Mountain Pedals vs. Road Pedals

Is there a good reason why clipless mountain bike pedals use a platform that is smaller than a road bike pedal? I can definitely feel the difference between my SPDs and my SPD-SLs. So much so, that I’m tempted to put road pedals on my hardtail, despite whatever strange looks I might get. Why do the roadies get the big solid platform?

 

There are SPD Road pedals now available, Shimano PD-A520, I have a set on order, will let you know how they go if you like... http://bike.shimano.com/catalog/cyc...<>ast_id=1408474395181202&bmUID=1116393136410

 

I think it is to reduce the pedal body from smacking against roots and rocks etc. Mud shedding probably comes into it as well. I am using Crank Bros Candy SL's for offroad riding at the moment and they are sweeeeet.

 

and theres more room fro tread on the shoe, you realise if you use road pedals you'll have to use a road shoe and once most designs of road pedals get crap on them theyre not going to clip in propperly

 

How well do you walk in your big platformed shoes? like a duck, right? Try doing that up a rocky slope. Or on the lip of a 200ft canyon.

Its all about the tread.

 

Good point about mud/crap interfering with road cleats. As for walking in my road shoes, I have absolutely no problems. I walk pretty much normally, drive in them, whatever. This would be in reference to a XC bike - I don't spend a lot of time walking it around. Walking downhill in road shoes would certainly be exciting though, with their slick soles. All I'm saying is I want a mountain cleat that's larger than a quarter in size - a mountain specific shoe/pedal, but with a larger contact area. Lacking that option, using a road setup is somewhat tempting to try.

 

If you have a stiff enough shoe then the size of the cleat is irrelevant because the load is spread over the whole sole of the shoe.

 

man! you're spending too much time in those puppies! i walk like a retard in road shoes.
.
.
if it doesn't have wheels, it's broken

 

You'll regret using those road pedals on your first ride when you forget you have less clearance than conventional MTB SPD pedals, and your road pedal meets that rock!

One of the major reasons for the MTB SPD design is to aid with mud-shedding. Any bit of dirt in a road type setup affects the pedal/cleat significantly.

If you want a larger platform, try the ones with the platform/cage around them.

 

Sounds like you want some Crank Brothers Mallets to me. The performance of an mtb cleat shoe built into a huge platford.

 

I have an older model of Ultegra (spd) on my road bike and also Shimanos on my MB, don't know the model. I use my MB (Diadora) shoes on both. I first had the Roadbike and when shopping for shoes I wanted something stiff but something you can walk with so that's why I chose the MB shoes, then when I bought the MB I had no need for new shoes.

 

For some reason I started riding with Off-road pedals on a road bike and have done so ever since and am one of the only riders I know with this set up. I have double sided shimano SPD's so I don't have to spin the pedal at the lights, I can just click straight in.

Nor do I have any problem with the smaller surface area. I still kick arse in the group rides and sprints.

I think it's just personal preference.

 

Interesting. I'd say nearly half of the road bikes I see around here (San Francisco Bay) are equipped with MTB pedals. I saw quite a few bikes set up this way last week as well, on AIDS/LifeCycle 4. I figured it was mostly people that spend a lot of time walking around off the bike, and/or are rather new to clipless pedals and are not as comfortable clipping into a single-sided pedal with a slick-soled road shoe. That said, I rode with some very fast guys on MTB pedals.

 

I also only use MTB pedals on all of my bikes - racing/touring/mountain and now recumbent. My first clipless pedals were MTB and I tried the one sided road clipless and they were just more hassle than they were worth.

BTW - if you want a mtb pedal with more surface, look at the shimano m545 - can be used with or without clips, so it has a way big surface to put your foot on. I just put 'em on my recumbent, as I feel like a 6 year old learning to ride all over again, and don't want to clip in just yet...

 

I ride mtn pedals on my road bike as well, cause I had them and didnt want to buy new pedals. Come to find out without the rocks and dirt and roots.... mtn pedals last forever. I guess I just never noticed that I have less surface area, does it really help that much?

 

Road pedals don't have a disadvantage with clearance, they're actually thinner than mtb ones, and have chamfered edges to help. Bear in mind that road bikes are lower than mtbs so this would cause problems otherwise.
The benefits to road pedals are that they offer a more stable platform for your foot, because they use such a large cleat.
The downsides are that they're one sided, because roadies aren't anticipating clipping in and out as often as mountain bike riders do. They also tend to use a significantly higher spring tension which makes clipping in and out a bit harder, again because they're not thinking you'll clip in and out so often.

Personally I think mountain pedals are a better bet in situations where you'll be engaging and disengaging reasonably often, like off road riding or in traffic. Simply because they're far easier to clip in and out of. Road pedals are better for people doing long rides, or racing, because they're more supportive and have less chance of accidental release.

 

IMHO I think that stiffness of the shoe would help more than a big surface. My road pedals are small, similar to MB pedals. What about those eggbeaters they have very little surface from what I saw.

 

I am having a little trouble finding that a bigger platform would have any effect on really stiff soled shoes as are used in biking. Do the bigger platforms offer much in tilt prevention (think pronation/subdication-spelling-gotta-luv-it)? and how much do road pedals offer in rotation freedom? I have heard, possibly wrongly, that road pedals dont allow much in lateral and rotational freedom, and on a mtn bike this is an absolute nessesity as you are moving around on the bike so much and a little slop goes a big way for stability (odd to think a loose base gives you stability but it does). I doubt I would switch over just for the mud and having to spin the pedals to get in, but I'm interested in the theories of how it would be biomechanically

 

Last week I really got a great opportunity to test my road equipment (not to mention my body!) on ALC 4. Some of the riding, rest stops, lunch areas, etc. required more walking through grassy, sandy, or dirty areas than usual and my SPD-SLs definitely got more difficult to clip into as the week progressed. The SPD-SL cleats are obviously more sensitive to dirt contamination than my SPDs.