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A Saturday afternoon musing.. having recently sold my CDF30 which has doubled as winder road bike for the past 4 years, with Time SPDs fitted throughout, I have a Giant Contend AR1 coming in January, yippee 😁. So do I stick with the Time SPDs which allow easier off bike walking and the use of Spesh Defrosters, or do I pop a pair of Time xpro road ones on and use road shoes and overshoes....hmmmmm..
I have taken to using spd for everything, the small performance gains of 3 bolt Road stuff is pointless in winter.
I on the other hand am on 3 bolt road pedals for most bikes including the gravel bike.
Overshoes and wool socks keep my feet warm in the winter.
Depends if you think the advantage of 3 bolt pedals outweigh the faff of overshoes (or expense of new boots). I’ve personally never been able to get shoes & covers to be anywhere near as effective as boots.
Check out the Shimano touring pedals. Look more like a road pedal but fit two bolt cleats. Very lightweight as well for the price.
MTB clipless pedals for me - you tend to spend a bit more time on your feet in winter, walking into the cafe, standing about waiting for punctures / mechanicals.
I've been using the Northwave 3 bolt arctic Road boots for last couple of years but the pair I have were always too big. A brand new pair in the right size at a very good price finally popped up on ebay so bought them and sold mine. Turned out the new pair had been listed wrong and are the same size as the old pair, gah!
I do get cold feet on the roadie in winter so am thinking of buying a decent pair of two bolt mtb boots and using for both. They will need to be easy to clean, most don't sound to be as warm as the northwaves so am looking at them again. The raptors look to be discontinued, anyone tried the new XC arctics? The neoprene cuff tearing stories about the newer northwaves is a bit concerning, I see the XCs have a front pull loop as well, wondering if they are any better?
Sorry for the hijack @iainc, for what it's worth it's winter boots all the way for me, cannot be arsed with overshoes anymore
I went over to Time cleats all year round a few years back; no regrets. As long as you’ve got stuff soles, the benefits of road cleats are marginal. Whereas the benefits of ease of walking and clipping-in with recessed cleats are significant. And if you already have winter boots then that adds to the advantage, because as others have said they tend to be much better than overshoes.
Thanks for the suggestions. I think on balance will probs stick with the Time MTB spds on it.
I use Shimano SPD on all the bikes. Means Al shoes fit all bikes and you don't have to far around with the misrable things that are overshoes.
I have used Time mtb pedals on all bikes, mtb, road and gravel for decades. Cant see a downside.
I use to use spds on winter bike as I had winter boots that were ace. I've since started using spds on the good bike as well (not with the winter boots!) Because as far as I can tell there is no downside Vs specific roadie shoes.
I'm on SPDs on the winter bike and use my mtb shoe/boots. For the summer I'm going to try speedplay on the road next year
I stick to road pedals (Look Keo) but use roadie winter boots (with overshoes if it gets super cold).
I find SPDs give me a cold spot where the metal cleat sits on really cold days.