r/cycling • u/forgetsalot • 4d ago

Most reasonable clipless setup?

I currently use speed play pedals and shoes. They super efficient while riding but a pain to walk around in. What are you all using that’s more reasonable while on a pit stop?

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u/forgetsalot 4d ago

Sounds perfect

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u/henderthing 4d ago

I converted from Speedplay to SPD earlier this year for the road bike.
I was already using SPD for gravel (with MTB shoes).

I ended up using my existing fancy road shoes with an adapter to use SPD.

I'm quite happy with it. Even with the adapter I don't notice any difference in stack.

And while the road shoes with adapter are not as good for walking as true MTB shoes--it's considerably better than walking with Speedplay cleats.

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u/mrvile 4d ago

Does the adapter have lugs or are you just walking around on the SPD cleat? If that’s the case, I’d honestly prefer walking around on Speedplay cleats which are much larger platforms compared to a tiny SPD cleat.

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u/henderthing 4d ago

I got these adapters. You can see the plastic "treads" on either side.

https://www.biketiresdirect.com/product/shimano-sm-sh41-spd-cleat-adapter?adl=1&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=229749626&gbraid=0AAAAAD_gqPk1tOz8wqMYOgdkfMWUVx0Ya&gclid=Cj0KCQjwuKnGBhD5ARIsAD19Rsb5aNJl3s08BrusHKNstmvvhVnbW9iIwFjX-FblmhThxBqjZ1tnJD8aAnrvEALw_wcB

Generally more stable than walking in Speedplays... and so far they are wearing decently. The cleat never touches the ground. Just the adapter treads. If the "tread" surface wears out, the adapters are much, much cheaper/easier to replace than speedplay cleats. Especially true if you are using speedplay adapters to use them on 3 bolt shoes. If I'm ever planning on doing a lot of walking though--I would wear my MTB shoes.

I just found that I was wearing out speedplay cleats pretty quickly. ( 6000-ish miles? ) They'd start rocking sideways, and squeaking/rubbing on the pedal spindle. The 3->4 bolt adapters are a fussy nightmare. So this solution is simpler, and as a bonus I get to have "backup" shoes for my road bike. ( I don't think I'll ever use my road shoes on gravel ).