Spin bikes and indoor cycles come with different pedal types.
The standard is seems to be standard pedals with toe cages.
Other’s come with Schimano pedals.
And in the case of CycleOps Phantom 3 you have to buy your own separately.
And then some come with dual pedals.
What Are Dual Pedals
These are two sided pedals with on one side they have the pedals with toe cages and on the other side they fit specialist shoes normally using SPD fittings.
They can fit athletic shoes and specialist shoes.
Both sides of the pedal provide a good platform for pushing and pulling the pedals round and you shouldn’t notice your feet slipping. You can also get your feet positioned properly for the most effective pedaling.
The Cost
The bikes with dual pedals are for people who take their training seriously. (That’s not to say people who have standard pedals don’t take their training seriously.) The bikes because of this do tend to be more expensive that have these pedals due to construction and features.
If you are more casual about your workouts or training you probably won’t spend as much.
At the more affordable end there is the new Spinner S5 for dual pedals but you don’t get any feature or you can spend more for Keiser M3i which has a lot more added features.
Why Get A Bike With Dual Pedals
There are a few reasons you might want or get dual pedals:
Multiple Users. If there is more than one of you in the household going to be using the bike then this might be a good arrangement for you .
One person might have specialist shoes and take it seriously and another may or may not take it seriously but they have standard shoes.
For The Future. You may not have specialist shoes now but are thinking of getting them sometime in the near future – this saves you having to replace the pedals when you get them (which you can do anyway as the bike have 9/16 thread).
The Features. This way you might just end up with them. It might be due to the cost and/or features of the bike. You may be buying it for everything else other than the pedals and you’ve no choice.
This is often the case that you don’t get to pick and choose which pedals you get with the bike although with the
Spinner Sports range (S1, S3, S5) the bikes are similar but have slightly different features so you can pick and choose – they have different prices dependent on features.
In Summary
Dual pedals are great for you if you want to be able to use specialist shoes as well as athletic shoes.
Whether that’s because of who is going to be using the bike in the family or if you believe you’re going to be using them in the near future. It allows everyone to use the bike as they want to, so for those who don’t want don’t have to wear specialist shoes and those who do can flip over the pedal and get on with it.
If you’re circumstances are going to change it saves having to buy them later.
You can get a good solid pedlaing platform with them whichever side you choose to use.