Ultegra road pedals for off road/gravel bike

I recently put a pair of Ultegra carbon road pedals and Giro Empire ACC carbon shoes on my road bike.

WOW....what a massive upgrade. I am noticeably faster and the weight saving was huge.

Given that platform and many SPD pedal/shoe combos are pig heavy, I was toying with the idea of putting Ultegra pedals on the off road bike I am getting ready to buy (either a super light all carbon MTB or Gravel bike...weight is a main factor for both).

I like the Ultegra/Giro combo a lot and don't see why I would not like it on my off road bike.

I don't run in a lot of mud or extra dirty conditions and do hardly any walking, ever. I ride tarmac to gravel to off road. I raced BMX while younger, but at 58 I am not into jumps and tricks so much as getting from point A to point B as fast as possible. Speed and weight are my two primary considerations.

I am trying to find a reason not to run the Ultegras off road. It will sure keep things simple. Running maximum float gives me more play than I need.

Between shoes and pedals I am saving a ton of weight. If I avoid mud and do no walking why would I want so much weight on/around my feet?

Clipping in and out is automatic. I am interested in hearing (specifically) why I don't want to run these?

I am not being argumentative, I just want some tangible reason why running a super light combo is undesirable?

Thanks

Just got back from a road ride in the Ultegras. I rode platforms and actual toe straps for 30 years, so all this new stuff is so incredibly easy. I have to give credit to the developments bikes today are amazing. Carbon fiber was only a dream.

Having said that, I am glad I learned to ride on platforms (tiny as the were 50 years ago) and straps. And with no suspension. And on bikes that would be considred pure crap today, LOL. It made me a better rider and even though I am old this new stuff is easy peasy.

I think the concern about road shoes/SDP SL is they are harder to get out of than SPD. Considering all the ramps and jumps and crazy stuff where I live (which is apparently legendary in the MTB community) you would not want something as restrictive as a road shoe. The riders are terrible also...nice guys on $5k bikes but they can't even land a small jump properly.

Please correct me if I am wrong, I have been out of the game for 20 years. But with all the jumping, ramping, falling, walking, a road shoe is wrong for modern MTB.

Having said that, I ride differently. I raced BMX, but really my riding style is bike messenger, getting somewhere as fast and safe as possible. In my world a crash means you die LOL. You can still be fast. I guess I am just not used to a good modern bike.

The lowering of rotational weight certainly makes the bike feel faster.

Oh....I saved waaay more than 200 grams. I was riding heavy ass metal pedals with actual straps attached to a pair of prescription style walking shoes with heavy inserts in them. They weighed a ton. The shoes alone were more than 4 lbs. I dropped people with that set up too ( I told you, I am old school, LOL).

My Ultegras are about 250 grams and the Giros are 225 or so. I am like a kid in a candy store, I have a carbon addiction.

Lots of good stuff guys. 215 g, I like that....I probably don't want to know how much.

I definitely am going to want to look at MTB shoes. Tearing up my pretty carbon Giros would probably make me cry anyways.

Have you seen these things: Freakin work of art!

My 2 cents: as long as you don’t need to walk, never have to step on a rock or slick surface, don’t get them into mud, and don’t get them too gritty road based pedal systems are fine. But the cleat will wear quite quick if you get them really dirty (gravel/mud/etc), then you have slop in the system. I love a nice stiff carbon soled shoe and many of the higher end shoes have super stiff carbon soles to insure effective power transfer. People live & ride in different condition. I still have some Durace SPD’s that I keep on the road only bike.  For simplicity (& durability) I just use the XTR/XT pedals on everything else that could get dirty. 

Volsung wrote: "combine the walkability of mtb shoes with the inconvenience of single sided road pedals."