LondonSkaters Speed Team - Speed Skating & Rollerblading Club in London

Curlie · Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2011 7:03 pm Subject: Bike Advice

so, 2 years later and I'm actually about to buy myself a bike. Looking at getting a Specialized Dolce Sport:

http://www.specialized.com/gb/gb/bc/SBCProduct.jsp?spid=52860&scid=1001&scname=Road

was seriously tempted by the Dolce cos it's LSST blue, but guess a red bike means i can have a new helmet too Smile

also thinking about getting some proper shoes and pedals (although will learn to ride again before changing the pedals. Really like these shoes:

http://www.specialized.com/gb/gb/bc/SBCEqProduct.jsp?spid=53984&eid=4927&menuItemId=10837

but have no idea what pedals I should be looking at. Any ideas?

Thanks

G

sol · Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2011 11:11 am Subject:

These shoes only take MTB cleats. I'd say, get double sided pedals i.e one side flat and one side with SPD cleat. Give you an option of riding in normal shoes should you want to: http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-m324-combination-pedals/?dest=1&curr=gbp&lang=en&utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=products

ed! · Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:48 pm Subject:

If you're coming to the committee meeting on Monday, I can happily bore you with details then? Smile

Curlie · Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 6:36 am Subject:

Thanks Ed. That's pretty much what the guy in the shop said. He suggested the Shimano M540 SPD or Shimano M520. He was pretty vague on why you'd go for the M540 over the M520 given they wer £20 more, and teh advantage were that they "may be slightly more durable".

ed! · Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 10:10 am Subject:

The guy in the shop is coming to our committee meeting?!

With regards to bikes...it's like buying skates - assess what type of cycling you want to do to narrow down the type of bike you should buy (mountain, road, touring, hybrid, recumbent). Any reason why you've chosen a road bike?

Once you've decided that, test ride as many different bikes as you can vary between manufacturers, models, groupset (gears) etc.
Things to look out for would be: you can reach the handlebars / brakes / gears comfortably, and that your position on the bike is also comfortable.

As for shoes...the ones you've chosen look fine. In fact, they're similar to my first shoes. Again, try them out if you can, as they all fit differently - Specialized are wider fitting, Sidi are narrower.
Personally, I would look to try and get something that has a ratchet strap at the top (rather than all velcro) as I think it holds your foot better in the shoe.

Pedal wise, again, depends on what you're going to use your bike for. I'm very much an SPD person as I like the versaility of the mountain bike shoe: the cleat is recessed into the sole, so you can walk round in it.
I also find that with a double sided pedal, clipping in is easy.

I did get pedals similar to what Sol mentioned on my first bike, but found that I tended to look down a lot to check which side I need to have if I wanted to clip in. I also realised that I would mainly use clippy shoes rather than trainers so swapped them to double sided clippy pedals.

On my current commuter bike, I have dual sided clippy pedals, with a wide platform (http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/Bike+Shop/MTB++Parts/Transmission++Gears/Pedals-+MTB/Shimano+Pedals/Shimano+M647+SPD+Pedals_423.htm). I got these in case I did more off road stuff and liked the idea of a wide platform in case I didn't clip in first time, but still need to pedal. They're also usable with trainers, though you can still feel the bump of the clippy bit as it's not completely recessed into the pedal.

On my Sunday best bike, I have the cheapo M520 pedals and love them. Not sure what the difference was between that and the next model up so figured I'd be alright with the entry level one.

dan_b · Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 2428

I'd get the M520 without thinking too hard about it unless I knew of some particular compelling reason not to: I've had them on various bikes going back about ten years and never experienced a problem.

Howard · Joined: 24 Jan 2010 Posts: 333 Location: W2 now init.

On my two commuter bikes I have A530s. They are excellent. They are weighted so that the cleat always faces up unless you flip the pedal over to the flat side, which suites me fine. They look kinda neat, too, and are excellent for off-road if you are not comfortable being always clipped in.

On my Sunday best bike I have A520s. Single sided ultra light SPD. Also excellent.

The main difference between M540 and M520 is that the 20 has a plastic bearing retention system that requires a special tool to remove. In contrast the 40 has a metal assembly that can be undone with a spanner, making them more straightforward to re-grease and service, which will need doing every couple of thousand miles.

Curlie · Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 12:07 pm Subject:

Howard · Joined: 24 Jan 2010 Posts: 333 Location: W2 now init.

BigSteev · Joined: 04 Jul 2006 Posts: 282 Location: London

If you like I can look into what deal we get with Specialized.

As for pedals, I run M520s on mine and they're fine.