leicanthrope

Is anyone familiar with the Dura Ace 7410 pedals, perchance? Are these compatible with standard modern SPD mountain type cleats and shoes, or is this something funky?

miamijim

Yes, they are compatible with the little metal mountain spd cleats and shoes.

dddd

Shimano specifically recommended ONLY the Road-SPD cleats for these pedals, and further recommended only road shoes (with SPD slots) be used with these pedals and with the similar Ultegra model. Even their road-going touring SPD shoes were not listed as compatible.

A third single-sided pedal from those years, model R515 iir, was designed for the normal MTB version cleat and shoe.

Problems with using the Dura-Ace and Ultegra SPD pedals with MTB-version cleats and shoes include significant release tension inconsistency and (with the Dura-Ace version) the plastic toe-flip ramp quickly breaks off when/if a treaded sole is used with these pedals.
Again, these pedals were intended to be used with road shoes and with the fast-wearing rubber "pontoons" installed across the cleat.

Having used these pedals for racing with good variety of road and mtb racing shoes, over many years time, I am very familiar with their limitations.
I actually fell off last year using such pedals with mtb shoes and cleats when I could not readily clip out, and broke my wrist.

One more detail about using these pedals with mountainbike shoes and cleats is that the release force becomes very dependent on any outward ankle tilt while twisting out, and also very dependent on the particular shoe's tread pattern and on tread wear.
The result is some ambiguity about where the tension setting should be set, with the minimum setting sometimes not being light enough even as the screws threaten to fall out from being backed out too far.
And further, there can be a lot of clicking freeplay between shoe and pedal as the mtb-style shoe sole wears.

I prefer the one-sided PD-A520 pedals for their compatibility with MTB shoes/cleats and their added frame that better supports the more-flexible off-road shoes, and there is also a more upscale version that is roughly Ultegra level if you can find them.

leicanthrope

The SPD-R cleats?

dddd

No.

SPD-R was much larger of a cleat, completely incompatible with any kind of SPD cleat.

SPD-R came later, and was dropped after only a couple of years iir, replaced by the Look-style SPD-SL cleats and shoe bolt pattern.

RobbieTunes

There was also a version of DA pedals, the 7401, that used Look delta cleats.
I've never seen the OP's versions before. Classy.

daf1009

Those pedals do look quite good!

Mr IGH

I have a pair on my road bike because a good friend gave me them with the pontoon cleats. He didn't like them because he found them hard to use. I wouldn't use them if I wasn't so cheap. They are the most difficult pedal/cleat to clip into that I have every used. And they don't work with my Keen cycling sandals so I'm stuck using a single pair of shoes with the goofy pontoon cleats.

dddd

The Ultegra and lower versions are bigger, heavier and have much better "balance" in terms of their willingness to be flipped upright.

Perhaps the special cleats will fit your sandals, sans pontoons, but if the plastic toe-flip guides get broken off as a result (assuming that they aren't already gone), then clipping in may become even more difficult.

Certainly the hard, slippery soles of most road shoes contribute to having one's foot slide completely clear off the front when the clip-in isn't successful on the first try, which is even worse than simply not getting clipped in at first.

A dozen years ago, I got pulled from a criterium race for trailing too far behind on the first lap (it was a figure-8 course), all because I couldn't readily clip into my Dura-SPD pedals after having walked across wet grass toward the uphill starting straight. The race included Cat-1's, so I had no chance at catching up before being pulled. This after driving 2 hours to the race start in Oakland.

What makes the 7710-style cleats special is that they are fully self-supporting, relying not at all on any surrounding sole/tread for lateral support or for taking up "slack" in the pedal/cleat interface.
But the pontoons can wear, and are part of the cleat stabilization, so need to be shimmed (between each pontoon and shoe sole) or replaced periodically.
A normal SPD shoe sole does not function the same as the pontoons, in terms of contact with the pedal, so release behavior is iffy.
Similar to LOOK cleats in this regard, and a big part of why road cleats have so much better release consistency, as it must be for sprint retention while allowing easy enough release when needed.
Any lack of release smoothness and consistency is a definite hazard to a racing cyclist.