Want to dabble in the dark arts of flat pedals whilst being able to slip the old ATACs back on whenever. Is there one shoe that will let me efficiently clip-in AND give me good grip on the pins of the flatties? Five Ten Kestrel? Spesh 2FO cliplite? Giro Terraduro? Suggestions please.

Just buy a cheap pair of skate shoes to begin with?

Hmmm, a money saving possibility. But it’s time I bought some new clipless-compatible shoes anyway, so was after an ‘all-rounder’…

Basically, no.

In my experience having ridden both flats and and SPD’s, SPD shoes are too stiff and give no pedal feedback so you don’t know where the pedal is in relation to your foot.

So not only do you want the moon on a stick,you want jam on it?
Clips require a rigidity in the shoe. Flats dont.

For the price of the fancy pants shoes you mention in the OP, you can almost certainly get some decent enough SPD shoes and flat shoes in the sales.

Didn’t stop a chap in Evans trying to sell me an SPD shoe as a flat shoe. “You just don’t cut out this cover if your using flats.”

And I’m not correcting that, I’m assuming that’s how he’d have written it.

So not only do you want the moon on a stick,you want jam on it?

Oooh, yes please.

Right, some on-sale flat shoes it is. Roll on January.

The 510s will do both, but you’ll need to remove the cleats. I think Hellcats may even come with a plug for the hole the cleats mount in. (At least they did when I had a pair a few years back.)

here’s the problem:

clippy shoes need a stiff sole, so that standing on the pedals doesn’t result in a cleat/foot impalement.

shoes for flat pedals work well when there’s enough flex to conform to the pedal.

you can’t have both.