Okey Dokey,

I'm fixing up my 20yr old bike to get into riding with a mate. I plan on upgrading to a decent 2nd hand bike in a few months. I can get my hands on a pair of riding shoes, which are Specialized MTB shoes. Like, is there any reason I shouldn't use them for road cycling. I'm never gonna be entering the 'Tour' or anything but they would save me the money on buying a pair of bike shoes.

Any thoughts anyone? Thx.

Hi Goughy,

From my understanding, the cleats are different on the two shoes. If your bike has MTN bike cleats/pedals than yes a MTN bike shoe would work. Same with road shoe. I don't think the two are interchangable.

Good luck with your riding.

Cheers
Andrew

You can put any pedals on any bike and shoes will take a variety of cleats.

MTB shoes take two forms. One is a touring type of shoe, with a softer, flexible sole and a recessed plate to screw the cleats into so that you can walk more comfortably. These are good if you tend to get on and off your bike a lot but the flexion is less efficient. The other is a light, rigid shoe rather like a road shoe, but with big plastic treads/spikes around the front and heel (and sometimes a spot to screw in big metal spikes) so that if you have to hike-a-bike up a steep gravel hill, you won't just slide down. The spikes are surplus to requirement if you're road riding only - but they won't do any harm.

You may have trouble if you want to put road cleats on MTB shoes as, depending on where the spikes are located, you might not get much clearance around the cleat, making it difficult/impossible to clip in. You can add plates under the cleat to get more clearance, but you don't want to add to much height there. MTB cleats are usually double sided (though some have a flat-pedal backing on one side, which can be useful if you ride in plain shoes sometimes, and some are four-sided, like Crank Bros Eggbeaters) so many people prefer them even on road bikes.

The second type of shoe you describe is what these appear to be. I think I can see to spots on the bottom (currently filled in with goo ) that would take the spikes. They seem to fit well so I think these will be a go'er! Thanks.

I have SiDi Mountain biking shoes which I use for road cycling as well as mountain biking. The soles are pretty hard and they pretty much look like road cycling shoes with extra "teeth". The difference being that the clips don't stick out, and I can walk on them semi-normally, as opposed to road shoes where you have to waddle like a duck.

Some people say that the soles on MTB shoes are too "floppy" for road riding and that you need the hard soles, but lets face it, if you're not chasing Cadel Evans for his spot in the Tour, or riding 200km a day, most people would say it really doesn't matter.

Best to go with mountain bike shoes (softer sole option) and mountain bike pedals, espically if you want to do some walking around scenic trail cycles.

Nothing is so ungamely as trying to duck waddle around in road shoes.

BTW for caffè latte cyclists /triathletes it is a cardinal sin to ride a road bike with mountain bike pedals/shoes

I have road shoes which i bought when i bought a road bike with traditional road cleats.
When i bought a MTB a couple of years later i then bought mountainbike style shoes (specialised brand). If i had bought the MTB first i probably would have put MTB style pedals on the road bike but road cleats are no good if you have to get off and push off road.

MTB shoes are heavier and less aerodynamic but my specialised shoes, which are similar to what you describe, have a very stiff sole so would be adequate even for longish road rides.

Happy riding

Tim

And don't forget to wax and get the latest pro team jersey.

I love riding past prettyboy cyclists with hairy legs and a generic jersey.

Tim

If not for the "prettyboy" bit, I would swear you were talking about me

No need to re-enforce the typical elitist snobbery attitude of cyclists

Hi Goughy

Just a heads-up ...

MTB cleats and pedals are fine on a roadie - it's how I started - but beware if you go long or do lots and lots of kms per week - as in HIM or IM training/racing.

The smaller 'footprint' of the MTB cleat and pedal tends to create more pressure on the underside of the foot and create a hotspot which may cause problems - especially if you stand on your pedals a lot.

The more 'conventional' and wider road cleat tend to spread the load a bit more.

This is a personal observation from a fairly big rider (I am 85-90kg).

Cheers

M