I posted in another post what I am basically doing, but to sum things up. I'm new to the biking world, but want to try out a clipless system. I'm on a very tight budget. I'm trying to build up to a triatholon at some point (unless I fall in love with biking and only want to do it), but am focusing mostly on biking this summer. I use my bike to commute about 10-15 miles at least through Chicago (only one road though), and am going to start some 30 mile or so rides with a friend of mine.

I am leading towards the Candy SL or C which looks like it can be had for 60 bucks or so and the Sidi Dynamic road shoes. I kind of wanted mountain bike shoes, but I've re-evalutated that it is unlikely i'll do much walking in the shoes anyway. So I'm going to go with road bike shoes. The dynamics seem cheap and have the reverse straps which supposedly are a little better for getting out of if I do indeed get into the triatholon stuff.

Important I am not sure how to tell if cleats will work with certain shoes or not. And if I need to get special cleats for the eggbeaters to use with road shoes. It looks like I might from some posts I've read.

that are attached to pontoons. I am not sure if your Sidi's only have the holes for road cleats or if they can also accept the standard CB cleats. I suspect the road cleats will fit. But to be sure, email CB a picture of the bottom of your shoe and they can tell you for sure.

If you are on a very tight budget, bookmark www.pricepoint.com www.performancebike.com www.sierratradingpost.com and www.dealcatcher.com (dealcatcher almost always has coupons for performance and sierratradingpost). If you time it right, you can get a sale at performance while a 20% off coupon is available.

Next, there's nothing at all wrong with using MTB shoes and pedals on a road bike. The pedals that were easiest for me to get in and out of were Shimano SPD. I bought a nice pair of Shimano shoes on Pricepoint for around $70. I no longer use them because the pedals I had were very heavy, but they were perfectly usable.

I have found carbon soled shoes make cycling more enjoyable because nylon soles flex. This can lead to pressure points on the soles of your feet and a mental impediment as some of your energy is being wasted on flexing your shoes. However, as a first pair of clipless, nylon soles are probably good enough, but you might get lucky to find a pair with carbon soles that you can afford.

As for pedal systems, I've never tried them but users of Time pedals rave about them. There is a model that pricepoint sells for $60. I don't know if other retailers have them for less, I just looked quickly. Go to www.slowtwitch.com and see what they review favorably. Then see if what they say makes sense for what you want to do.

As for which pedals mount on any particular shoe, pretty much any shoe will be compatible with Look and Shimano bolt patterns. I believe that Time cleats are 4 bolt Look compatible.

Don't know if this is out of your budget, or if you'd consider something other than Crank Bros, but performance is selling a high end pair of Time pedals for 55% off

http://www.performancebike.com/shop/profile.cfm?SKU=15945&subcategory_ID=5245

Such a deal.

Okay, I've got to stop researching this stuff or I'm never going to get any work done.




I posted in another post what I am basically doing, but to sum things up. I'm new to the biking world, but want to try out a clipless system. I'm on a very tight budget. I'm trying to build up to a triatholon at some point (unless I fall in love with biking and only want to do it), but am focusing mostly on biking this summer. I use my bike to commute about 10-15 miles at least through Chicago (only one road though), and am going to start some 30 mile or so rides with a friend of mine.

I am leading towards the Candy SL or C which looks like it can be had for 60 bucks or so and the Sidi Dynamic road shoes. I kind of wanted mountain bike shoes, but I've re-evalutated that it is unlikely i'll do much walking in the shoes anyway. So I'm going to go with road bike shoes. The dynamics seem cheap and have the reverse straps which supposedly are a little better for getting out of if I do indeed get into the triatholon stuff.

Important I am not sure how to tell if cleats will work with certain shoes or not. And if I need to get special cleats for the eggbeaters to use with road shoes. It looks like I might from some posts I've read.