Pedal, Cleat, Shoe, Combos

[austke]

Hi all,
I am only new to this forum and loving it.
I have cycled for a number of years, But always using platform pedals and sneakers.
And now that I need new pedals, I have a dilema. How do I know whether certain shoes and cleats and pedals are a match?
Shimano shoes, cleats, pedals. is a match I guess
And road shoes with road pedals?
Where it gets tricky for me is, which shoes fit say speedplays or Look pedals? or will Shimano shoes only fit Shimano Pedals?

Thank Austke

[HUMP DIESEL]

Hi all,
I am only new to this forum and loving it.
I have cycled for a number of years, But always using platform pedals and sneakers.
And now that I need new pedals, I have a dilema. How do I know whether certain shoes and cleats and pedals are a match?
Shimano shoes, cleats, pedals. is a match I guess
And road shoes with road pedals?
Where it gets tricky for me is, which shoes fit say speedplays or Look pedals? or will Shimano shoes only fit Shimano Pedals?

Thank Austke

They all should fit. All of the shoes are meant to take each pedal manufacturer. Some better than others, but for the most part you can run any pedal shoe combination.

HUMP

[wingguy]

Shimano shoes, cleats, pedals. is a match I guess
And road shoes with road pedals?

Depends what you mean when you say 'Shimano pedals'. If you mean Shimano SPD pedals and cleats with the two bolt fitting they will fit mountain bike shoes and some cheaper road shoes.

Most any road specific shoe will have a 3 bolt fitting which will fit most any road cleat, such as Shimano SPD-SL, Look, Speedplay with adaptor plate etc. (Some road shoes will have a 4 bolt fitting for directly mounting a Speedplay cleat, but these will be marked as having Speedplay specific soles)

[Camilo]

There is no need to match the brand of pedals and shoes. Virtually all mountain bike shoes will work with all mountain bike pedals, and (with the exception below), virtually all road bike shoes will work with all road bike pedals. There's also some shoes that are compatable with both road bike and mountain bike pedals/cleats.

You just need to match the cleat with a shoe with the proper bolt hole pattern. Generally, with a very few exceptions, there are two bolt cleats, three bolt cleats and four bolt cleats, with two and three hole being the most common by far, both in terms of cleats and shoes.

All two bolt cleats and shoes follow the same pattern, and any two bolt cleat will fit any shoe with the two hole pattern on the bottom. Generally called moutntain bike shoes (treaded) and pedals, but some smooth soled road shoes have two hole patterns, and many people use mountain bike pedals and shoes with their road bikes.

All three bolt cleats and shoes follow the same pattern, and any three bolt cleat will fit any shoe with a three hole pattern on the bottom. Generally called "road bike" pedals, shoes and cleats.

Some smooth soled "road" shoes have both the two and three hole pattern on the bottom, but there are no mountain bike shoes (treaded) that have a three hole pattern that I'm aware of.

Speedplay, a popular road pedal, uses a special four bolt pattern for their cleats. There are some road shoes that are available in a matching pattern, but it's pretty common to use an adapters to adapt the common three hole road shoe to the Speedplay four hole pattern (comes with the pedals??).

[austke]

Thx for the quick replies,

All of what you all have said makes sense for me. Time to start shopping

My LBS is a pretty genuine sort of fellow, But thought it best to run it by you fella's first.
Now that I have a better understanding, I am hoping to pick up pedals and cleats online. And grab shoes from my LBS, at the very least I need to go to LBS to find out my size.


Thx Austke

[Camilo]

Thx for the quick replies,

All of what you all have said makes sense for me. Time to start shopping

My LBS is a pretty genuine sort of fellow, But thought it best to run it by you fella's first.
Now that I have a better understanding, I am hoping to pick up pedals and cleats online. And grab shoes from my LBS, at the very least I need to go to LBS to find out my size.


Thx Austke

Shoes are one of the only things I won't buy online unless (1) I know the brand and size I want or (2) I'm willing to try a couple of brands and sizes and return the ones that don't work. I personally wouldn't go into a shop and try on shoes just to figure out what to buy online, unless they simply can't or won't get what you need after you research there. But that's me.

[austke]

Thx for the quick replies,

All of what you all have said makes sense for me. Time to start shopping

My LBS is a pretty genuine sort of fellow, But thought it best to run it by you fella's first.
Now that I have a better understanding, I am hoping to pick up pedals and cleats online. And grab shoes from my LBS, at the very least I need to go to LBS to find out my size.


Thx Austke

Shoes are one of the only things I won't buy online unless (1) I know the brand and size I want or (2) I'm willing to try a couple of brands and sizes and return the ones that don't work. I personally wouldn't go into a shop and try on shoes just to figure out what to buy online, unless they simply can't or won't get what you need after you research there. But that's me.

Yes Camilo,
What you have said is/was exactly what I was hoping to do, if LBS is good enough to help find correct fitting shoes in my size, he will make a sale, cleats and pedals I am hoping to grab online.

Cheers Austke