SPD’s on a road bike

Okay so yes I ride flats on my MTB now, but it is still fairly essential to be clipped in on the road bike and I currently ride with Look Keo’s.  But due to their one sided design, I am finding that clipping in can be much more of a pain in the arse than it used to be back in the days of my old MTB when I wore Shimano SPD’s with the double sided pedal, and clipping in first time every time was never a problem.

So does anyone ride mountain bike type double sided SPD’s on their road bike, and if so, have you noticed a loss in performance?  Also, anyone found a reasonably stiff road bike shoe, that is compatible with aforementioned SPD’s that does not make walking around off the bike a total chore?

Yep. Can’t see any negatives personally. Use Shimano XC7 for pretty much all riding.

Yes, no and don’t worry about it. 

Or learn to toe roll with road cleats.

Roll the pedal over with your toe then slide in to the cleat. 

My old trek us postal replica had them had them as standard, some bulletproof bontrager which are still ready to use now. I preferred them over winter to be honest when it was bad terrain roadside etc and found it better when having to get off the bike for any reason. Better weather I do prefer the road type on my other bike but I do like the dual sided spd over winter mainly for that reason. On the bike they felt fine too.

On my commuter I was running Shimano spds rather than spd-sls when I had a lot of junctions to go through. So much easier to click into.

Running look keo / Shimano spd sl on my road bikes these days – my commute is now more of a straight cycle track with a low amount of junctions. 

I don’t think there’s a huge amount in it, in terms of efficiency etc. Maybe with mega miles you’re more likely to get a hot spot with mtb spds on the road perhaps as your weight is less spread across the foot / most mtb soles are going to have a little more flex than road ones. 

I’d just run whatever you find easiest tbh.

Ive only used my MTB SPD shoes on my road bike. Simply because shoes are expensive and it takes months to find some that fit. Even then they need to be professionally adjusted. Always dread the day they need replacing.

Altra, please make SPD shoes.

As with others above, don’t want different shoes so have Crank Brothers Candy on MTBs and Gravel and Egg Beaters on roadie.

No idea how efficient that is Vs dedicated road shoes and pedals, but that’s not really a concern for me.

I was ays used Time Atac MTB pedals on all bikes. Never had a problem, just used stuff xc shoes on road bike

I use spd for almost all riding, they’re the only clipless pedals I’ve ever used, i got my first pair when they came out, thought they were great so never changed. 

I used SPD-SL for a long time but now my road bike is also a dual purpose gravel bike, I run SPD’s. With proper stiff soles it makes no real difference. I just wear XC shoes, they’re basically just road shoes with a bit of tread so they’re easier to walk in.

I use Candy 7s and Shimano XC7s on my road bike. Plenty stiff but I can walk to the cafe.

I’ve always used proper SPD-SL and road shoes on my pure road bike, but when I built the Crux which probably spends 50% of its time on the road, I use SPD and RX8 shoes and haven’t even thought about it.   It used to be that SPD’s gave hot spots over long use for me but these RX8’s are like slippers!

Yes especially for commuting as you get to walk normally once you get off the bike

I’ve never used “road” pedals – always SPDs, but I generally want to be able to walk around without sliding whenever I get where I’m going :)

As above  RX8’s are brilliant for road use. Done many a century with no issues.

Started with Candy’s years back, no real issues but going to Keo after was a big improvement.

Use Speedplay these days and still never fall over in pubs or cafes, they also solve the double side thing not that it was ever really an issue once you get the knack.

If you’re in situations where you’re clipping in and out a lot or walking (commuting, traffic lights etc) then SPD may make sense, otherwise the larger platform of proper road pedals/cleats is much better imo, just feels more planted and helps with putting the power down.

I’ve used Candy’s a lot on road bikes, especially for commuting, touring and for “winter” footwear. I also have SPD-SLs on my “quick” bike in the “summer” months. I can’t honestly say there’s any power/efficiency improvement with the latter, but then I don’t have a power meter, nor am I analysing my ride data enough to see a difference. It does “feel” like it should be better but that could just come from things generally being better when it’s warm, the roads are dry and I’m spinning along imagining I look like a Pro.

PD-ED500s are double sided with a decent sized platform. Might be a good compromise

Speedplay as Haze.  Well easy in and and out, nice float options, fine walking about in and feel well planted with a half decent road shoe.   Nice and simple to service and spare parts aplenty.  

SPDs!? On a road bike?? You’ll be wearing a back pack next you heathen! No, the answer is to put slick tyres on an MTB and use that on the road. Then your SPDs will be acceptable. I read it on here. Honest.

You need speed play pedals for double sided road use

that said though, I also use spds and I can’t tell any difference. You mention stiff shoes..I have recently swapped my old spesh rimes for a pair of ultra stiff spesh recon (apparently the sole is as stiff as their top road shoes), and I can’t feel the difference there either!

