” is it that hard to ride on a pair like the M530 without shoes? I cant really see a benefit either way.”

It is surprisingly hard. Both sandals and tennis shoes deform a lot when you’re trying to use them with SPD pedals. It can also be kind of dangerous since they’ll tend to slip off. You can do it for short rides, but you’ll hate it for longer rides. I used Decksters a couple of years, and they work well, but are a bit of a pain to get on and off. I’m considering M985s this year.

Wasn’t it the Go-Gos who sang “Our Clips are Sealed”?

My vote is for some sort of SPD compatible pedals, sandals, and a spare set of cleatsand bolts in the tool kit (yes the bolt heads on your cleats can wear off if you traipse around enough).

Are there any more terrible puns out their or is everyone “two tired” to think of any.

Bored and waiting for the ride.

See you in July!

I’m going to try touring shoes/pedals. Shimano makes shoes that are basically road shoes but have recessed SPD capabilities. They also have a couple of touring pedals. Should start riding with them tomorrow, so we’ll see how it goes.

I use road shoes and pedals. Shimano SPD-Ls (DuraAce). Someone told me the L stood for Lance since they designed them for his preferences. The mountain bike pedals are just SPD. Once you get use to walking in them, its not a big deal and I don’t destroy them in a week on RAGBRAI. I replace the heal plate on my Sidi carbon shoes right before RAGBRAI which seems to help walking.

The benefit is that no hot-spots on the bottom of your foot develops when riding longer distances. I’d rather have my feet feel good while riding then worry about walking around

Guess I’m lucky. Never had a hot spot with larger platform SPD compat. pedals. And I get to walk around.

Iceman

I was talking about hot-spots SPD pedals of the offroad style. Not the road version SPD-Ls which are more similar to Look pedals then SPD off-road pedals. Maybe I got out of off-road riding so long ago they have more then one platform size of off-road SPDs now and I don’t know it.

I should have been clear in my 1st post that you get used to walking in road shoes. I’ve never had trouble walking in them. The SPD-L cleats are wide at the base and have rubber patches in each corner, making them more walkable then some other road cleats.

There’s always one (or two….mootsman beat me to it) person why says the exact opposite of the crowd. I guess that’s me today.

Yes, the walking-cleat design of SPD’s or ATAC’s do serve one somewhat better on RAGBRAI. However, don’t discount road cleats/shoes. Sure, you do have to learn to walk in them comfortably and you will beat the cleats up a bit, but being that it’s 1 hour off the bike for 5 hours on it, I feel that the tradeoff is worth it. Most road shoes are light, very very well vented, and stiffer than a board. If you still don’t want to hoof around in cleats, get a 3$ pair of sandals and stuff them in your jersey pocket. Problem really solved.

We’ve done it twice on arguably the worst walking system out there: SpeedPlay Zero’s. Other than some mud to clean out of the cleats, we had no problems with it.

See ya in 129 days!
-Team Pink

I’ll throw my vote toward road shoes / pedals.
My road shoes (Specialized BG’s) on Shimano 105 road pedals are just much more comfortable than my Pearlizumi MTB shoes on Shimano SPD MTB Pedals.

The Shimano road cleats are not too bad for walking.

The PI shoes get really uncomfortable after about 90 minutes in the saddle.

One option that hasn’t been mentioned… and would be really tempting on RAGBRAI:
Somebody makes a flat aluminum platform that clips into an SPD MTB pedal and gives you a really wide (and grippy) surface for riding your SPD MTB pedals with street shoes. I wouldn’t want to do the whole ride on this, but for an evening dinner / grocery run, it would be great.

For me, destroying a $15 pair of cleats in a week is not a big deal compared to the other expenses of getting to / through RAGBRAI. I destroy a couple of sets/year in training anyway.

I highly recommend that you carry spare cleats and hardware, because many of the vendors will sell out of the popular ones after a couple of days.

I also like road shoes/cleats. Put a new set of cleats on before starting out on Ragbrai and yes, you will need to replace them after the ride. But as was mentioned, the cost for a new set of cleats is pretty small compared to other costs associated with this ride.

I’ll stick with the sandels, when it rains they dry out a lot faster plus no wet socks to ferment in the luggage diring the week. It’s bad enough by the end as it is. And for me it’s probably close to 50/50 on-off the bike during the day. all the short days thins year might be more time off than on.

This year I’ve given up on sandals (Shimano) and am experimenting with MB shoes. I was having nasty foot & leg cramping issues the past two years. I believe the cramping may have been caused by too much flex in my sandals. so far this spring, I’ve switched to MTB shoes. With the shoes, I’ve had no cramping problems. I have a Kentucky century to ride on April 13. I figure, I’ll have my answer by the end of that day!!!!!

that’s cause you had those 3 strapes there Mich. Last year any cramping for me probably had more to do with the heat /getting a little dehyreated and low on electrolytes and such.

“One option that hasn’t been mentioned… and would be really tempting on RAGBRAI:
Somebody makes a flat aluminum platform that clips into an SPD MTB pedal and gives you a really wide (and grippy) surface for riding your SPD MTB pedals with street shoes. I wouldn’t want to do the whole ride on this, but for an evening dinner / grocery run, it would be great.”

These are Decksters. I mentioned them.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – ride RAGBRAI like you ride the other 51 weeks of the year. I use mountain pedals year-round so I use them on RAGBRAI. If you use road pedals, ride with them. Go with what you know. It’s not a career – it’s 7 friggin’ days. Don’t over-analyze it.