I'm one of the rare breeds that uses road pedals and shoes when road touring. I bring along an old pair of sneakers in my panniers. The nice part is if the cleat fails for any reason, the pedal itself is a better platform to use with sneakers, at least compared to SPDs.
SPDs when bikepacking. Only one pair of shoes total, one of those hybrid sneakers with SPD cleat on bottom. Bikepacking makes it harder to carry large items, like spare shoes, without racks and traditional panniers.
I'd love to see an in-between solution. Like...a thin "platform" pedal with a standardized shape (I picture something like a squared-off figure eight), and firm shoes with the exact same shape cut into the bottom of the outsole. So the pedal rests in the notch in your shoe, which means you can kinda-sorta kick forward and pull back, but can't pull upwards. Your foot also won't slide off easily.
In the end, you'd get some engagement with the pedal, with no moving parts and without having to bring an extra pair of shoes. And if you don't have your bike shoes? It's still a platform pedal.
For slightly more engagement, maybe put Velcro on the pedal and the shoe?
Last edited by BlarneyHammer; 01-07-19 at 12:27 AM.