Ive pretty much always used SPD’s on all my road bikes

From 13k full on race bikes to 1.5k Planet X gravel bike, they have all used Shimano spd M540 pedals

Did dabble with some Speedplay Zero pedals a few years ago, they were ok but still a pain to walk in, a hint of dirt could jam them up and even though the pedals were very light the cleats were not

Reason i run Shimano M540 SPD’s is its cheaper and easier to have 4 bikes running the same pedal, so only one pair of summer shoes and one pair of winter boots are needed, did look at upgrading the 13K bike to XTR SPD’s but at £100 for a pair to save around 38 grams i decide to stick with the M540’s

Added bonus is the M540’s are pretty indestructable, never need servicing and can be had for under £50

Yep; spds here. I have some ‘comfy’ MTB shoes for commuting and got some cheap Northwave XC disco slippers for longer rides…I can still walk in them though which is the winner over road spds imo.

Time ATACs on my commuter – can there wear shoes that can be walked in far more sensibly than road cleats.

540s with specialized comp for the last 15 years.

Regular 50miles each weekend and occasional 125 milers, all good.

I use crank brothers candy on all bikes, MTB,gravel and road. As above. Comfort MTB shoes for everything.

I used SPD-SLs on my roadbike for quite a few years but changed back to SPDs a while ago. Far less faff getting clipped in at big roundabouts/junctions, feels safer IMHO. Plus miles better for walking in off bike. I just use XC mtb shoes with them. Haven’t noticed any downsides, personally. 

Question for those highlighting the difficulty walking in road shoes/cleats, how far are you walking compared to how much time you’re spending pedalling?

It’s all I use. I tried 3 bolt road pedals when I got back into road riding but just couldn’t get on with them and went back to SPD’s. My current road bike has the ED 500s pictured above and they are excellent.

XT  SPDs on my road and gravel bikes. Most of my mates are the same.

Why is everybody obsessed with walking when road biking… I walk from my house to the garage, and then into the cafe and back out. The other 99% of the ride I’m on the bike.

I found MTB SPD’s shite when honking out the saddle, road pedals for me all the way.

I switched back to spds on my road bikes at the beginning of this year, and have done multiple long distance (up to 1200k) rides without a problem. Lake GX238 shoes are plenty stiff enough.

I suppose if all you do is Sunday cafe rides then Keos or Spd-sl are fine.

Completely the opposite opinion to benman: I would hate skittering around while walking around at cafe stops (on some surfaces it is plain dangerous), I have adjusted my cleats to the right tension so I don’t get unplanned releases, and overall I can’t see any point to road cleats since the much more robust and versatile SPDs became available.

I’ve got both SPD-SL and SPD. The difference is noticeable but honestly not a big deal. In your circumstance OP I’d use SPD without hesitation

Our club is over 300 strong, and I reckon between a third and half of us use SPDs on at least one road bike. A lot of us have come to the dark side from MTB or CX, a lot of us don’t want to buy extra pairs of shoes for different clipless methods, a lot of us don’t want to slip on a hard cafe floor and lose our coffee/cake/elbow.

I can’t say I ever felt any practical benefit when I tried “proper” roadie pedals, though I tend to use quite stiff CX style SPD shoes.

It’s horses for courses. 3 bolt road pedals and shoes are tangibly better on the road. The platform is wider and longer, meaning you rock around less. The shoes are stiffer for a more fixed position. The stack height is lower for greater efficiency. The pedals are weighted so that they ‘offer’ themselves up as you clip in. If yours don’t, it might be that you need new bearings or different pedals. I use SPD SL pedals which are better in that respect than the Look Keos that I previously used. Since the cleats are generally plastic, you get less of the annoying metal-on-metal squeaking that can plague Shimano SPDs in particular.

In reality on your average road ride, you tend to clip in and out fairly infrequently (and you can generally time yourself approaching traffic lights to clip out even less) and you don’t tend to need to walk much, so the time spent pedalling (where the benefits are significant) vastly outweigh the drawbacks of walking stability and ease of clipping in for a very brief time

Are SPDs ‘OK’ on the road? Yes, with a few caveats. I use them on my gravel bike and tend to do quite a few tarmac miles on most rides. The caveats are:

1) You do rock a little more on the pedals.

2) With the wrong shoes (ie not stiff enough) you can get hotspots from the smaller contact area.

3) You need very stiff shoes. I use Sidi Tigers which basically use the same carbon road sole as their road shoes with some (not much) grip.

4) They are heavier, but when you combine the total bike and rider weight it adds up to less than 0.1% overall.

If the shoe sole is stiff you’ll not notice the difference.

Still got Look Deltas on my old road bikes but the CX and MTB’s run XT SPD. Tempted to move the others over but the road bikes have ‘period’ Looks, C Record Carbon and Look Carbo Pro, so rather nice pedals.

time ATAC on both MTB and road bike.

MTB pedals on all bikes, no faffing about with which shoes go with which bike, many shoes and many bikes and any combination is fine 

Question for those highlighting the difficulty walking in road shoes/cleats, how far are you walking compared to how much time you’re spending pedalling?

All depends on whether my chain snaps when I am 10 miles from home. That was a long walk home and very glad I had shoes I could walk in. I don’t take tools with me so if anything goes wrong then I am walking home. Have only had to twice in 20 years and both times was a broken chain (which was my fault for breaking and rejoining far too often as I was changing gear ratios quite often back then)