[Nat Jas Moe]

I’m thinking of getting some new shoes as my current shoes are showing their age. But what to get? Do I stay with my SPD’ s or go with “proper” road pedals, my son has given me some Look road pedal so it’s only the shoes I need to think about.

So the question I have is what advantage do 3 holed cleats have over their 2 holed brothers? (Apart from the obvious ministry of silly walks).

Cheers for your forth coming help.

Topic

[Nat Jas Moe]

On the balance of all the
On the balance of all the comments so far I think I’ll stick to my current SPD’ s and bug New shoes accordingly. Thanks for all your comments.

[The Rake]

SR2 wrote:The two schools of

SR2 wrote:

The two schools of thought here are bringing up interesting points. From what I gather it seems SPDs at first seem to be good for introducing yourself to clipless pedals and then once you’ve racked up enough miles and comfortable with them, SPD SLs apparently are the next best step… I’ve been considering getting a pair of clipless pedals so maybe the SPDs seem good for starters?

That’s exactly what I did

[SR2]

The two schools of thought
The two schools of thought here are bringing up interesting points. From what I gather it seems SPDs at first seem to be good for introducing yourself to clipless pedals and then once you’ve racked up enough miles and comfortable with them, SPD SLs apparently are the next best step… I’ve been considering getting a pair of clipless pedals so maybe the SPDs seem good for starters?

[DaveE128]

fukawitribe wrote:DaveE128

fukawitribe wrote:

DaveE128 wrote:

If you have to stop (at a junction, wait for a slower friend, etc) and put your foot down in any sandy dirt (eg as found all over the roads in the New Forest at times), it seems to kill the plastic cleats instantly and they’ll never work again no matter how much you try to clean them.

There’s a lot to be said for SPDs but this is, in general, nonsense.

Well, it’s been my experience. I couldn’t clip in reliably after first contact with sandy dirt. By the end of the ride the cleats were toast.

Friends that use them have also had problems with very fast wear and corners snapping off.

I just don’t think plastic cleats are a good idea when they have to handle contact with the ground. Saying “don’t walk on them” just isn’t realistic in my opinion. If it was possible to avoid putting feet on the floor we wouldn’t need shoes that unclip from the pedals, would we?

[parksey]

I’m using SPD-SLs on both of
I’m using SPD-SLs on both of my road bikes and am perfectly happy with that system. I use them for commuting too and have absolutely no problems with both clipping in and out in that stop/start environment, or walking in them when I reach the office. Mooching around a mid-ride cafe is absolutely no issue whatsoever.

Only concern I do have is the durability of the cleats themselves. Having been using the setup for barely more than a year, I’m now on my 3rd set of cleats. That is admittedly through daily use but, even at £11.99 a set from Decathlon, the cost is started to add up. For that reason I may think about a standard SPD setup on the bike I mostly use for commuting and leave the SLs on the weekend bike.

[wycombewheeler]

johndonnelly wrote:
Whole day

johndonnelly wrote:

Whole day in the office in the office sandwiched between commutes.

Lots of reasons to want something that works well on and off the bike.

I love spd shoes and am happy to walk in them, but I wouldn’t wear them for the entire day off the bike.

[macrophotofly]

Loved SPDs and still have a
Loved SPDs and still have a pair on my town bike – the Shimano XT 780 Race pedals are awesome (and the bearing seals on them last longer than the XTRs) – very light and despite being double sided they would still do better at cornering than a single sided SPD-SL because of the reduced width of them.
With a stiff carbon sole I’ve never felt any hot spots (a cheaper prior pair of shoes did have that problem). I also could pull “up” quite happily in them if I wanted to without ever having a release. Basically I think they probably suit 85% of people wanting a pedal for daily use
And they release beautifully all the time… unlike the Ultegra SPD-SLs I bought which required so much effort to release on the minimum setting I lasted 3 weeks with them.
I had wanted a lighter, sleeker shoe for club rides but more importantly an inherently designed float in the cleat (SPDs do float but only against the spring) as I had noticed minor knee problems when on big mountain climbs. Hence I switched to SPD-SLs and hated the release (although I understand if you drop down to 105s the pedal is a lot easier to release) and single sided entry. So in the end I switched to Speedplay for my weekend bike and haven’t looked back – all the benefits of the SPD (easy release, narrow width, double sided for easy entry) plus no more knee issues thanks to the free float

[Colin Peyresourde]

I use both. SPD-SL on the
I use both. SPD-SL on the road, SPD on the MTB and CX. I think the SPD-SLs are better for fit and stability. I think I could pull my foot out of the SPDs just by pulling up.

