Reccomend me some road bikes ($1000-$2000)

[rayza]

this thread has alot of good advice. good read so far. as for bike choice, personally, i'd go for a scout around some bike shops looking for an 08 avanti giro, ive seen a few around in some south of the river shops, would be able to pick one up for sub $1500.

 

[Binaural]

I went through some Look KEOs with Shimano roadie shoes (midrange, can't remember model). I loved them, and then I switched to Shimano SPDs because I could not find any road shoes in size 52 in Germany and my other shoes were slightly too small, so it was not (originally) a performance decision. So I can see the merits of both systems

Hmm, tough call.

I have nice road shoes, along with entry level triathlon shoes. And having ridden a few mtb's with mtb SPD cleats and shoes, along with a friends roadie with mtb cleats and shoes (both shitmano). My experience is that roadie stuff is far more 'positive' engagement with the foot. Clipping in is near identical in both, I'm faster in roadie but purely out of habit, Unclipping is the same.

In my own experience, being able to just stomp on SPD pedals is a major bonus to getting off the line quickly, which matters when you're in and out of them a lot in the city and want to beat cars to the other end of the intersection. My Look Keo's required a bit of judicious probing to get in (at least twice as slow, with practice on both systems) but felt nice and solid after that, but in the wet they can be hard to nose into as well because everything's slippery and at an angle.

Also, while the 7deg float of the Keo's vs the 4deg SPD float means you feel less likely to unclip accidentally but also makes getting out from failed trackstands and the like is much harder and dicey-er. This is a major plus for fixies, though.

Mtb lets you walk around a little and most mtb shoes are a little less wanky, but my shimano yellow cleats are 10 bucks a pair off ebay and after walking 100m on concrete in them every day for the past few months I have not worn them down much, and the part that contacts the ground has no effect on pedal engagement anyway.

True, my roadie cleats were looking good even after a year and my SPD cleats looked tatty after a month. The benefits of MTB shoes increase the more you want to do things like go to the shops or visits and don't want to waddle like you've just jumped the fence at the local penitentiary.

Also any roadie shoes for the price, are far stiffer than mtb shoes and breathe a lot better. My tri shoes are fairly flexy compared to carbon soled road shoes, but very comfortable for all but climbing mountains for more than an hour. Otherwise no real difference, you can notice the extra flex in them under hard acceleration but otherwise they're the same as the dedicated 3 strap road shoes. (tri shoes are 1 strap, looser toe area). Infact I'd probably reccomend entry level tri shoes over road shoes due to the comfort and ventillation for shorter rides. Lack of lower foot straps means I get a bit of a hot spot after 50km. No biggy, also no need to adjust straps as foot swells with sweat/bloodflow etc.

In cold climates, too much ventilation can mean numb toes, although I admit Australia is not generally in that category. I got about equal hot spots with the road and MTB pedals, and I think the advantages of super stiff soles are greatly overstated anyway. A super stiff sole is not going to reduce the energy lost to flexing your foot bones to a noticeable degree. A stiff-enough sole will spread the pedal load over a large enough area to reduce hot-spotting and that's all it needs to do.

Pedal wise roadie pedals look 10x better, are much lighter. I can ride with normal joggers on with them (the peddles...) inverted. The engagement mechanism on most roadie pedal systems like look, shimano (all I've used) is much more solid too, you feel as if you can put every ounce of power down, with a toe down peddling motion, and your foot is 100% secure. The (albeit cheap shimano mtb86?) shoes and pedals I've used dont give me that confidence and I was cautious to continually keep my foot flatter. No faith ;p

Easily bunnyhop in both. I'd prefer the lightweight (and slick looks...) though anyday over easier walking when going from rack to showers.

Really? Roadie pedals look a bit big and goofy to me. I rode 1km every day from the gym where I'd shower to work on both SPDs and Look pedals on sneakers and found them fairly similar. Never found any difference in how much I trusted the pedals, both were excellent.

In the end, I think that the performance difference between the systems is marginal for pure power but large for convenience and style, plus you can use the same system among all your bikes if you want.

 

[Buriedpast]

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binaural, I find shimano road cleats extremely easy to get into. The motion of just stab your foot into the pedal is pretty 2nd nature. 'Look' on the other hand is a bit of a probe around and see as you said, because the locating tongue on the front is significantly smaller on look cleats, its easy to miss the front of the pedal. Between those and mtb engagement systems, it has to be personal preference though I spose.

I rather the beefier forward bracing and bearing surface of the shimano system, as I sprint toe down...not that I'm strong enough to ever have an issue anyway

All very notable advice and opinions though, should be well armed to know what to expect and what to look for when you go shopping.

 

[Adi]

Thanks for the very helpful advice everyone.

Picked up the bike a few days ago - I ended up going with the Avanti Giro.

The bike shop also gave me 460 bucks of retail stuff (of my choice) in store for free with the bike so I was pretty happy with that. For the 460 I got shoes and cleats, knicks, helmet, floor pump, mini pump, and the rear light.

Not too bad -I ordered the rest of the stuff from Wiggle.co.uk today so looking forward to recieving that in the mail.
Front lights, computer, saddle bag etc
As you can see in the picture below I am strictly anti- front/rear/wheel reflectors

First commute to work will be this Tuesday .

Cheers,

The three steeds: