Pedal Help!

There are a lot of good systems out there. I am pretty invested in the the Look delta style of cleat / pedal, they are on the cheap end of the spectrum and work well enough. I have them on 4 of my bikes.

I have good ol SPD pedals and cleats on 3 other bikes. SPD is cheap, durable and works in recessed shoes for walking. I use them in my mountain bike, rain bike and tourer. SPD is compatible with many indoor, spin bikes as well.

All of my pedals are either nashbar or wellgo brand. I am pretty sure nashbar purchases from wellgo.

If I were to do it over, I may have picked the shimano SPD-SL system for my road bikes. The basic shimano pedals, upt to 105 level are pretty affordable.

Now, what kind shoes would you suggest with that system?

That depends what kind of riding you plan on doing. Are you doing a lot of walking off the bike? Do you use your bike to go places and run errands or do you just ride for fun then head home? Road oriented shoes/cleat systems are difficult to walk in and in some cases (glossy or smooth, wet floors) downright dangerous.

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by maydog
There are a lot of good systems out there. I am pretty invested in the the Look delta style of cleat / pedal, they are on the cheap end of the spectrum and work well enough. I have them on 4 of my bikes.

I have good ol SPD pedals and cleats on 3 other bikes. SPD is cheap, durable and works in recessed shoes for walking. I use them in my mountain bike, rain bike and tourer. SPD is compatible with many indoor, spin bikes as well.

All of my pedals are either nashbar or wellgo brand. I am pretty sure nashbar purchases from wellgo.

If I were to do it over, I may have picked the shimano SPD-SL system for my road bikes. The basic shimano pedals, upt to 105 level are pretty affordable.

105 pedals are the sweet spot in the price vs. performance deal.

Many if not most SPDs let you clip in from either side, which is another advantage they have, though I prefer the wider platform of SPD-SL. One sided entry just takes a little practice.

I agree about the Shimano 105's but they're kind of expensive if you want a strict budget pedal, those cost around $90. If you want a truly low cost pedal for a tight budget the Wellgo makes a Shimano compatible SPD pedal for just $21, see: http://www.amazon.com/Lightweight-Shimano-Wellgo-Road-Pedals/dp/B005ZSD888; or you can get a better pedal then that one made by Wellgo too, see: http://www.amazon.com/Shimano-Sealed-Bearing-Pedals-Wellgo/dp/B005ZS47C4. If getting a pedal from a brand you don't recognize scares you, though they do have high reviews, then Shimano has this: http://www.amazon.com/Shimano-PD-A520-Sport-SPD-Pedal/dp/B000YB31II

If you're not racing or going for max performance which means you don't have an expensive bike, but lets say your bike is in the $800 range there is no need to have $90 pedals, pedals should not cost 10% of the value of the bike! If you have a $800 range bike with components that are below the 105 level then you should look at less expensive pedals than 105. There is better places to put your money on a bike to give you a bit better performance than pedals.

Shimano introduced carbon bodied 105s recently. Many shops and online dealers still have the previous models in stock, and they can be heavily discounted, especially online. Shimano also has a new low price model, R-550, which are more like the older 105s than the 540s.

I actually just bought a set of R550s. The pedal body is visually identical to the carbon 105s, they are also some type of composite. The spindle is the cheaper design used on the rest of Shimano's lower end pedals and from what I read they have one less bearing or something like that. 105s didn't look worth the price difference. R550's can be had for $55 from Nashbar vs the 105s $81. The 105 is a meaningless 25g lighter.