Advice on best cycle shoe options for a daily commute on my SS road bike..

A year or so after moving back to London from cycle friendly Switzerland I'm going to bite the bullet and get back into commuting from Hackney to Wembley.

First order of this plan is to sort out my ride which is a Condor road bike with single speed ready for the daily commute which according to Google Maps is 13.3 miles each way along the Grand Union tow path and longer in other routes. There are full shower facilities and bike lockup facilities at my office.

Couple questions
Cycle shoes or straps or clips?
I have had these old Maresi shoes knocking around for many years so I am thinking with a 26 miles daily commute I should investigate finally using these. Except I have no idea how! I've always used leather straps with vans on both my Condor and custom fixie (which strictly for summer riding).
A mate said I need to get plates and change my pedals. Is this correct? Where?
But others have said get some Nolook straps so I can continue to work my vans and use the Condor at the week for local shopping cycles etc?

I am probably going to get daddy road bike with baby chair for carrying my new baby on so less bothered about using the Condor at weekends like I currently do. In fact I may simply switch the Condor over to fixie depending on how the commute goes.

Any recommendations and experiences would be appreciated.

Route
Does anyone know best (quickest and safe) from Hackney (Homerton) to Wembley Stadium area or can recommend good sites. It's not a great journey NE to NW London but certainly a challenge to do it daily in my target time of 45minutes. I used to use cycle buddy site about 10 years ago...do these still exist?

Thanks for any tips, recommendations or advise.

Baggy

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Hi,

I would recommend clipless (I have used Shimano m520 on all my bikes for years now, they're ultra reliable and cheap) with MTB shoes, i.e. something you can put your foot down in and not be slipping all over the place/occasional walking. You could also benefit from some waterproof overshoes for the wet days, and if you're feeling really keen - gaiters.

Just some ideas anyway.

Your spiffing condor shoes would need road cleats specific to the type of clipless pedals you were using. New pedals come with the appropriate cleats included.

Obviously this would mean investing in new/ 'new old' stuff, but we all like that, don't we?

for winter and all the hazards it brings it might be worth having flat pedals, so greasy roads, icy patches / wet leaves can be negotiated without hitting the deck
it's nice to have your feet free in case touch down is needed

^^ Same as ds3000.

Double sided Shimano SPD pedals and cheap MTB shoes that are comfy for walking in. I use Spesh MTB Sport shoes for commuting.

I've just got some of the Shimano Click'r PD-T400 pedals for my commuting bike and they're not bad. The reason I went for these over my usual M520s is that they have proper built in reflectors.

Rode to/from 5-a-side on the PD-T400's yesterday (8 miles each way) and they're very easy to unclip from (much looser than the M520's even with the same single release cleats, I hate the multi-release cleats) but I never pulled out of them accidentally.

The main reason for the PD-T400's (or M434 pedals I had before) was that they can be used in normal shoes too, without having to worry about getting the right side of the pedal when setting off as they're the same both sides; the SPD binding gets pushed out of the way by normal shoes.

I've never had to worry about cold feet so I use the same shoes all year round. I never use overshoes either, my feet stay warm even when wet.

M520 SPD. Cheap and bombproof

Thanks ds3000 and Greenbank

So are you saying ditch the Maressi shoes and go for the Shimano SPD pedals? What are good prices to pay for them.

You can get the PD T400s for under 25 quid if you look around.

Save the (very nice) Maressi shoes for l'eroica or something like that.