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Monday, August 27, 2012

SPD vs. SPD-SL

For somewhere around 15 years, when I've been using clipless pedals, I've been using SPDs. The first pair of clipless pedals went on Mindful Mule when she was the only bike I had and I actually used it up on Brown Mtn. So the cycling shoes I chose then were MTB shoes with the walkable soles making them incompatible with SPD-SL. And that was fine. Riding road bikes with MTB shoes and SPD cleats has worked totally fine for all those years, too. But eventually you're bound to wonder what it's like to ride SPD-SLs. Unfortunately it's not that easy of a switch. Well, it's easy but expensive because you've got to gets an entirely new pair of shoes that are compatible with SPD-SL cleats in order to try them. And since, as noted, the MTB shoes and SPD cleats works just fine you've got to really want it to make it happen. And then you ride some more. And some more. And several years go by. And you just start to get annoyed by that slight rock in the shoe/cleat contact point - that slight wobble. Add to that the squeak between the MTB soles and the pedals and just before you go completely nuts you decide well I guess it's time to give those SPD-SLs a try now. And they're great. Totally solid - stable. Awesome power transfer. A little less float than I expected and am used to but I think I can get used to it within a few rides. The release tension is pretty high even on the lowest setting and everyone around you will know when you click in as that's a pretty loud whack but, again, these details should be easy enough to get used to. Now how much time will go by before I test out the Speedplay Frog pedals…


2 comments:

Kristina said...

Sounds like you're a convert! I must say that the Frog pedals are tempting...

mindful mule said...

Yes, I do think I'm a convert to SPD-SL. It turns out only one model of Speedplay pedals is called the Frog and it's designed with MTB in mind but could be used anywhere - like any pedal. They've got a bunch of road specific pedals that look basically the same to me though and still have a lot of float I presume so, yes, those are tempting to me too - maybe next year. I think I'll continue to call them all frogs 'cause I like the sound of it.