shoes and I didn't seem to have any problems with the old shoes. This continued on for a while and I finally decided to try the cheap fix first since I knew I needed to replace the pedals already, just bought them before the bike trip last year and they were bad enough now that I was having trouble staying clipped in even with new cleats. After putting the new pedals and cleats on the new(last fall) shoes I rode on home and immediately noticed a difference. I looked down and it looked like my left foot(the one I was having the trouble with) was now flat and I could even feel the difference. The old Look pedals had worn down on the outside of the pedal and I think it was letting the foot flop over. I've never had that trouble with SPD pedals. Yeah, they will get to the point where I won't be able to stay clipped in but I've never had them fail the way the Look pedals failed.

On other thing I also noticed was last summer on the bike trip I got out on a couple of night rides. The first two weren't an issue due to having overnight services available. On the third ride everything was fine until after 1AM when I ran out of overnight service for the next 50-60 miles. I did have to stop a couple of times during the stretch to go to the bathroom. The trouble was trying to get moving again. Trying to clip back into the Look pedals was fun to say the least since they aren't stiff pedals(rotationally speaking) like SPDs are. I had some nice fun trying to clip back in. The pedals being upside down instead of right side up. Yeah, I was riding in the dark. I had a handlebar mounted headlight so trying to look down to the pedals wasn't an option. When I put the new SPDs on the bike I quickly noticed they don't have the rotational float that Look pedals have so I highly doubt I would have the same problem trying to clip in in total dark conditions like I did last year with Look pedals.

The equipment choices can make all the difference by a long shot. Given my past experiences I plan to stick with SPD, they are just far better.

One idea that I just about an hour or so ago. Have you tried putting wedges between the shoes and the cleat. Most people need wedges to get the foot to sit properly on the pedals.

Speedplay Frogs are double-sided; there's no upside-down or right-side-up. You can clip into either side. Commuting to a night job, half my riding is at night, and I've never had a need to see the pedal.