General: Pedal recommendation

Clipless. I use shimano spd's and have no issues with them

Definitely clipless. They're scary at first; but the payoff is huge - a lot more of your energy gets transferred into the cranks, and so into forward motion. You will fall down at first - that just goes with the territory. Practice riding around on a grass field for awhile, until you get used to clipping and unclipping the cleats*. But once you've gotten accustomed to it, you seldom fall over; I do it about once every six months, and only when I'm at crawling speed.

As for the cleat type, that's mostly a question of taste. I could never get used to SPDs. I was never confident of clipping in; sometimes my foot flew loose when I thought I was attached, and other times my foot was fixed when I thought I was loose. I switched to Crank Brothers, and they've worked like a charm. I run Candys on my mountain and 'cross rigs, and Quattros on my road bikes. Unlike SPD, all the CB pedals use the same cleats (although road shoes use an adaptor/sleeve that guides the cleat onto the pedal). That way, I can wear "mountain" shoes on "road" pedals, and vice versa. Not two hours ago, I was picking up an eBay purchase from a seller in my home town, who said he was switching all his road bikes to Crank Brothers, just so he could use shoes interchangeably.

*It's unfortunate that the terms of art are "clips" and "clipless", since the cleat mechanisms are clearly clips, and clip/unclip is clearly the logical way to refer to the practice of getting in and out of such pedals. But there's 40-odd years of tradition that says "clips" mean cages that hold the toes of your shoes in place along with a strap; so we're stuck with it. The fixed-speed as street bike fashion just means we'll have to wait longer for that terminology to die.

Clipless all the way.
You'll be happy with it.

Posted By: eaglerockVittoria 1976

those shoes are so slick, i'd really like a pair.. though i am kinda wary of riding any shoe that laces up.

My favorite setup is shimano m160 mountain shoes (3 offest velcro straps and a little carbon in the sole) to crank bros candys.

I've got some old shimano 105 pedals that use slotted track cleats, clips, and straps. I'd never recommend those for street use

just wondering, how do custom nuevos compare to sylvans? besides having replaceable parts, they look pretty much the same to naked eye. do they ride better?

currently riding sylvans now, but in need of pedals for my next bike. will be used mostly commuting/possibly some track time.

I prefer the MKS RX-1's over the Nuevo's and Sylvans. They are smaller and cut better for going around corners and also are lighter.

function>fashion. i leave my boots at work. and i'll just hang out in my clipless shoes. if i'm going to be doing a lot of walking off the bike, i'll bring another pair of shoes.

Posted By: terrible_one49I prefer the MKS RX-1's over the Nuevo's and Sylvans. They are smaller and cut better for going around corners and also are lighter.

taken from Sheldon Brown The rx-1 is 60g lighter, 5mm wider, and nearly $100 more than the sylvans.

feel the difference in the bearings? maybe
bling? yes.
more pedal than you'll ever really need? probably

imo, i can't justify the price/performance ratio

Posted By: terrible_one49Anyway...I ride clipless w/ mountain shoes now. Much better.

you're doing it right