Looking for a road Bike

[TheAnimus]

I dunno.

SPD shoes aren't really that important. All they are doing is binding your foot to a peice of metal that it should always be in contact with. There is no impact, no heal toe motion that generates rubbing.

Mine are cheapo schimanos, about £45 iirc, they are scratched to hell, but still comfy and going strong. I do need to use my watercovers on them thou, as they have lost all their water resistance if they had any!

Edit: meant to add, get the ones that weigh more with the rubber around the SPD, this way you can walk in them too. The ones that are flat with no tread, just the spd are a pain.

[Biscuit]

I'm just going to chirp in and re-iterate the point about a sturdy lock. I had my bike nicked whilst locked up in an underground car park covered in CCTV last year and it still hurts to think about it

[kopite]

I`ve heard good things about giant Defy bikes as well.

Any suggestions on a good sturdy lock biscuit?

Ideally I want to go into Evans with a list of a few bikes and then try them all out and see which one fits me.

Talking with people at running Club i`ve been told to make sure I invest in Bib Shorts as noone wants to see my hairy ass as I am going along the road

[Biscuit]

Well mine wasn't sturdy enough so i'm the wrong person to ask

[TheAnimus]

A mate of mine likes his Abus U-Mini 401.

The rough, very rough, rule of thumb is D-locks, as small as practical. You can buy bottlejacks from B&Q for about £15, that will rip pretty much any lock apart in 30 seconds. the smaller the d-lock the harder it is to split like that without wrecking the bike.

Some people go for really small D-Lock and chain. Chains split with a 'pin' very easily.

I've been using an OnGaurd Mini for my front wheel, and a new york kryptonite forgettaboutit lock for the rear and frame. This has been for a fair few years parked in London without being stolen. Someone put their own lock around it once (apparently they come back at 3/4am with power tools, the city is empty then) but that is different story. The police were typically useless.

Always making sure you lock properly, that is to say through the frame and wheel, never just the wheel is important.

Ultimately any good quality lock and proper procedure will probably be enough. Sadly all you have to make sure you is that you're better secured than someone else.

If your in London the Met will mark and register your bike for free at one of their traveling cycle theft things. Dunno what its like for you, but worth checking what services are available.

Don't forget to look at having it as a named item either!

[b0redom]

I dunno.

SPD shoes aren't really that important. All they are doing is binding your foot to a peice of metal that it should always be in contact with. There is no impact, no heal toe motion that generates rubbing.

Disagree. If you're spending £1k on a bike, they're worth it for proper power transfer. With regards to shoes though, the first couple of pairs I bought were nothing special. I started off with Specialized Tahoe ones. The soles aren't super stiff, but the cleat is fully recessed, which means you can walk in them like normal shoes.

[b0redom]

Talking with people at running Club i`ve been told to make sure I invest in Bib Shorts as noone wants to see my hairy ass as I am going along the road

Bib shorts are also WAY more comfortable than standard shorts as they don't need to bunch around your waist. Check out the DHB stuff on Wiggle (own brand).

[b0redom]

I`ve heard good things about giant Defy bikes as well.

That's what I've got - a Defy Advanced 3, but it's outside your budget I guess. I know Specialized and Giant concept stores will loan out bikes for the weekend if you want to try them out - but I'm not sure if that's limited to the carbon bikes. Might be worth an ask.

[Biscuit]

I've been using an OnGaurd Mini for my front wheel, and a new york kryptonite forgettaboutit lock for the rear and frame. This has been for a fair few years parked in London without being stolen. Someone put their own lock around it once (apparently they come back at 3/4am with power tools, the city is empty then) but that is different story. The police were typically useless.

If the OP doesnt mind me de-railing the thread slightly, Im curious, how did you end up getting their lock off?

[TheAnimus]

Disagree. If you're spending £1k on a bike, they're worth it for proper power transfer. With regards to shoes though, the first couple of pairs I bought were nothing special. I started off with Specialized Tahoe ones. The soles aren't super stiff, but the cleat is fully recessed, which means you can walk in them like normal shoes.

But how do they have proper transfer?

Getting a good SPD mechanism is important, but that isn't the shoe?

All the show is, is a plate, and something to hold your foot as still and a close as possible to that plate. No fancy 'air' or any other nonsense, you don't want your foot to be able to move?

