[camilo]

Originally Posted by Jeriatric

thanks brian (and all)

i've heard almost equally on both, the mtb shoe and road bike shoe, advantages and disadvantages.

from the e-mails and responses i have received, the advantages favor road bike shoes if riding in the 100 miles a week range (i easily do that in the couple of weeks preceding the bike tours), also, the road shoes are a plus if there is serious hill climbing. the disadvantages of road shoes is there use off the bike (and price).

the advantages of mtb shoes is there ease of getting in and out of the spd pedals, their comfort off the bike and their price. after riding for so long with toe clips, the look of the mtb shoe is not an issue with me.:-)

what i've decided is to buy the used sidi genius road bike shoe with red cleats and the used dura ace 7810 pedals.

also....

buy a used pair of used mtb shoes with spd pedals.

great decision making jeriatric!:-)

i figure i will be giving it my best shot this year and maybe a couple more years afterwards, tops. after that, i'll be a 50 mile a week or less cruiser who will walk up more hills than he climbs on a bike.

i would like to do one century before mother nature gets serious about her restraints (last year i came within 11 miles....oh so close). i think the road shoes, pedals and my new lower chain gears give me my best chance at the 40 plus mile tours and coming closer to doing a century (i can do a century now....but there are these rules about doing it inside of 24 hours:-)).

i'll be looking for used (sidi?) mtb shoes and spd pedals on craigslist. by april, i should have both sets if i'm lucky.

many thanks to all for all the info.

First of all, that 100 miles a week is a meaningless factor. It's not a lot of riding and you'll never notice any supposed advantage that road shoes/pedals bring in on the length of ride you're doing that add up to 100 miles in a week (in other words 50 miles or less). IF (BIG IF) there is an advantage to road shoes, it might come into play with longeer rides, but never for rides that add up to 100 miles a week. IMHO of course.

Having used spd pedals and MTB shoes for 15 years before switching to "real" road shoes (Sidi Genius) and pedals (Time) a year or two ago, I can honestly say that - FOR ME - there's no functional differnce. I've never had a "hot spot" or any sorness due to the SPD pedals. I have no more or less "power" or "hill climbing ability" with either set up. I think for 99.9% of recreational riders, even serious ones, there are no noticable disadvantages to using MTB shoes and SPD pedals. Except maybe weight, but again, that's probably not noticable at all.

I would always recommend MTB shoes and pedals to everyone starting out with automatic pedals, unless they just want to have dedicated road gear with the relatively small advantages (weight, and even less so, "power transfer") and quite a bit larger disadvantages (walkability)