road pedals feel much better than mtb for pedaling. zero lash while clipped in- not vague at all. much worse when walking. also annoying when clipping/unclipping a lot but if your feet are mostly staying in the pedals and your bike is staying mostly on the road, they truly feel way better than mtb ATME
do they perform better? probably not much outside of the weight.
I used to give a shit about road pedals but nice Shimano mtb shoes and XT pedals give me all of it. Even raced some crits.
My feet are pretty resistant to hot spots so YMMV but the whole “one set of shoes for all bikes”* is where I’m at.
I only have a fleeting amount of time in I-clic cleats, but IMO SPD-SL cleats are the easiest road cleat to walk in, and the cheapest to replace if you manage to burn through the rubbery pontoons.
You can also get cleat covers if you want more traction.
My bar for which shoe to use is if there’ll be grit or mud when I’m off the bike. Road cleat/pedal interfaces tend to not shed muck as easily as MTB.
I only run two bolt anymore, but long days on the road make me miss the wider platform of the three bolt.
What? Look offers the most float in a road pedal (except Speedplay) and outside of stupid Speedplays makes the lightest mainstream pedal/cleat combination. The grip cleats are great. I still have a set from 10+ years ago that is totally fine so the Shimano durability argument is just a myth. Also I believe you can get a lot more float out of a Look with a red cleat than Shimano offers.
Modern Crank Bros is great, even better now that you can get a very expensive but extremely durable Ti cleat from Silca
That said for most people aside from those with super durable feet, I think after many thousands of miles on both systems that road pedals are a much better choice for ultra long distances because you can get a stiffer shoe and a bigger pedal platform (at least with Look and Shimano)
As far as shoes – this is one of those things like saddles where you use what is most comfortable, not what is lightest, unless you hate yourself of course.
in my dalliance with the Assioma road pedal bodies & cleats last year (using their Xpedo-made Keo cleats), I had cleat noise issues. This led me down a google hole of people posting all kinds of lists about which Keo cleats are quieter, how often you should lube them, etc. This is a problem I’ve never had to deal with on Shimano pedals.
No idea about mtb shoes, but:
cafe cleats make a gigantic difference in cleat wear, I thought they were dumb until I used a pair and realized that my usual 3-6 month lifespan for a cleat was more like 6-12 with little rubber bumpers
a bit more traction on the bottom of the shoe does wonders for preserving cleats - if you’re not grinding the cleat into the ground for balance, they last longer. I’ve added duct tape to the outsole of road shoes, and I think I recall Shoe Gooing new bits of rubber on at some point?
I never had much of a problem with the Favero/xpedo cleats other than the fact that they weren’t SPD-SL.
I have a great set of 2-bolt shoes, and I still strongly prefer SPD-SL to everything else. If I were “touring” or doing a lot of walking around a road ride I’d opt for the single sided Shimano SPD pedals. There are a couple models but there’s an Ultegra level one that’s light and good. The only downside is that they’re a tiny bit harder to get into, which isn’t a problem on the road.
Good road shoes and pedals feel more comfortable, cooler, more efficient, lighter and importantly for longer rides are less likely to cause me issues. I think they’re also probably cheaper to get into a really good setup like 105 pedals and RC7 shoes.
I’ve never had squeaking Keo cleats except when I’ve gotten them really dirty and then it is more of an unpleasant grinding noise. I think the squeaking may originate from the pedal mechanism rather than the cleat, and I use the carbon blade models.
Road shoes don’t have any tread, which is bad but not unforgivable. Road pedals, on the other hand, seem to all be one-sided, which does not work at all well with slick-soled shoes.
If I never needed to clip in, they’d be just as good as mountain pedals, but I banged my shins so many times during my six month experiment with them that when the cleats started to wear out I fled in haste back to atacs.
I’ve done a lot of hiking in high end road shoes. It’s not comfortable or enjoyable. They don’t give you a confident step anywhere. If there’s dirt, mud, snow or duff it will pack into your cleat and you’ll sit on the side of the trail with a stick digging them out.
You can expect to get “a season” or more out of a pair with significant unpaved walking shenanigans but they’ll look like hell and begin to fall apart. Buy cheap Giro’s when they go on sale and dgaf them into the yeet
I have a friend who lived on the fifth floor of a walkup in the East Village. It was one of those old buildings with marble stair treads that, over the decades, have worn down so they’re slightly sloped. One day he was carrying his bike down the stairs in his road shoes and he slipped and fell down an entire flight of steps. He got up bruised and otherwise uninjured but his bike had two flats.
road bikes are dangerous!
@featherduster were you on that ride where I shredded some SPD-SLs sliding down a hill on two feet while straddling my top tube? If not you then perhaps @Perlhammered witnessed this.
What kind of glue do I put on the back of new replacement pads in trp spyres?
I don’t totally recall this, but there have been many road shoe shenanigans. I made the switch to all ATACs all the time a few years back and am much happier for it.
I must have been ripping at 30+ and thought I took a turn too hot. We were somewhere in the vicinity of Keeler? Ended up riding into and out of the dirt on the side of the road (what saved me is that there was no gutter or curb), back toward the middle but now with both feet unclipped and my bike still between my legs–sliding. Brand new cleats iirc. Ready for the dumpster after one ride.
wut
none
the only glue needed in a Spyre is loctite or retaining compound on the threads of the pad adjusters, they are built with it at the factory but eventually it loosens up
if that happens to you just get new calipers, the effort involved to rebuild them is not rewarding at all
So what I think is happening is this:
Pads wear out
New pads replaced, adjusted
JRA pads jiggle and creak/rub against rotor
Could the spring be worn out? I didn’t think I reused the old one?
Endorse this. + Seeing inside (most) mechanical disc calipers and exactly how they operate is somewhat horrifying considering their importance.