The connection with the bike on the SPD SL is so far superior as binding with SPD you shoe always has quite a bit of float.

[fukawitribe]

DaveE128 wrote:If you have to

DaveE128 wrote:

If you have to stop (at a junction, wait for a slower friend, etc) and put your foot down in any sandy dirt (eg as found all over the roads in the New Forest at times), it seems to kill the plastic cleats instantly and they’ll never work again no matter how much you try to clean them.

There’s a lot to be said for SPDs but this is, in general, nonsense.

[DaveE128]

I had used SPDs for many
I had used SPDs for many years, having done a lot of mountain biking. Last year I tried SPD-SLs because of the claimed advantages.

I have to say that I think they’re rubbish. If you have to stop (at a junction, wait for a slower friend, etc) and put your foot down in any sandy dirt (eg as found all over the roads in the New Forest at times), it seems to kill the plastic cleats instantly and they’ll never work again no matter how much you try to clean them.

I binned them and went back to SPDs. Haven’t regretted it at all.

I’ve never had any trouble with “hot spots” and suspect these are just caused by shoes with insufficiently stiff soles.

SPDs are much easier to clip in and out of, and I just don’t buy the arguments above that you can pull up or pull back better with road pedals. Seriously, there is no noticeable difference in the float from the yellow SPD-SL cleats. Maybe if you have very worn SPD cleats you might find some mildly irritating front/back play, but they last for years. I can’t see any other issue that could affect the ability to apply power through more of the stroke.

[big mick]

Look type cleats are a pain
Look type cleats are a pain to walk in but once on the bike they are the only way to go on road bikes.You do pull up more so when out of the saddle but when climbing at a lowish cadence I find myself pulling up to even out that dead power point at the 5 o’clock.This is possible with spd’s but feels more SURE footed with spd sl’s look type ped’s 🙂

[johndonnelly]

wycombewheeler wrote:FullGas

wycombewheeler wrote:

FullGas wrote:

Pressing down on the pedals is only about 40% of the pedal stroke. Pulling up your feet is an advantage that’s too hard to ignore, specially when standing up. SPDs make it hard to do it due to massive amount of float they provide when compared to proper road pedals.
.

I’m not convinced by this argument, in my uni years my friend came off his mtb and took a gash out of shin, and we swapped bikes and he pedalled the 6 miles to the hospital on one leg wearing my spds. pulling up is not that comfortable anyway as the leg muscles are not really evolved to work that way.

We also need to take into account the various SPD cleat options here. I find I can pull up easily in single release mode cleats, but regrettably they’re getting harder to find (don’t send me links, its not impossible) as most stockists prefer multi release mode cleats, which I always find disengage too easily.

[johndonnelly]

fast as fupp wrote:’off the

fast as fupp wrote:

’off the bike’ ?

do folk stop and go for a walk mid way through a ride?

Yes.

CX.
Café stop on the club ride.
Poking around the scenery on a tour.
Whole day in the office in the office sandwiched between commutes.

Lots of reasons to want something that works well on and off the bike.

[Simon E]

crikey wrote:Ankling and

crikey wrote:

Ankling and scraping and pulling up are all interesting, but if ya wanna go faster, press on harder.

That’s what I’ve read. A timely tweet from Cyclefit:

Professional riders produce more with 1 leg than most of us do with 2! And they DON’T PULL UP!

https://twitter.com/CyclefitUK/status/571039875400667136

[FullGas]

muddydwarf wrote:Ive been

muddydwarf wrote:

Ive been using SPD-SL’s on my road bike for 14 months now, & I’m STILL struggling to find the correct position for the cleats in order to find the best position to click in Vs the right foot position.
It may be my feet, as I have Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome but I find the cleats to be incredibly sensitive to the slightest positional changes on the shoe, half a millimeter can mean the difference between clicking in or not. I find I have to ‘screw’ my cleats into the pedal if I am to have the correct foot position on the pedals once clicked in – if that makes sense.
Ive been using SPD’s for well over a decade on the mtb’s and commuter bikes so no problems there.

Sounds like you might have setup your cleats on the wrong position. If they are further back than needed you can have problems clipping in. Take a look at this [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2BXOkM-wHs]video[/url] from GCN and give it another try.

If you still have problems after that you could try a different set of pedals. I’ve heard wonders about the SpeedPlay and Time Xpresso pedals.

[Author]

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