Cycling Shoes

bullvine

Hi,

I wonder can you help. I got a pair of shoes, they have 5 screws in the sole but came with no cleats, the two screws in the middle are attached to a piece of metal under the sole.

My bike has foot clips not proper shoes, I'm wondering can I just take out the five screws to enable to use them with the foot clips without catching the pedals. Will I ruin the shoes if I take out the Screws?

Any idea?

Thanks,

Cee-Jay-Cee

The screws are for use with cleats (which generally come with new pedals) although cleats are also generally supplied with their own allen bolts to use. Just take them out if you want although cycling shoes have very little grip and hard soles which making walking in them difficult but theres no reason why you cant use them with toe clips.

Darkglasses

There's kind of no point using cycling shoes with toe-strap pedals. If anything they'll be less comfortable than a regular pair of runners.

Cycling shoes are designed exclusively for use with clipless pedals (this is the correct term for pedals that you clip into with a cleat, confusing I know). They are made extra stiff in the sole basically, for greater efficiency when pedalling clipped in. This isn't really valuable when using toe straps. Also there generally isn't that much grip on the soles of cycling shoes.

Toe straps in general are unpopular with cyclists who spend a lot of time on the bike. I would recommend investing in a pair of beginner-friendly clipless pedals.

See this thread, pedal confusion is very common with beginners!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056674421

Cee-Jay-Cee

Darkglasses wrote: »

Toe straps in general are unpopular with cyclists who spend a lot of time on the bike. I would recommend investing in a pair of beginner-friendly clipless pedals.

I woud recommend Look Keo Easy pedals, theyre so easy to clip in and out of and you will have mastered it with 10 minutes (or less) practice.

bullvine

Thanks everyone, will have a look into some beginner friendly pedals, cheers

Darkglasses

SPDs (Not SPD-SL, they are different!) are another option. Probably the absolute easiest pedals to clip into and out of, but with the smallest cleat they don't feel quite as stable as ones with bigger cleats.

Have never used Keo Easy myself, so don't know a lot about them.

bullvine

It says the ones I have can take both spd and spd-sl. I will invest in a Spd pair I think.

Darkglasses

bullvine wrote: »

It says the ones I have can take both spd and spd-sl. I will invest in a Spd pair I think.

Yeah if there's 5 holes then it can take either.

Clipless pedals are basically divided into two categories, Road and MTB.

Road pedals would fill in the 3 holes shaped in a triangle. Examples are Shimano SPD-SL and Look Keo (and others). They are a bit harder to clip in and out with and are harder to walk around on, but they provide a more stable base for pedalling (people using road pedals generally don't clip in and out too much).

MTB pedals fill in only the two middle holes. They are much easier to clip in and out with, and easier to walk around on. Favoured by Mountain bikers and commuters for these two reasons. Shimano SPD would be the most common type, but there are others.

bullvine

Great, so if I get a pair of SPD for my road bike, I'll just need the SPD Cleats and attached them to the middle two holes of the shoe. Correct?

slideshow bob

bullvine wrote: »

Great, so if I get a pair of SPD for my road bike, I'll just need the SPD Cleats and attached them to the middle two holes of the shoe. Correct?

Yes, the SPD pedals should come with a pair of cleats that you can attach to your shoes. The next issue is getting the cleats set properly so you don't banjax your knees, but that's a discussion for another day. If you buy the pedals in a local bike shop they should help you get the cleats right. If you buy them online a bit of googling, youtube and boards.ie will sort you out.

Darkglasses

slideshow bob wrote: »

Yes, the SPD pedals should come with a pair of cleats that you can attach to your shoes. The next issue is getting the cleats set properly so you don't banjax your knees, but that's a discussion for another day. If you buy the pedals in a local bike shop they should help you get the cleats right. If you buy them online a bit of googling, youtube and boards.ie will sort you out.

Yeah. My understanding of it is this.

To get the angle of the cleats right, sit up on a table and let your feet dangle. They normally point off to side at a wonky angle. Install the cleats so that when clipped in, your feet point slightly off to that natural wonky angle, but still close enough to pointing straight forward.

For fore/aft position, just try and get the cleat directly under the centre of wherever you push down on the pedal.

If in doubt, just put it in the dead centre. Adjust incrementally over time.

bullvine

Cheers for the great advice

TychoCaine

Darkglasses wrote: »

SPDs (Not SPD-SL, they are different!) are another option. Probably the absolute easiest pedals to clip into and out of, but with the smallest cleat they don't feel quite as stable as ones with bigger cleats.

I always found SPDs tricky to engage. The pedal is just too small to engage quickly for me. Look (Keo Classics in my case) pedals are way easier to get in to.

Darkglasses

TychoCaine wrote: »

I always found SPDs tricky to engage. The pedal is just too small to engage quickly for me. Look (Keo Classics in my case) pedals are way easier to get in to.

I find it very much the opposite. I find if you mash the SPD cleat anywhere near the pedal it will engage, but for Looks (and all other road pedals) you need to be a bit more precise in putting the toe in first. Different strokes I guess.