Road pedals or MTB pedals?

m_m said:

If so, which are the best? Are the crank bros road pedals any good? At least with them I guess I'll be familiar with the feel.

Go with what you're comfortable with - eggbeaters are fine on a road crankset.

The quattros are prety good, IMHO (I use them on my road bike) but unless you need the platform for a bitmore support or the slightly shorter pedal spindles, standard eggbeaters work very well. I've occasionally used this set up for ease of use.

If you do end up geting quattros, you can still use MTB shoes with them, but you'll have to trim of some of the tread one the medial side of each foot, since the bearing on the pedal spindle gets in the way.

n

I agree that you should go with what you are comfortable with. I use SPD (mountain bike) pedals on my road bike for two reasons. They are what I had on my hybrid so I can use the same shoes, and I do quite a few event rides, where I end up getting off the bike and slogging through the dirt and mud every 10 to 15 miles. On a recent 75 mile ride, a friend of mine with Speedplay pedals spent 20 minutes at one of the rest stops cleaning the mud out of his cleats before he could clip in again. With Egg Beater or SPD pedals, mud in the cleats is not a problem.

Ben Jacques Maynes of the Kodak Gallery Sierra Nevada pro team uses egg beaters on his road bike. Good enough for a great rider like him, probably good enough for you.

I use the Crank Bros Candy C on my road bike. I have road shoes, so I use the special road clip on the pedals, and like the feel of the platform.

m_m said:

I'm about to buy my first road bike and I'm inclined to just stick another pair of egg-beaters on it - that way I'll be used to the feel, and get to use my mountain bike shoes.

Before I do that, is there a particular advantage in road pedals over mtb pedals?

If so, which are the best? Are the crank bros road pedals any good? At least with them I guess I'll be familiar with the feel.

Any advice/opinions appreciated.

I just made the swap from SPD (mountain bike pedals) to SPD-SL (road pedals) with the purchase of the new bike. I also had thoughts of keeping the old pedals and putting them on the new bike. I needed (wanted) new shoes so that tipped the balance plus the LBS did a great deal on the whole package (shoes, pedals and bike) such that it didn't cost me any extra (once I decided I was getting new shoes). After 2 weeks with the new pedals here are my thoughts (for what its worth) about going with road pedals:

Pro's:
Looks very very cool
Ventilation/drainage - my old shoes couldn't drain water, haven't got these ones soaked but they have a bloody big hole in the bottom and you get heaps of airflow.
Lighter - I’ve got no idea what they weigh and I’m not obsessed about weight but they would be about a third of the weight of my MTB shoes
Bigger platform area 'the marketing teams reason', personally no noticeable difference to date. Had hotspots on my first 25km ride with them, once I had the adjustment figured it was all good - never had a problem with the old shoes.

Con's:
[censored] to walk in - watch out for tiles and polished floors! (I know you don't plan to walk when you go riding but sh#t happens and if your ride solo....)
Harder to clip in - I'm sure as I get more practice it will get easier but the old pedals were double sided and if you stomped on them with the cleat it went in. Not anymore! So much fun going trough a major intersection using the mid-sole to pedal, swearing like a trooper, trying to flip the pedal then 'hook it' in. It cracks me up, about 1/2 the time I get it in on the first shot but once I've missed its usually a good 50 yards of playing with it to get clipped in.

My only other advise would be don't let a sales guy spin you the 'you can't have those on a road bike' line, make your own mind up. Who cares what the majority do.

I got SPD-SL road pedals on my road bike, and recently added Shimano SPDs on my commute/shopping bike.

I feel like the road pedals are more secure, but its not as instinctive to clip in as the SPDs.

I got the SPDs so that I can have shoes that I can walk in. But I would be happy with either pedals on any bike. Get good shoes ... they make more difference in regards to ride comfort.

Shimano SPD Road pedal, PD-A520: http://cycle.shimano-eu.com/publish/content/cycle/seh/nl/en/news___info/news/shimano_spd_pedals.html

I use both Eggbeater and SPD-SL pedals on my road bike. I prefer using the Eaggbeaters for commuting. I find it easy to stomp on the pedals and away I go. I usually leave some of the other roadies behind at the lights (although some of them catch up to me a little further along :p). I find using the Eggbeaters great for the highway commuting I do and also for the heavy traffic once I get to the city CBD. I reserve the SPD-SLs for the weekend early morning ride when traffic isn't as big an issue. Might be a pain to some people having to change them over but it takes so little time it's not really a drama. I'll eventually save for Crank Bros Quattros though.

I want to be able to walk when I get off a bike. So I use a set of SPD pedals. In terms of weight, at least in the Sidi range, the difference is primarily in the rubber sole in their MTB shoes ie. Bugger all. All other construction are pretty much identical. Of couse, you can get carbon sole in the road range.

Of course, if you are going to compete, then you may get some dirty looks on your MTB shoes. Yet again, if you can screw the competition with that shoe, then maybe you'll be able to start a new trend!
😄

m_m said:

I've been using egg-beaters on my mountain bike for a few years now, and love them. I'm about to buy my first road bike and I'm inclined to just stick another pair of egg-beaters on it - that way I'll be used to the feel, and get to use my mountain bike shoes.

Before I do that, is there a particular advantage in road pedals over mtb pedals?

If so, which are the best? Are the crank bros road pedals any good? At least with them I guess I'll be familiar with the feel.

Any advice/opinions appreciated.

Its personal choice. If you want to use them then go for it.

Larger cleats do spread the load a little better than smaller cleats, but unless you are racing, the difference isn't that important. Where you will get a performance boost is in getting a quality pair of road shoes. The difference between your mountain bike shoes and a good pair of carbon soled road shoes, should be quite noticable.