I'm not saying buy something thats rubbish, but unless your counting every gram (respect if you are!) I can't see the advantage that the expensive ones have over the basic shimano.

[b0redom]

But how do they have proper transfer?

Getting a good SPD mechanism is important, but that isn't the shoe?

All the show is, is a plate, and something to hold your foot as still and a close as possible to that plate. No fancy 'air' or any other nonsense, you don't want your foot to be able to move?

I'm not saying buy something thats rubbish, but unless your counting every gram (respect if you are!) I can't see the advantage that the expensive ones have over the basic shimano.

Not sure what you're saying? That he shouldn't get an SPD? The Tahoe shoes I suggested are no expensive, and offer a rubberised sole with a recessed cleat for walking on.

More expensive shoes have a stiffer, one piece sole, typically made out of fibre glass, plastic, or if you're paying a LOT carbon fibre. The stiffer the sole, the less flex, so the better the power transfer.

I personally use Shimano TR31s for my road bike and some generic shimano SPD shoes which I bought for my Tricross.

[Tumble]

But how do they have proper transfer?

Getting a good SPD mechanism is important, but that isn't the shoe?

All the show is, is a plate, and something to hold your foot as still and a close as possible to that plate. No fancy 'air' or any other nonsense, you don't want your foot to be able to move?

I'm not saying buy something thats rubbish, but unless your counting every gram (respect if you are!) I can't see the advantage that the expensive ones have over the basic shimano.

The shoe is madly important! it's as critical as a running shoe. When you use SPD pedals (other clipless systems are available ), your shoe effectively becomes the pedal. the beauty of attaching your foot to the pedal body also means you can produce power on the up-stroke of the crank as well as the 'traditional' down stroke. if the shoe doesn't fit, or is uncomfortable, you are going to, from a purely technical POV, lose out on efficiency and power, and from a 'normal' POV, it's just going to be uncomfortable, you'll get numb toes and blisters. The cheapo shoes might do you, providing they fit well. the way to get them is forget the price tags, try a load on and get the best fitting ones you can. If you can't afford them, get the next best fitting one. You might find a pair of £40 snibbo brand shoes fit better than the £300 super-leggera italian jobs...

[TheAnimus]

The shoe is madly important! it's as critical as a running shoe. When you use SPD pedals (other clipless systems are available ), your shoe effectively becomes the pedal. the beauty of attaching your foot to the pedal body also means you can produce power on the up-stroke of the crank as well as the 'traditional' down stroke. if the shoe doesn't fit, or is uncomfortable, you are going to, from a purely technical POV, lose out on efficiency and power, and from a 'normal' POV, it's just going to be uncomfortable, you'll get numb toes and blisters. The cheapo shoes might do you, providing they fit well. the way to get them is forget the price tags, try a load on and get the best fitting ones you can. If you can't afford them, get the next best fitting one. You might find a pair of £40 snibbo brand shoes fit better than the £300 super-leggera italian jobs...

Maybe it's my feet are designed for them, but I have quite flat wide feet, I never found a pair of running shoes that didn't blister within 2km until I was 26! (they did cost far too much).

But as I said before, a cycle shoe, metal plate. Your foot doesn't move, doesn't need complex support. It's fixed in position against that plate whilst the degrees of motion you have are very limited.

I'm not saying to buy something uncomfortable, or that will fall apart, just that I have found cheap shoes to do me just fine, I even bought some cheapo chinese no-name ones out in SEA $20, they worked just fine, no rubbing/comfort problems, power transfer was absoltely fine, but wouldn't recommend them for lasting a long time.

[b0redom]

I suspect as with everything else, you get diminishing returns past a certain point. The more expensive shoes will have a stiffer sole, rubber->plastic->carbon. The less it flexes, the more power is transferred to the pedal.

The shimano tahoe ones I had were great for commuting in as the sole was rubber (and easy to walk on) and the cleat bolted into and through it - presumably there was some el cheapo plastic platform inside somewhere too to stop the bolts popping through the rubber.

They're in a different league to the ones I use now though which are far stiffer (although much harder to walk in).

Whether I'd see any improvement, even a marginal one going from the shoes I have to, for example S-Works Trivents is a moot point as the ones I have now are good enough, and I'm not even close to the top of my age group in the events I'm competing in, and if I do get close a pointy hat is probably going to give me more of a boost than stiffer shoes.