Road Vs mountain shoes (in my specific case)
 

Hi all.

So I have been riding for 3 years and my performance has improved a lot. I began using mountain shoes with SPDs as a more "newbie" option.
However, at this point I was wondering if jumping into road shows with speedplay zero pedals would give me a significant benefit. Of note, I have high end mountain Mavic shoes with a very stiff sole, which I guess helps with power transfer.

The downside is that I already have mountain shoes and pedals.

But if switching to road pedals is something that will really give me a benefit in terms of power transfer (and maybe weight) I would be willing to but new shoes and pedals. I though about the speedplays as they are double sided and just by hearing people around, seems they are easier to use versus the traditional SPD-SLs.

Thoughts?
Thank you all for your response.

If you maxed out most other ways to increase your performance, I suppose then you might see some slight benefit to what some call road cleats.

I get the idea that road cleat shoes are more finicky for your fit and people with them have to shim them to get the proper fit more so than spd's. But I'm not certain on that. Just seems I hear more people with road cleats talking about shimming and issues from it not being done right.

I'm happy with my spd's. Hoping that one day Garmin will make an spd version of the Vector pedals with power meter. If they don't do that soon, then that'll be my only reason to move to a three point cleat.

Since you already have very stiff shoes (which are more about avoiding foot pain where the pedal ends) the only way changing to road pedals will improve your performance is if they have a power meter in them.

Every shoe on the market is super stiff now. Probably not. Do you get hot spots where the cleats attach on long rides? Do your feet arch down as the whole sole flexes?

The benefit of the road pedal will be weight, larger cleat (so they can make it lighter and stiffer), and the road cleat (not speedplay) has a flat backing so it feels nicer when you're jumping on the power. It will not make you faster.