Ive a new road bike and happy with my shimano spd shoes and crank bros candies but do proper road shoes and pedals make enough of a difference to be worth the investment?

IMO yes, but if you’re happy then carry on!

I’d say yes Mick.
I’m sure loads will disagree tho..
What size are you?
I’ve pairs of 45’s and pedals yer welcome to try…

I’ve got both and there is a slight difference, but not significant enough to make a differnece and I will be going back to mtb spd only when I sell the individual road and cross bikes and replace with a disc cross/road bike

There’s less float and the soles are generally stiffer so they feel more efficient and connected, whether that actually makes much difference to the likes of you and I is up for debate!

I’d say not IMO but with a caveat – I rarely have the time to ride more than 50 miles in one go. Friends who ride bigger distances say ‘proper’ pedals and shoes do make a difference… How far do you ride?

Different pedals – wider platform and a bit more security
Stiffer soles, a bit more energy transfer
Oh, and road shoes (at least with Shimano cleats) are almost impossible to walk in.

It’s not like night and day, but it’s enough difference that it’s worth having IMO.

lol. No they don’t. even if you ride bigger distances.

The main difference is not having to walk like a **** if you stop.

Glad to be proven wrong with significant concrete data.

There is a big difference. Have you ever tried giving it the beans with SPD’s.? They are just not secure enough. For the most part they are ok but if I sprint in them I end up pulling my feet out if the pedals.

Big difference, a wider platform with less movement and more secure plus stiffer and usually lighter than spd shoe/pedal combos plus you have more variation of cleat placement.

Personally, yes, I think they make a difference. It’s a case of tools for the job, they’re a bit more stable, a bit more comfortable due to the size of the platform, a bit of a stronger grip on the cleats. It’s not a huge difference but for me, it is big enough to make the change worthwhile.

FFS! tighten the retaining tension bolt on your pedals or buy new cleats Neil.

If there was no difference then professional riders wouldn’t all be wearing them. “Marginal gains” and all that.

Is there enough of a difference for the rest of us? Questionable. I use road-type shoes and pedals on my “racier” carbon bike most of the year but MW81s and Candys when it’s colder. I definitely “feel” more connected with the road option but I’m willing to accept it’s all in my head.

As for distance, I use Candys on my tourer. I prefer the wider platform they provide for softer-soled shoes (i.e. ones you can walk in comfortably).

Yes, huge difference IME (went from Candy’s to Look Keo)

how much faster are you now Haze?

Night and day but a lot of that’s down to training so difficult to quantify.

They’re all well and good when you’ve just spunked all your savings on a nice road bike with little else left over, but if you want to push on.

Ive a new road bike and happy with my shimano spd shoes and crank bros candies but do proper road shoes and pedals make enough of a difference to be worth the investment?

Are you planning on entering any sportives this season? If you’re not familiar with sportives; it’s common practice for riders to dismount and push up the hills, especially the steeper ones. Therefore, I’d stick with the mtb shoes for now since they’re much easier to walk in.

Are you planning on entering any sportives this season? If you’re not familiar with sportives; it’s common practice for riders to dismount and push up the hills, especially the steeper ones. Therefore, I’d stick with the mtb shoes for now since they’re much easier to walk in.

They only time I’ve seen people walking on a sportive was on teh Fred Whitton going up Hardknott. They were all wearing spds, the real roadies got up fine. Make of that what you will 😉

Shoes, minimal depending on shoes MTB shoes. I have carbon soled Sidi road shoes and can’t tell the difference between them and my more standard racey MTB shoes.
Pedals maybe. Up to about 100 miles SPDs are fine but long days are nicer with Looks

Assuming you still have mtb pedals and shoes and some sort of GPS you could actually test how insignificant (or not) the difference is.

Try to be honest with yourself and remember to adjust your seatpost height accordingly 😉

FFS! Now you tell me… I rode 120 miles in horrendous driving wind and rain a few weeks back. If I’d only known fitting “LOOK” pedals would have made the day nicer 😆

The big difference to me is comfort. Hotspots in my mtb shoes/pedals that I’d never got on all day rides on the mtb after 30/40 minutes on the road.

Swapped to Look pedals and DHB shoes and all fine.

i thought one of the reasons real roadies stop en mass and pee at the side of the road was because it isn’t possible to walk into a tiled floor urinal in road shoes without sliding face first into an adjacent customers tackle….so be prepared to be accused of cottaging or go alfresco

edit ridden many all day and multiday road/gravel rides in shimano mtb spds and never had a problem with hotspots

I got hotspots using MTB pedals, right where the cleat was. I don’t with road pedals.

Your experience may be different.

Professional road riders use road pedals. I doubt you’re a professional (I’m not) or do anywhere near the mileage they do. I also doubt if even a 1-2w improvement in power would make any real world difference to everyday riding.

If you don’t have a reason to change, then don’t. If you do, even if it’s “they look nicer”, then do.

