Quote Originally Posted by Rakekay
I haven't tried clipless yet -- I've only been riding for about three months. I'm planning on spending a good bit of the winter taking spinning classes at the gym, and I'm wondering if that would be a good place to learn to use clipless -- at least I wouldn't have to worry about falling over if I couldn't unclip fast enough.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Also, what kind of shoes would you recommend? Obviously I want whatever I buy for spinning to also work on my road bike, but that's just a matter of putting the right kind of pedals on my road bike come spring, right?
You'll get a bit of practice clipping in and out in spinning class, but co-ordinating stopping and unclipping and balancing is a bit different.

In terms of shoe types for spinning and getting clipless on the road bike it depends. You'll need to check what sort of pedals your gym has. The bikes at my gym have spd on one side, and clips/straps on the other side. I've heard other people on the site say some gyms have spd on one side and Look on the other side. You'll need to buy some cleats to use for spinning but then your pedals will probably come with cleats as well so you could always go for a different type. At this point the main decision you would need to make (if your gym has both pedals) is if you are going with a two hole or three hole drilling system - or get some shoes that are drilled for both.

I prefer spd type pedals on my road bike anyway - I have small feet and have problems getting out of look pedals or shimano road pedals. I've put spd's on my new road bike. The road bike snobs will probably scorn - but I see no point in putting something on my bike that makes riding less fun.