In theory I ride mountain bikes, I'm a mountain biker. When I bought my road bike I put a pair of Shimano spd's on and ride it with my Specialzed BG shoes (complete with studs)

I can get the reason for wearing road shoes but what do road specific peddles (like Time) give over mtb ones?

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/road-bike-pedals-again

platform size … spreads the load over a larger
area and therefore helps to reduce stresses and strains on
the foot.

Pedals

speeling fail

If you're using a shoe with a stiff carbon sole it makes **** all difference[1]. Mtb pedals on a road bike look wrong though 🙂

[1]Although road shoes tend to be lighter than mtb shoes which makes pedalling a tiny bit easier.

But isn't the contact through the cleat, then the shoe?

Cook Bros are a clip and no platform

platform size … spreads the load over a larger
area and therefore helps to reduce stresses and strains on
the foot.

Mmmm – bit of a debate on that if your shoes are proper stiff.

How can the shoes be lighter? (relatively), the cranks are around a fulcrum with two even weights on either end, and once they've got my lardy arse on top of them it's the least of their worries

How can the shoes be lighter?

No tread, lighter uppers.

[1]Although road shoes tend to be lighter than mtb shoes which makes pedalling a tiny bit easier.

Doesn't really make any more difference than weight anywhere else on the bike – or indeed your gut. Pleased to see it's not only me pointing out that MTB pedals work fine on road with carbon soled shoes though.

As to road shoes being lighter – it does depend what you've got. When looking into new roadie shoes I put my existing ones on a scale to find that not only my relatively basic carbon soled Carnac road shoes, but also my Carnac tri shoes (which were what all the pros used when I got them) were heavier than my more modern Speccy carbon soled MTB shoes. A bit of research suggests it would be easy to buy fairly high end new road shoes which would also be heavier – it makes choosing road shoes rather more difficult when I'm struggling to justify them rather than sticking with the MTB shoes I've ridden on the road for the last couple of years (in the event I think I'll be going all weight weenie and getting the latest Speccy S-Works if they fit)!

My Bonty RXL road shoes with SPD-SL cleats are 200g/pair lighter than my Spesh Pro Carbon mtb shoes with spd cleats.

So by my slightly tipsy calculation I could save about 0.23521505376344086021505376344086% in weight by using road shoes over mtb?

I was asking about the pedal platforms really and what the difference is or is it a peak/no peak thing?

or is it a peak/no peak thing?

It's less important than that. Peaked helmets on a road bike mean either that you can't see where you're going or you strain your neck to see where you're going on you have an old man's position on the bike.

Thank god I'm 41, the riding position is sorted 🙂 I'll take the risers off now though. I honestly have no idea about road riding positions, this is the first bike I've had with drop bars since I was ten.

Doesn't Lance ride with a peak when it's raining?

If you're using a shoe with a stiff carbon sole it makes **** all difference

I've got S-Works MTB shoes and S-Works road shoes, there's a vast difference in the stability through the pedal. Road pedals are far better on the road!

What do you mean by "stability"? Do you have less float on road pedals, or just don't fall off as much as on your mtb?

My Bonty RXL road shoes with SPD-SL cleats are 200g/pair lighter than my Spesh Pro Carbon mtb shoes with spd cleats.

Sounds about right. RXLs in my size are 267g (note RLs are also 267g 😉 ), whilst Expert Carbon MTB are ~330g (they're a bit lighter than Pros). The thing is Bonty and Specialized make light shoes – if you've got Expert Carbon MTBs like me, then you're really not going to save any significant weight with a mid range road shoe from Shimano, Lake etc.

p.s. the latest S-Works road are claimed at 225g, and Speccy weights are normally reliable!