About to order a new steel road bike from Condor, mainly for commuting (20km each way). No pedals on the new bike, so dilemma is...........
- could replace my M959 pedals, on the nicolai, there about 7 yrs old but work fine.
- put old 959's on the Condor. OR
- get some new spd pedals possibly these [url= http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=28051 ]A520 pedals[/url] OR
- get new road pedals and shoes (don't want to spend more than i have to)
What is best? Any one used the A520's with MTB shoes, are they OK?
Ta
I don't want to buy new shoes, pedals, cleats etc
if it was for commuting i'd run two sided spds as you need to take your feet outta the pedals more often than 'true road' cycling.
I agree with tomthumb spd's are a very good chioce for commuting, but more for the fact that they are easier to walk in, road cleats are generally a real pain to walk in. Having said that all my road bikes, commuter included ,use look keo.
All mybikes run shimano SPD, keep it simple (and cheap) one pair of shoes, easy to service/ buy spares and they're what I'm used to!
I use A520's with Specialized Tacoma shoes on my commuter/tourer. I never have any problems finding the "right" side to clip in as they're weighted to help. Very comfy - it gives you a wee bit of a platform to spread the weight. The Tacomas have a very smooth sole - I don't know if a more treaded sole might be problematic.
Another option is the Ritchey V4 Micro Road pedal. It's another SPD-compatible pedal - much lighter, but with no platform to speak of. The ritchey cleat will fot Ritchey AND Shimano pedals, but it doesn't seem to quite work the other way round.
All the stuff about walking around in "proper" road shoes/cleats is correct - I save these for the "racer"