Help please we don't know what we are doing!

Spuds all the way.

The difference in performance between the two is neglible, unless she's racing.

Once she gets them, she's best practising either on a turbo or in a narrow hallway. Clip in, clip out, clip in, clip out...ad infinitum, and with the pedals in different positions.

Also stationary is the best time to discover that you haven't tightened the screws up enough, rather than down the road and unable to get your foot out.

My road bike has single sided A520 SPD pedals, and I wear a pair of RT82 shoes. Unless you take a close look, most people wouldn't even notice that they're not "proper" road shoes.

Well, that's until I get off the bike and I'm the only one who isn't walking like a penguin.

The big advantage for me, is that I have several bikes and shoes, but they're all compatible with one another.

i am an spd man. it means that my bikes and shoes are interchangeable - a massive advantage if doing touring etc. i am from an mtb background so it seemed sensible to stick with what i know. i did try look for a while - i fell over a lot. it wasn't worth the hassle.

i have both road and mtb shoes. i suspect the power difference given my woeful cycling fitness is minimal

Those who suggest starting with SPD offer sage advice. Simple, cheap, effective.

If people in a club look down on you for using SPD, then...

As another contributor said, SPDs are great because they're an easy pedal to learn being fixed to. One small move and your daughter will be able to clip out with ease. There are lots of good entry-level shoes about, including Shimano & Specialized.

Learn to be fixed to a bike on grass, if you can; the falling is much nicer. (Don't worry about falling, it's only a very few times at the beginning, and a soft body protects a nice bike .)

These are what you've got, more or less, but without the cage and the strap;

These are the cages:

These are SPD pedals, a much better option;

and these are the cleats and shoe setup;

These are the different styles of road pedals;

There are many other types of pedal and shoe available...

for a first timer definitely go for SPD's to start with and if int he future want to move to SPD SL then you will be experienced in them.

I don't know any serious road rider who doesn't use road-specific systems.

Look, Speedplay or Shimano (road not MTB) would be the main choices.

Look do an "easy" version of their Keo pedals which are supposed to be a good entry level, and cheaper.

If she's serious about cycling and has joined a club then just do it. If she doesn't want to stand out as the odd one with different equipment then get a road-specific system, unless you want your daughter to be the one kid with MTB pedals.

I know there will now be a chorus of "don't worry about what everyone else thinks" but that's fine when you're a 40 something guy doing an audax or sportive and slightly different for a teenage (?) girl joining a club and starting out in a sport.

There's no benefit to NOT using a road system, so just go with the flow.

For what it's worth, I meet an ever-increasing number of road cyclists who have given up on 3-bolt "road" cleats (SPD SL) and pedals and gone back to the simple 2-bolt MTB type (SPD)

There seem to be three reasons for the change:
1. Despite the cries of the "road" fans, there is no difference in comfort or power transfer, at least for normal humans.
2. The 2-bolt (SPD) type cost much less and last much longer.
3. If you buy touring SPDs and shoes nobody will know.

Anyway, SPDs suit me, and I have never ridden an MTB in anger.

Those will do more or less as well as flat pedals would do! But if your daughter's half serious about this - she's joined a club, she clearly is - then she wants to get beyond flat pedals.

Getting used to "clipless" pedals is the *big* threshold to riding seriously. It's disconcerting to be stuck to the bike. But you quickly learn how to deal with it, and it becomes much more uncomfortable not to be anchored that way. There'll probably be a pratfall or two, but by its nature it only happens at very low speed. What you gain instead is immeasurably better stability and confidence at high speed. Kinda like driving without a seatbelt; once you're used to having it on, it feels a bit weird not to. And yep, if you forget how to release it, you might not escape flaming wreckage quite as quickly. That's not a risk we sweat. Once you're used to clipless, you'd never go back.

How to start with clip-ins? Lots of people say to go SPD, so they're cheaper and easier to fit, and you can still walk around in the shoes. Lots say go straight for road shoes, road cleats, and road pedals, because you'll learn them in twenty minutes (pratfalls aside), and roadies don't walk in their shoes anyway, and you feel like a *proper* cyclist immediatey. I took the second route, but each to their own. Millions of equally good ways to peel an orange...

PS, should have said, if she's in a club someone from there should be able to help face to face rather than on t'internet.

Just to add my tuppence worth at this stage I'd buy your daughter a cheap pair of mountain bike SPD pedals (you can get them for £20 or less now). They are double sided (you can clip into either side) and so are a bit more user friendly than the one sided road pedals as well as being kinder on her knees.

You would need to buy mountain bike or road touring shoes to go with them (£40 or so). These have the added bonus of being able to walk on them (road clipless pedal shoes are like back to front high heels).

If the road biking bug really bites in the coming years then you could upgrade to proper road clipless pedals.

I spent years cycling on the road with mountain bike SPDs no problems, it was only when I started racing that I changed to proper road pedals.

Also. Some cleats have 3 bolts and some have 2. The shoes need to have the correct number of holes. (Convention is 3 holes for road bike and 2 for mountain bike). They are much better than straps because the natural instinct when falling sideways is to move the foot to the side which releases the cleat, not backwards as you would have to to escape from the strap. Adjust the pedal tension to the minimum when starting for easy removal.

Cleats need to match to the model,brand of the pedal.

New clip in pedals (confusingly called clipless pedals) will come with cleats.

I'm no expert, but they look like pedals from which the toe clips have been removed and are dangerous to use.