Noonievut

For those riding mixed surface or mainly gravel (no technical single track) do you use road or mtb pedals and shoes?

Marcus_Ti

MTB. The shoes will take more of a beating and look better after, and will protect the cleat better--and MTB cleats are more durable anyway.

Only catch being, getting MTB shoes as stiff as road shoes takes spending some money....although, as with everything, it is the loud/obnoxious colors you find on clearance/sale more often because of popularity.

shelbyfv

I never thought to use road shoes/pedals off the pavement. Maybe someone who has tried it will report back.

sapan

I think mtb shoes are better, with road shoes you will have almost no grip on the ground.

Lemond1985

Why does any bike shop ever buy anything in the color pink? It has a 90% chance of winding up on the discount shelf marked "90% Off".

jimincalif

MTB shoes. Walking on any sort of off road hill is no good in road shoes. Been there, done that.

Spoonrobot 

I did my second or third gravel race on road shoes. It was fine, straight gravel road race. Then later on a casual ride I ended up having to walk a mile and half in those shoes after pinch flatting both my tubes, the second of which was after discovering my Topeak Peakini II Master Blaster had worn out due to grit between the plunger and plastic barrel wearing away such that the highest pressure it could put out was 25-30 psi. Not great for a 23mm road tire. So don't buy mini-pumps with plastic barrels, the Peakini II was done in probably 4-5 uses. Waste of money.

Anyway, so I walk a mile and a half in my road shoes so I can get off the gravel and ride home on pavement, bouncing around at 30 psi in my rear tire. Kinda funny to walk on SPD-SLs but it seems fine. I get home, take a nap, wake up and my lower legs and ankles are wrecked. Whatever gait adjustment was required to troop around on road cleats stretched the ligaments and cartilage in ways they did not appreciate. I ended up hobbling around for a few days before I was back to normal. Not fun.

After that I quit road shoes unless I'm racing at the track. There's no upside to road shoes for my riding. Course the first 3 years I never had any problems but like a lot of things, the further I rode from home the more classic road items I found wanting. It was a good thing too, the next couple gravel events had a coy organizer who liked to dissemble about singletrack on the course. Ended up with a hike-a-bike through creekbeds and up muddy powerline climbs that would have packed road cleats. Which brings me to another funny story, my first alley cat race I did was a couple weeks after I got my fancy white road shoes. So I show up and get paired with a guy wearing jeans, smoking a cigarette who ends up showcasing an encyclopedic knowledge of shortcuts in Atlanta. We end up clambering up all manner of muddy inclines, over and through a viaduct, lots of fast riding then jumping off and running around in the mud to save time. My SPD-SLs were packed and useless after the first cyclocross section. I spent the next couple hours trying to stomp the mud out if we were running on concrete or alternate between skating around on the surface of the pedal with no engagement or twisting my ankle to disengage my foot when we got close to stopping. It was nuts, folly of youth I guess

I don't know if you've ever had to call for a ride but if you do I think it's better to be able to walk a little bit to a safer/more convenient area for pickup. Or even just to pass the time. And it's a hell of a lot nicer to walk in SPDs than it is in SPD-SLs. Better on the subway and bus too, other stuff I did in SPD-SLs that is so much better on SPDs.

So there's a couple answers for ya, thanks for reading don't forget to like and subscribe [that's a joke, son].

Riveting

MTB, always.

Marcus_Ti

It isn't just pink...I snagged some last-season Giro Empire VR90 shoes in, well, electric blue for 30% off without even a coupon code. Because they were obnoxiously colorful. Less than the MAP for the Shimano XC7s they replaced while being much more stiff. Giro had several LOUD colorways for that shoe (neon orange, as well as grey/pink and electric blue), only trick was finding/guessing the right size.

LOUD doesn't sell...and if you can deal with it, save you money. Which is good...because MTB shoes are generally less stiff dollar-for-dollar than road in order to facilitate walking/hiking, and gravel-riding you usually want the stiffness of a road shoe but the tred of an MTB...which means shopping the $$$ "racing" tier of shoes.

mstateglfr 

MTB.
I don't own road shoes as i have no need for them.

I buy shoes online due to size and care most about cost, then fit, then sole stiffness.

$150 mtb shoes that are size 50, comfortable, reasonably light, and stiff for thst price range is good enough for me.

HTupolev

MTB, because the cleats that pair with their cleat interfaces are designed for tolerating unpaved surfaces.

I tried it once. The retention more or less failed on one side, and both SPD-SL cleats needed replacement immediately afterwards.

How problematic it is depends on the particular surfaces you stand on, though.