best mountain bike shoes

Do Best Mountain Bike Shoes Come With Cleats?

best mountain bike shoes

While you can ride a bike with just any shoes, if you ride regularly you will benefit from the shoes that are specifically meant for cycling. When you compare cycling shoes to regular athletic shoes, biking shoes comes with stiffer soles for efficient energy transfer as you ride. Do mountain bike shoes come with cleats?

Well, if such a question is running through your mind, read on to learn more about these cleats on mountain bike shoes.

Biking shoes come with a compatible pedal that holds your feet securely on your bicycle. The clip-less shoe-pedal combination delivers unmatched control with minimum energy being lost in cycling.  

Mountain Bike Shoes

The shoes come with a reasonably stiff sole for enough pedaling but also have ample flexibility and a rubber outsole for better traction when walking on rugged trails. The cleats found on the mountain bike shoes are merely inserted into the soles to make biking more comfortable cleats makes biking shoes popular with numerous biking enthusiasts. The shoes may come with a lacing system, cam straps with buckles to adjust the shoe fit, and a rip-and-stick system.

As you go up the price, you are more likely to get improved components like light-weight, firmer soles, improved foot or ankle safety, extra rip-and-stick laces, waterproof liners, and many more. Some of these shoes also come with removable toe spikes to add grip in loose or soft grounds.

Mountain Bike shoes and Pedal compatibility

Most bike shoes are designed to use clip-less pedal whereby they feature holes that are drilled into the soles for attaching the cleats. Cleats fit into the pedals for the secure connection; however, you need to understand that cleats come with pedals but not the shoes and that your cleats need to match the shoes for compatibility.

Some manufacturers drill bike shoes to match 2 and 3 hole cleat design, but in most cases, the cleats accept only one or the other. You need to understand that it is not possible to modify shoes with 2-holes to match a three-hole cleat. However, a four holes clip system can fit into numerous shoe styles.

What Makes These Cleats when It Comes to Functionality?

The Two-hole cleat arrangement

One can use this system for all types of riding not only for mountain biking but also for road cycling, touring, and commuting. If you pair it with some shoes, the dug in cleat design gives room for easier biking and produces less noise compared to other cleats.

The three-hole cleat arrangement

The cleat system is usually ideal for road biking but can still be used in cycling up the mountain. The large cleat can spread the force in the cleats over a large surface area which minimizes the weight on the related points to gives room for safe traction when biking harder.

Clipless Pedals VS Flat Pedals

Finding The Best Mountain Biking Footwear

Note the pedal system on your bike

even though some spinner bikes features an optional both sided Trio pedals which makes them compatible with various cleats, always make sure you check to be sure before buying.

Find the right size

The best choice when it comes to size is to choose a cleat that is compatible with your shoes. You can even get the pedals that are designed to work with every spinner and make sure that you have an outer sole that makes it easy to walk on them. If your bike has 3-pedal holes, you have a choice to go for the shoes that are compatible with your cleats.

Choose the right cleat

Choose a cleat that will comfortably fit the type of cycling shoe that your bike has. When buying clip-in pedals, the cleats that fit those pedals are usually visible on the box. Clip-less pedal cleats are generally specific to the manufacturer. For example, Shimano cleats are not at all compatible with Look pedals. The only exception to this rule is that there are now two bolt systems that come with cross-brand compatibility, however; you need to check compatibility before purchasing.

The below cleats are the only ones that work with spinner bikes with either Trio or standard pedals.

Shimano cleats-with the fact that they are small in size, they clip into almost every pedal in indoor cycling bikes, but when it comes to mountain bikes, you need to check compatibility.

Look Delta Cleats-the cleats come with a 3-hole arrangement, and it is adjustable for optimal stability these pedals support Delta style cleats use. With all that in mind, to know which cleat fit best into your mountain bike, you need to consult your local bike shop since a tiny cleat adjustment can significantly affect your biking experience and comfort.  

This post is from footwareboss, He is a blogger & regular contributor of many prominent blogs too. Don’t forget to read his latest post about lightweight motorcycle shoes.