ebterp

Me and the wife are buying our first real road bikes and up till now have only used platform pedals..should we go ahead and go clipless with the new bike purchase or wait awhile and make one change at a time...

EB

Homebrew01

Ride the bikes for a couple of weeks with your current pedals. Get used to how they ride, hadling, braking, shifting etc .... Then decide if you're going to ride enough to justify shoes & pedals.

zac

I agree,

But talk to the LBS and let them know this is in your plan...They may extend an offer to discount some pedals in a couple of weeks and install for free.

mpath

What road bikes are you considering?

ebterp

Wife really likes the Bianchi Imola and I will be looking at something in the same price range, still have to do some test riding. We are pretty committed to doing quite a bit of riding.

EB

maverick31210

I think it depends on how much and how hard you plan on riding. If you're going to push around town to the store and back or whatever, flats should be just fine. If you intend to do some extended road riding, I would go clipless. For my road build I went ahead and got clipless and can't wait for that to be put together this weekend. I also ordered clipless for my mtb finally and will be picking those up today. I got tired of my feet slipping around on the trails. It became a real pain and began slowing me down.

98TJ

If you go clipless, install them on the old bikes and ride around clipped in on the old bikes until you get yourself programmed to using them.

You would much rather fall over on the old bike than your shiny, new road bike.

I actually put my wife's Looks on her '96 model mountain bike so she could get used to the pedals without worrying about falling over and damaging her bike. This allowed her to ride on something she was familiar with and focus on what she needed to do with her feet.

NCMTBIKER

I'd go ahead and go clipless but thats me....

DGozinya

Also, if you are getting fitted when you purchase the bikes, things like cleat position and such can and should be evaluated at the time of fitting.

JamieElenbaas

It's really not as big a deal as some people on this forum have made it out to be. Clipless is easy, so do it now. Compared to straps and cleats of yore, they're a piece of cake. Before long, you will feel naked riding a bike with flats.

You may as well do it now and get to know your new bikes clipless.

Brimstone_

clipless

urbanknight

I like this idea. The first scratch on a new bike sucks, and it would suck more to have that be in the first few rides when you forget to unclip and fall over.

iam93157

This might be taboo in a "Road Cycling" forum, but I will risk it...

My girlfriend eased into the clipless world with SPD pedals. I got her A530 pedals (platform on one side, SPD on the other) so she could still commute in regular shoes if she wanted. "Mountain" style SPD shoes also have more shoe treads so they're easier to walk around in.

Shimano also offers SH56 set of cleats which offer "Multi-Directional Release" and are easier to ease into the clipping/unclipping technique. After getting her shoes and cleats fitted, we spend 15 minutes in the store practicing and had no problems on a 30-40 mile ride that same day (on an unfamiliar route with lots of stops to check maps/cue sheets).

There was one close timberrr call, but she instinctively unclipped out in time

FTR, from my experience with SPDs, I have never experienced "hot spots" or a desire for more shoe-pedal power transfer/a stiffer road shoe.

mpath

That's a nice bike. I absolutely love Bianchis, and around here, so rare. My 2 cents....get clipless when you buy your bikes as you'd probably get a great deal, along with fitting them. Which means.....get the shoes at the same time too. Good luck, and let us know what you end up with, with pics!

bug230

I've never tried them but Speedplay has platform adapters.

https://www.speedplay.com/index.cfm?f...zero_large.jpg

Seattle Forrest

Get them now. The shop will probably give you a discount on anything you buy with the bike, and install them for free.

rmr1923

^ this

my road bike came with clipless pedals (found it on ebay) so i got some shoes and adjusted the cleats myself without doing much research. i was having some strange pain in the back of my right knee, and sure enough after having someone evaluate the cleat positioning and making some adjustments, the pain went away.

ebterp

Thanks everyone, all the great advice on here is something else. Since the shop is doing a full fitting with the purchase of our bikes I think it makes sense to go ahead and take the clipless plunge...I think I like the SPD idea for easing into clipless...any good reason to not go that route...

EB

Greg_R

If the person is comfortable riding a bike then I agree with you. However, there are people who are not used to shifters, road brakes, or a road riding position. There are also others who have trouble starting or stopping a bike with normal pedals (you see them on the bike trail all the time, swerving & wobbling until they get up to speed). Advocating clipless to that kind of rider is a bad idea IMO.

zac

Well no not really. Assuming, even that you will end up eventually going with the road (pedal and shoe) system as opposed to the mountain clip (SPD) route, by the time you get to that point, you will have "graduated" beyond your perhaps more entry level road shoes and pedals into something more high end. So give the mountain shoes/pedal a go, and by the time you are itching to go full road, you would most likely have been looking to up your first road stuff anyway. So no real added cost of switching over again.

Good luck and go ride!

Deman Llama

Here's a related question: What's the difference between SPD and road systems? I have been riding clipless for a while, but I bought the reversible block/clipless pedals and mountain shoes for commuting. (I have had some near misses where being able to have one foot out saved my a$$) I was commuting on a Trek 7.1 Hybrid, which I love and still have, but I just bought my first road bike (Cannondale CAAD8 6). I did a lot of riding on the Trek, and I plan to do some long-distance charity rides this year on the Cannondale. The plan is to learn how to ride, and then eventually try my hand at racing.

Anyway, what's the difference between the two systems, and why choose one over the other?

Mr Pink57

Agreed. I prefer to just start on them. Isn't not all that hard especially on the road unless heavy traffic.

bikerjp

I use spd pedals with my road bike and recently bought a nice pair of carbon soled "mtb" shoes that I use. I don't see any issue with them. They work fine. Might be a tad heavier than a true road shoe but what do I care. I got a good deal, they look cool and are stiff. My spd pedals are dual sided for fairly easy entry. Maybe someday I'll feel the need for true road shoes/pedals but since I have a mtb as well I can use the same shoes so it works well for me. Get whatever you like but don't worry about clipless. You have to make the choice someday so might as well just do it.

James1:17

Now

knowledgdropper

You should never use clipless pedals because it's 100% impossible to jump off your bike when you see an accident coming. Furthermore, if you are struck while clipped in, the pedals will actually grab your cleats even harder, assuring you of being dragged behind or under the vehicle of some wayward motorist. Not only that, but every time a cyclist unclips at a red light, a puppy dies.

Every morning, the world starts off with 97% more cyclists in it- as compared to later that evening. What happens to all those poor commuters, fun-seekers and wannabee racers? You guessed it- taken down by clipless pedals.

Consider yourself lucky if you're alive to read these warnings. Stick to platform pedals- well, platform pedals and good-looking cycling shorts. Ugly shorts will magnify the dangers exponentially. Don't even get me started on cross-chaining with clipless pedals, or being unfamiliar with "doubletap".... These FACTS come from the interwebz, so it must be true.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoy using Speedplay Zeroes on both of my bikes.