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I use Shimano M520 bog standard SPD pedals on 4 bikes - 2 road, 1 cross, 1 MTB.
They work brilliant and are yet to need servicing despite winters of use, and my current pair of M065 shoes have lasted a year of daily use including plenty of walking about.
Far preferable to when I used to use SPD-SL road pedals and shoes for road bikes and stack it in the supermarket and flats on MTB and smash my shins up.
But, on longer rides I do get some numbness I didn't get on the SPD-SL road pedals/shoes which tended to spread the pressure more and maybe have stiffer soles in the shoes.
Should I be looking for a pedal with more of a platform around the cleat, or a stiffer shoe? Or some sort of stiff insole for the shoe...? I'm in need of some new shoes soon, whereas replacing all my pedals would be costly. Could just replace the road bike's pedals for now as that's where the longest rides happen. Pref double-sided, as having some double and some single could be disconcerting.
Cheers.
Stiffer shoe works.
I use S-Works XC on the gnarmac bike for long rides, with Time XC8 pedals. If you're not keen on a 3 bolt road cleat, the only way to go is a stiffer shoe.
If it's on a pure road bike, however, there's no reason NOT to go to a 3 bolt, really.
Reasons not to are being used to 2-sided on the other bikes, not wanting extra shoes and having painfully fallen over on 3-bolt shoes in the past!
I might investigate better/stiffer SPD shoes seeing as that's the next purchase.
Though I like to be able to walk about in them with some comfort too. All of my bike rides are likely to involve unclipping a lot, stopping at a supermarket on the way home, and even on the road bike, some off road scrambling/pushing!
Maybe keep the bargain R065s for pottering about and go for some dead stiff ones kept nice for longer rides.
Definitely the shoes.
Road shoes are a PITA to walk in and 3 bolt cleats wear out in no time.
Touring shoes might work?
I prefer CB Candys for their small, but effective, platform. You can even tune the height with some additional shoe or pedal shims.
Try a set of Shimano 530 pedals , they only cost less than £40 and are the same as 520's but with a cage for added support . They will look ugly on a road bike but if that doesn't cure the problem they will be able to be transferred to your MTB when you need new pedals .
Stiffer shoes
When I said R065 above I meant M065. Current pair great to walk about in in terms of not wearing out and not hitting the deck. Touring shoes? I just typed 'Shimano touring shoes' into Google looking for an image to make a joke about how ugly they are but... these appeared!
If you're after platform support don't bother with 530s. They are cheap, but the platform offers no support with my Shimano am5s. I guess something like Mallets may be different, but all the cage does on the 530s for me is help location.
I guess this may change with other shoes, by the AM5s are a pretty deep sole, so I can't see many other shoes having much effect either. Will try and get a photo later if I remember.
Its the shoe flexing that's leading to hot-spots - you need a shoe with a stiffer midsole or maybe put a thicker insole in your current shoe? Changing pedals won't make much different IMO as the load is still focused around the cleat/shoe interface.
I had the same issue a while ago on the road bike.
Time ATAC Rocs sorted the problem. I did end up getting some stiffer mtb shoes as well (Sidi Dominators), don't need to get fancy carbon soled ones. Never have a problem anymore.
Had the same problem with the identically shaped M540s. Cured with a shoe upgrade to a carbon soled XC race shoe (previous shoe had been student poverty spec so not very stiff to start with and had seen a hard life). Picked up cheap as were an older model.
I had this and got some custom insoles solved it immediately