Road Vs MTB Clipless Pedals- Which Are Best For You?

Clip-in pedals, clip-less pedals, SPDs, whatever you want to call them, these are a fantastic upgrade. There are two popular choices, the road type and the mountain bike type. The mountain bike type can also be used for gravel riding, commuting, bikepacking, cycle touring, and so on. They do the same thing. You clip in and you go, but there are key differences between them. For this video, we have partnered with Shimano, the world's biggest component brand, to show you the advantages and potential disadvantages to both types of pedals and the shoes that go with them. Now, we as cyclists have three main contact points on the bike, our hands on the bars, our bums on the saddles, and our feet that are attached to the pedals. We put all our power through those pedals. This is why it's so important to have proper cycling shoes and cleats that you fit into because they're really secure and they really help you push and pull down on the pedals so you get maximum power transfer. As we said, both types of pedals allow you to do this. You clip in and you go. They work by having a cleat, which is this bit here, attached to the bottom of a dedicated cycling shoe. They could be plastic, in the case of the road ones, or metal, in the case of the road gravel ones. To begin with, the front of the cleat rests in the pedal like that, and as you press down, a spring locks the back of the cleat in place so it's firmly attached to the pedal and remains so until you twist your foot to release it. Super simple, super easy, super effective. Let's kick things off with a deeper dive into the pedals themselves, shall we? These are Shimano's Ultegra model, almost top of the range, what with its carbon body here for lightweight, but there are much more affordable options as well. One of the hallmarks of a road pedal is that they tend to be single-sided like this one. In order to clip in, you have to be standing on the pedal the right way up. That's not hard in reality because the pedal hangs in a way that allows you to clip in easily. The reason for it being single-sided is partly to save weight, so you have only half the number of moving parts on the pedal, but also because, frankly, you don't need it to be two-sided. Once you clip in on the road, you tend to stay clipped in for a long time and so, therefore, you just simply don't need that ease of getting in and out. In contrast, mountain bike pedals are designed so you can clip in a lot easier. Because you're not on the smooth road, they are designed so you can clip in either side of the pedal. In terms of the disadvantages, well, because they are double-sided, it means that they are going to be slightly heavier, but really it's not that much. It's around 100 grams for the pair. There is, however, a much more significant difference from this design. You can see just by looking at them that there is a much bigger platform for standing on on the road pedal and, therefore, a much bigger cleat to clip into them. The reason for that is to get a really secure connection to the pedal for maximum power transfer and with no rocking. The mountain bike cleat is much, much smaller. Can you tell the difference? Probably not. It still feels super secure, but theoretically, you probably could. Now, this cleat attaches with two small bolts instead of the three and it's so out of the way that you can have normal tread on your shoe and still walk around really easily. This cleat, meanwhile, as I've said, is much larger and it attaches to the shoe via three bolts here. Apart from that, there really is nothing else going on on the sole of the shoe. These shoes ain't made for walking. Like the pedals, they're designed with one purpose, which to be as good as they possibly can be for road cycling, which is to say they need to be comfortable, they need to be lightweight, they need to be stiff, and that's it. Walking does not come into the equation. To illustrate the difference, we've come to a cyclist's favorite habitat, a posh cafe. In order to buy ourselves posh coffee. Hi, could I get an Americano, please? Now, while we're thinking about slippery, noisy, tiled floors, a quick warning about road shoes. They can be a little bit slippy and road cleats as well. I find that these ones with the little yellow bits here, they do tend to grip okay. Actually, if you are doing any walking, then these points here stop the important bits of the cleat getting damaged from wear and tear. Yes, road system tends to be quite slippery. Let's talk a bit more about cycling shoes. Just about all of them tend to be either two or three bolts, not both. Bear in mind that when you buy your pedals, you are also selecting the type of shoes that you can use. At the performance end of the shoes, they tend to be pretty similar. Most of them will have a carbon sole, which is pretty stiff. It's good for power transfer, and it's also lightweight as well. The shoes will usually have a really secure closure system on them as well, so it keeps your foot nice and snug and prevents any movement. They also tend to be pretty breathable. On this one, you can see it's got vents at the bottom there, because let's be honest, a cyclist tend to get quite sweaty. We don't want our little tootsies overheating now, do we? The difference is then the cleat fitting. An off-road shoe tends to have lots of tread to allow you to walk around a lot easier, and that does add a little bit of weight, whereas the road shoe is pretty much just bare carbon. You don't need tread on a road shoe because you're not really meant to be walking around in them as much. They also have lots of vents for breathability, so it's basically a shoe with a sole purpose in mind. You get it? Sole purpose. Oh, no. Is that bad? That was definitely a side joke, wasn't it? At lower performance levels, the range of shoes tends to widen. For the road shoe, it stays the same. It's all about the stiffness and the lightness of the shoe, whereas on the mounted bike side, they tend to become more of a casual shoe. The soles become less stiff to make it easier to walk around in, and some of them are even camouflaged as non-cycling shoes. What about gravel shoes then? In the early days, riders had to choose between a road shoe and a mountain bike shoe, but now there's lots of gravel-specific shoes out there like this one, and it takes the element from a road shoe, so the lightness and the stiffness of that shoe, and some elements of a mountain bike shoe, so the tread and being able to walk around in them and put it into one shoe. A gravel shoe tends to be a lot easier to walk around in. It hasn't got that big chunky cleat sticking out the bottom that you're going to slip around on. This gravel shoe actually has a cuff, and this is to keep all that gnarly bits of gravel from flying into your shoe and attacking your foot. They also tend to be a little bit less stiff, so this one is rated a 10 stiffness, and this one, solid 12. What about mixing and matching pedal styles with types of bike then? I'm currently riding my very lovely top-of-the-range road bike, and I'm wearing Shimano gravel shoes. These are the RX-8R models. I love the style of them, but there is something internally inside me screaming, no. It's not for performance reasons. They feel absolutely fantastic. It's more the principle of using a mountain bike or a gravel shoe on a top-end road bike. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it, except I wouldn't do it. What about road shoes and pedals on a gravel bike? It does feel good, and it looks quite cool too, but my only issue with it is when I'm riding off-road, there is a higher chance I need to get off and walk. At that point, it'll be a little bit tricky. My shoes and my cleats are probably going to get quite damaged from walking on the gravel, and they're probably going to get filled up with mud at the same time. The other advantage to mountain bike style pedals is that there are different types, with larger cages to better support your shoe or to help with clipping in, and even with large platforms on one side so you don't even need to clip in all the time. In terms of cost, both types are similar. The top-end ones are a little bit more expensive on the road due to carbon being used in the pedals to keep the weight down, but at the entry-level point, they are the same. With shoes, the prices also tend to be similar. Those are the differences, but what does it actually mean? For most riders, most of the time, the mountain bike gravel pedal system wins out. It's easier to use, it's easier to walk in, and it gives hardly anything away in terms of performance. In fact, it's hard to build much of a case for the road system except for the fact that for road cycling, it performs brilliantly and feels really, really good. I think one of the joys of road cycling, kids, whether that's your bike or your clothing or your shoes and pedals, is that it's designed with one purpose in mind. While it might be impractical for most things, it excels at one, and that is reason enough for me. Manon Lennon Definitely. Whether you're gravel riding, mountain biking, cyclocross, commuting, touring, bikepacking, this is your system. Ollie Yes. Whereas for me, for road, it's this one. Manon Yeah, I'd have to agree, but let us know down in the comment section below what you guys think. As always, if you did enjoy, give it a big thumbs up. Also, a big thank you to Shimano for helping out with this video.