Road shoes for gravel - bad idea?
01-20-20, 03:06 PM
#26
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It's not a bad idea, but just have to consider what happens if you have to get off the bike on the trail. Could goof up the cleats that way. I bring cleat covers? Otherwise if I expect to walk around I used SPD.
01-20-20, 04:27 PM
#27
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I've been riding my gravel bike with road shoes and pedals mainly because I couldn't find wide MTB shoes to fit my feet. I carry cleat covers because walking on gravel (and pavement) really chewed up the plastic cleats, and like others said, it's really hard to walk on inclines with road shoes.
Now that I'm back stateside, I'm switching to Sidi Megas and will be getting SPDs.
Now that I'm back stateside, I'm switching to Sidi Megas and will be getting SPDs.
01-21-20, 07:58 AM
#28
Blazer of saddles, trails
I have nothing useful to add to this thread, other than that it reminded me of the opening paragraph of this blog post/race recap (not written by me) from a race that I did last year:
So I am sliding down this steep ravine and can’t unclip my road shoe from my power pedal and for some reason I am wondering to myself if THIS is rock bottom, or if it is going to get, like, WAY WORSE from here on out? Fortunately I was able to grab some roots and with the help of another racer pull myself and my bike back up to the rocky double track which was absolutely NOT appropriate for road shoes or road pedals or really anything having to do with a road. As I struggled to clip back in, my fellow racer got as far away as quickly as possible, probably and accurately afraid I was going to pull him back into the pits of dumb**** cyclist hell with me.
01-21-20, 08:14 AM
#29
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Lighter, sure...faster, maybe? Haven't seen any actual testing proving any actual performance gains for spd-sl over spd. You can get spd race shoes that are pretty stiff. Weight is about the only valid argument, but I'll take a minor weight penalty for the ability to walk and ease of clipping in/out. My next road bike will be spd, love them on my gravel bike. FWIW, I notice no difference in power transfer or climbing ability between my road bike and gravel bike, experiment of 1, ymmv, etc.
01-21-20, 01:10 PM
#30
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A sort of compromise.
I use single sided spd pedals. Cheapish, Xpedo I think. I actually can't remember the brand.
I don't have any trouble engaging them in gravel and only occasionally on really rough terrain. According to my scale, they're 260g, a substantial improvement over the 430g dual sided SPDs from 1999 I was using. Maybe the weight saving isn't that big with newer pedals.
I use single sided spd pedals. Cheapish, Xpedo I think. I actually can't remember the brand.
I don't have any trouble engaging them in gravel and only occasionally on really rough terrain. According to my scale, they're 260g, a substantial improvement over the 430g dual sided SPDs from 1999 I was using. Maybe the weight saving isn't that big with newer pedals.
01-21-20, 02:20 PM
#31
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So, all in all, I ended up ordering Shimano RX800 shoes, XT M800 pedals, and a Stages 105 single sided PM.
I'm really hoping that the shoes work out..I had an extremely hard time finding road shoes that work for me, and am hoping to avoid having to spend the $400+ on a pair of S-Works Recons. The S-Works 7 road shoes feel like they were made for me.
I'm also hoping that the 6mm of shims on my left side wont lead to an unstable feeling due to the small contact patch of a MTB cleat. On top of that, I'm used to 0 degrees of float and the XT pedals have 4.
I'm really hoping that the shoes work out..I had an extremely hard time finding road shoes that work for me, and am hoping to avoid having to spend the $400+ on a pair of S-Works Recons. The S-Works 7 road shoes feel like they were made for me.
I'm also hoping that the 6mm of shims on my left side wont lead to an unstable feeling due to the small contact patch of a MTB cleat. On top of that, I'm used to 0 degrees of float and the XT pedals have 4.
