MTB pedals on Road bikes

[Cello]

I have been riding with clipless pedals since 2002 and had bought only 2 pairs of cycling shoes until about a month ago when it became necessary to buy a new pair of cycling shoes. In all that time, I have used only Shimano SPD cleats. My worn out pair of shoes are Sidi mountain shoes. It was only when I bought my new shoes that I found out that most road shoes do not accommodate SPD cleats! Was I ever surprised!

I ended up buying the mountain version of this Shimano shoe:
http://www.teamestrogen.com/prodSN_WR40.html

The above shoe is the only road shoe I am aware of that accommodates SPD cleats.

I have 3 bikes, a Litespeed Bella road bike, a Gunnar cyclocross bike which I use primarily for commuting, and a Trek mountain bike. All of them have Shimano pedals and I wear the same shoes on all of them. No one has ever made fun of me for riding my road bike with mountain shoes!

I had originally planned when I bought new shoes to buy road shoes instead of mountain shoes. One of the primary reasons I did not pursue this was that I did not want to research and purchase a new pedal system for my road bike.

[nscrbug]

I have been riding with clipless pedals since 2002 and had bought only 2 pairs of cycling shoes until about a month ago when it became necessary to buy a new pair of cycling shoes. In all that time, I have used only Shimano SPD cleats. My worn out pair of shoes are Sidi mountain shoes. It was only when I bought my new shoes that I found out that most road shoes do not accommodate SPD cleats! Was I ever surprised!

I ended up buying the mountain version of this Shimano shoe:
http://www.teamestrogen.com/prodSN_WR40.html

The above shoe is the only road shoe I am aware of that accommodates SPD cleats.

I have 3 bikes, a Litespeed Bella road bike, a Gunnar cyclocross bike which I use primarily for commuting, and a Trek mountain bike. All of them have Shimano pedals and I wear the same shoes on all of them. No one has ever made fun of me for riding my road bike with mountain shoes!

I had originally planned when I bought new shoes to buy road shoes instead of mountain shoes. One of the primary reasons I did not pursue this was that I did not want to research and purchase a new pedal system for my road bike.

Actually, Specialized makes a bunch of road shoes that accomodate SPD cleats. Two that come to mind, are the Spirita and the BG Torch. I think Lake makes some, as well.

Back on topic...I used SPD cleats on my Trek 2100 for my first full season of riding. For the most part, they served me well. I even did 2 triathlons using the SPD cleats and a pair of Specialized MTB shoes. Was able to jog through the transitions wearing the MTB shoes, with no problems. I did, eventually, start to suffer from the dreaded "hot spot" issue...and ended up swapping out the SPD pedals with a set of Time road pedals. The road pedals have a much larger contact surface, which distributes the weight more evenly across the balls of your feet. But if you don't have the "hot spot" problem, then I'm sure the MTB pedals will do fine for you.

[missjulied]

I have a pair of Sidi Genius road shoes that accept SPD cleats, and I love them. I have SPDs on all my bikes, and it works well for me.

[Fredwina]

I also have Spd's on everything. makes it hard to bring the wrong shoes

[aicabsolut]

Changing to SPDs probably won't change the width, or Q factor of your road bike, because that depends on the cranks and not so much on the pedals. You might want to put shims in your pedals to accommodate that. Also, have you tried just moving your cleat position for the KEOs? It could be more a question of fit (angle and lateral and fore-aft alignment). That said, if you are using KEOs with cleats, some people will have knee problems because of the float (though the opposite is more common--having knee problems with fixed pedals). There are 3 different levels of float that you can try, red being highest, gray in the middle, and black is fixed.

[msincredible]

I had knee issues with Look KEOs that went away when I went back to SPDs on everything.

Love having the SPDs!

[merlin]

Cannondale road bike, Sidi MTB shoes--dominator?, Crank Bros eggbeaters: fewer opportunities to slip and fall when I stop in Old Orchard Beach for pizza or ice cream.
When I went clipless a few years ago, DH, who knows me oh-so-well insisted that I only get MTB shoes--perhaps knowing that in road shoe, I'd be at greater risk walking around than riding in traffic!
beth