Quick question on pedals / cleats

joker77

Hi - my new bike arrived and I think being the noob I am, I'm after ordering the wrong pedals. I ordered the Shimano A520 SPD pedals, thinking they were for a road shoe... went up to the shop and yer man told me they're a touring pedal, so I'd need a touring shoe....

So I'm here contemplating ordering a new pedal - Shimano 105 5610 SPD-SL, Cleats (SH11) and road shoes... but I thought I'd post up on boards first for an opinion.

My cycling on the new road bike (PlanetX) will be 2 longish spins a week - 2 hours or so. No commuting to/from work or city cycling, just out from Dundrum up the mountains.

Am I better off going ahead with the new road pedals + shoes, or would a noob like me even notice much of a diffence with a touring shoe - something like this or this?

Confused now as to what to do...

07Lapierre

I doubt you'll notice the difference. just buy the shoes and try them. If after a whle you want to change the pedals, you won't have to buy new shoes, just the cleats.

blorg

Unless you want to race you don't really need road pedals. They do provide a more solid engagement and reduced risk of unclipping but this really is only an issue in a balls out sprint.

With a SPD system you have the advantage that you can walk in the shoes which is a big one. However if you really will never be walking off the bike you don't particularly need this.

However with that touring pedal you lose the two-sided nature of SPDs which is another key benefit. You can however cycle in normal shoes (should you ever want to, with a PX I imagine you are not going to be popping to the shops to get a pint of milk on it though?)

You can use any SPD shoe, you are not limited to "touring" type shoes. I use MTB racing shoes myself with a very stiff carbon sole. There really isn't much difference in stiffness or power transfer compared to the carbon SIDIs I use with road pedals. There is a slightly less "connected" feeling with the SPDs. SOME SPD shoes however will have far more spongy soles as they are designed for dual use, walking/cycling. These WILL be far worse on the bike.

To be honest I would probably send back or flog the pedals (they should find a ready market for a commuter, they are a good pedal for that application) and go for either SPDs or a proper road system.

If you will literally never want to walk off the bike for any distance and won't need to clip/unclip frequently then may as well go road. I use Time RXS myself and very happy with it but I have no experience of any other road system. Their having a cheap entry-level pedal was the main factor in my decision.

joker77

Cheers for the replies. Kind of put my mind at ease but still feel like a bit of a tool...

So I'm thinking of just hanging onto the pedals - getting these cleats - the SH-51 are the ones I need yea? I'm confused what these are though

These shoes look suitable

blorg - do you mean something like these or these?

seamus

joker77 wrote: »

So I'm thinking of just hanging onto the pedals - getting these cleats - the SH-51 are the ones I need yea?

Any shimano pedals I've bought came with a pair of cleats. Did you open the box?

joker77

seamus wrote: »

Any shimano pedals I've bought came with a pair of cleats. Did you open the box?

They came with the bike, didn't come in a box - there were in a plastic bag with a pile of stuff - I searched for the cleats but couldn't find them...
I'll check the entire bike box again later before I order the shoes.

blorg

Pedals always come with cleats, if they are not there get on to PX and they should send you out a set.

Regarding the shoes, yes, something like that would be fine, you want to avoid the SPD shoes that look like this:



Unless of course you want them for commuting or touring in which case that sort of shoe is a good idea after all.