Not much difference at all. My road shoes are much nicer than my mtb shoes though so I’d expect them to be a wee bit more comfy.

Wider platform on road pedals do make a difference. Also get a better selection of cleats in terms of float options.
Efficiency improvements depend on what kind of MTB shoes you use. A lot of comments that say no difference come from people using off road race shoes. My MTB shoes are less stiff with a vibram hiking sole, so I notice a huge difference, and my road shoes aren’t even carbon soles.

Use candy’s on all my road bikes, have finished in the bunch and a few top tens in road races with no problems. Same shoes and pedals for all bikes. Do you normally feel the cleat pushing through the shoe? No, I never have either. The marginal gains in weight and maybe aerodynamics are so marginal at the average persons abilities it’s not even measurable.

You don’t see top flight mountain bikers who only clip in at the start of a race, riding in road pedals.

If you think back to the 90’s shimano didn’t offer a look type pedal they were little single sided road spds, plenty of races won on those.

I have never been able to find the reason why, but I get severe knee pain after a short 20 mile ride with look/spd-sl pedals. Go back to using spd then all day/multi day rides I have no pain. It is not the float as I have got cleats with the largest float available, so I just stick with the pain free soltion.

As for the stiffness/weight I have got loads of different shoes and the latest carbon mtb ones are nearly on a par with the road kit.

“do road shoes make much difference? ?”

For pro cyclists it depends how good a deal your agent can get.
££££££££££££ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2010/11/how-much-do-pro-cyclists-make/

They only time I’ve seen people walking on a sportive was on teh Fred Whitton going up Hardknott. They were all wearing spds, the real roadies got up fine. Make of that what you will

😀 I’ve seen a few take their road shoes off and walk up bare footed.

I was prepared last time I walked it; hit the cattle grid at full chat in 39/25; jumped off straight away; walked all the way to the top in my Vans.

I think a stiff pair of MTB shoes are ideal for the everyday roadie. There’s often times when I could do with being able to walk about. I have three wedges under my right cleat, so I need the extra securtiy of the 3 bolts o nthe road cleats.

they make a big difference.

you won’t know until you buy some, have them fitted and go ride hard. If you then try putting your SPD back on, you will be surprised at the difference.

the biggest differences I found was foot stability and power transfer, especially when climbing steep hills, or sprinting full gas.

No. I’ve got the same Specialized shoe in road and MTB version. I’ve got the MTB pedal an my commute road bike so have some back to back experience with a different version of the exact same shoe on the road, so same sole stiffness. The wide platform thing is a red herring. If your sole is stiff enough it doesn’t matter how wide your platform is. The MTB shoe is easy to walk in, though you still have to be a bit careful as the hard moulded plastic grips are a bit slippery but nothing like the road cleats. The road shoe is lighter as it is without the extra additional moulded plastic grips.

So it makes less of a difference compared with buying a shoe with a stiffer sole of whichever variety it comes in (road or MTB).

Cheers all and thanks nick ive got hold of a pair to try out

In terms of better i meant better feeling for your feet rather than any speed gains. My legs and belly need performance tuning more than my feet 😉

Now to sizing my mate who is a long time roadie had a bike fit that included shoes and he said he ended up getting a bigger size as your feet need space to swell and not be restricted and any movement of your foot was limited due to the pedalling motion. Size 44 are very snug and 45 feel a bit big without big socks on

So it makes less of a difference compared with buying a shoe with a stiffer sole

This ^. My road shoes are fancy pants carbon soled things and the first time I used them they felt like they were worth an extra gear up the hills compared to the previous middling MTB shoes and SPDs combo. However, I’m sure it’s mostly the stiffness of the sole as there’s a difference between my slightly racey MTB shoes and the winter pseudo hiking ones that is noticeable.

The main advantage of road shoes, IME, is it’s slightly easier to get overshoes over them as they’ve got less nobbles on the soles.

Huge difference when spinning fast as the shoes will hold your feet better in contact with the pedals. Huge difference when climbing; flatter stiffer platform.

And a pair of road shoes with cleats and pedals is about half the weight of an equivalent SPD setup.

/\ your(sic) not helping 🙄

“In terms of better i meant better feeling for your feet…”

Adam Hansen says

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2014/05/adam-hansens-custom-shoes/

And a pair of road shoes with cleats and pedals is about half the weight of an equivalent SPD setup.

^^^ If you’ve got a nice bike there worth it for this alone. I’ve tried both and on the road, road shoes/pedals do work a bit better. If can’t believe this, well good for you, just keep on using whatever makes you happy.

Adam Hansen says

Interviewed by Johnny Vegas (2m56)

On the hotspot front I think that’s as much about having the cleats set up correctly as the fit of the shoe. If the cleats aren’t in the right position for you then you’re much more likely to get sore feet. I did a chunk of shuffling cleat position about on mine till I was happy with them.

Fit wise it’s worth thinking about what shape your feet are as some brands are better for wide feet and others for narrower feet. Also height and shape of the toe box matters.