spd on road bike

littleknown

is it possible to use spd pedals on roadbikes?

kenmc

yes, many of us do.

littleknown

great, that will save me a few bob !:)

stuf

kenmc wrote: »

yes, many of us do.

really? doesn't the bike and rider spontaneously combust at the uneuroness of it all or something?

Mint Sauce

use them my self, have single sided pedals so can cycle in my trainers and use the flat side if just heading down the road, or if i am wearing my cleats and am cycling though a built up area, again use the flat side rather than having to engage and realease all the time untill i hit the open road

blorg

I use them myself although I'm going to move to a road system for racing.

Raam

stuf wrote: »

really? doesn't the bike and rider spontaneously combust at the uneuroness of it all or something?

I have actually seen this happen.

littleknown

on a semi related note i have the xtr and normal shimano spds, to be honest havent noticed any real difference between them apart from price and looks, you?

Mint Sauce

was looking at these recently before settleing on the ones i have, from memory the xtr were double sided, lighter and marketed towards mtb due to being able to repell or dislodge mud easier, which other simanio pedal are you comparing them to

blorg

littleknown wrote: »

on a semi related note i have the xtr and normal shimano spds, to be honest havent noticed any real difference between them apart from price and looks, you?

I have XT and M515s (predecessor to the M520) as well as various non-Shimano SPDs. From my own experience the Shimanos all seem to work pretty much the same, (=very well) with the more expensive ones just being lighter.

strummer_ie

I'm thinking of picking up the Shimano MT324 one-sided spd's
and maybe the Shimano MT21 shoes to go with them.
Anyone got any experience with these ?

@irish-stew, don't suppose these are the one-sided spd's you have ?

stuf

strummer_ie wrote: »

I'm thinking of picking up the Shimano MT324 one-sided spd's
and maybe the Shimano MT21 shoes to go with them.
Anyone got any experience with these ?

I use them and they're grand - the spd side always come up with a turn of the pedals

if you want the flat side then you just flick it over

MadHatter

stuf wrote: »

I use them and they're grand - the spd side always come up with a turn of the pedals

if you want the flat side then you just flick it over

I have the MT324 as well, no problems, flat side is great option to have when commuting through town.

Also have SPDs on the road bike so I can use the same shoes. Haven't burst into flames just yet.

**Timbuk2**

I use SPDs M520 Pedals on my road bike along with Specialized Comp MTB Shoes (I like the recessed cleat system as I'm able to walk without looking like a duck) and it works great!

doozerie

Whether to use SPD's on a road bike is pretty much down to personal taste. One of the arguments against SPD's used to be that their smaller size made them less comfortable on your feet than the (typically) larger platform provided by road pedals i.e. the smaller SPD's pressed through the sole of the shoe more. With a decent stiff sole on your cycling shoes though that's far less of an issue, and these days such decent soles are no longer restricted to just the most expensive shoes.

Another goal is to minimise the distance (stack height) between the sole of your foot and the axle of the pedal. Older style SPD's used to be chunkier, which increased this distance, but many modern SPD designs tend to be "thinner", again narrowing the gap between SPD's and traditional road-style pedals.

Personally I still prefer the larger surface area and locking action of my (Look) road pedals, compared to my 15+ yr old SPD's, but I'm not sure that they offer any great technical advantages over modern SPD's.

blorg

doozerie wrote: »

Personally I still prefer the larger surface area and locking action of my (Look) road pedals, compared to my 15+ yr old SPD's, but I'm not sure that they offer any great technical advantages over modern SPD's.

More secure retention? I've had a few accidental unclips with SPDs, even my best ones with the tension right. This is the main reason I plan to move... Also think there is a feeling of a more solid connection to the bike (from my brief test ride of Time RXS road pedals anyway.)

Mint Sauce

strummer_ie wrote: »

I'm thinking of picking up the Shimano MT324 one-sided spd's
and maybe the Shimano MT21 shoes to go with them.
Anyone got any experience with these ?

@irish-stew, don't suppose these are the one-sided spd's you have ?

no, this are the ones i have, a530's, currently using an old pair of diadora MTB shoes with them, but am on the look out for a pair of shimano MTB's, as well as having single sided pedals so i can use the flat sides in traffic or going short distances in my trainers, i can also walk in my cycling shoes if the need arises

doozerie

blorg wrote: »

More secure retention? I've had a few accidental unclips with SPDs, even my best ones with the tension right. This is the main reason I plan to move... Also think there is a feeling of a more solid connection to the bike (from my brief test ride of Time RXS road pedals anyway.)

How securely your foot is held is determined by a number of factors, some of which are under your direct control and some of which are a result of the pedal design. For example, SPD's tend to be a popular starting point for people new to clipless pedals and a common approach is to adjust the spring tension to be a little loser initially so that you can unclip more easily in an emergency - some people forget to ever re-tighten the spring even after they have become comfortable with clipless pedals. You can even buy SPD cleats that are designed to allow you to unclip in more directions (i.e not just via a sideways twist). As regards design, fundamentally SPD's were designed for off-road use, and the design principle of facilitating frequent click in and click out probably persists in some SPD pedals available now, although not all of them - clicking in and out quickly is made easier by a slightly looser connection between the cleat and the pedal, which also helps deal with the problem of muck clogging up the interface between the two too.

Lots of racers successfully use SPD's, and their varients, on road bikes. With the right choice of pedal, and cleat, there is no reason for them to be any less secure than traditional road pedals - maybe the smaller contact area theoretically makes SPD's more prone to cleats popping out, but in practice I don't know that this actually is the case. People do unintentionally pull their feet out of SPD's but so too do people, including professional road riders, do that with traditional road pedals.

I certainly feel more securely attached to my Look pedals than to my SPD's, but in my case some of that is because I have the spring tension on my Look's set tighter than on my SPD's ('cos I don't have to unclick as often on my road bike), some of it is to do with the different levels of wear on the respective cleats, and some of it is psychological. My SPD's are on my commute bike and get used daily, so the cleats wear a lot faster and get looser as a result. My road bike gets used infrequently and the cleats on my road shoe have very little wear on them so are still a relatively snug fit (I use Look cleats that have a bit of play built into them so there is always some play). One of the strong points of the Time pedals is that they have play built into the pedals themselves (or at least they used to) rather than the cleats, which used to be a selling point to people with knee problems - I've always been tempted by them myself.

At the end of the day, clipping out accidentally will always be a risk regardless of what pedal you use. The risk tends to be very small though, usually. About the most effective way to minimise the risk would be to go the old, or track, route of using toe clips and straps (double straps on the track as far as I know) - with these plus cleats on the shoes you'd be pretty well secured to the pedals. I started out with those, but was happy to move to clipless as soon as I could - you sacrifice some of the solid feel of the connection to the pedals (a good thing though if you have a knee problem) but obviously clipless are generally safer when you have an urgent need to put a foot down.

TinyExplosions

Raam wrote: »

I have actually seen this happen.

Aw, good old 'boots' McGraw, he was a good lad...

Raam

TinyExplosions wrote: »

Aw, good old 'boots' McGraw, he was a good lad...

Really gonna miss that guy.