Which shoes fit which type of pedals, and what the heck is a cleat?

Lightweight mountain bike shoes that use a two-bolt cleat option also open the opportunity to convert to clipping into double-sided pedals in future. These aren't as hard to use as single-sided road ...

The pedals are a part of the bike that we don't give much thought to, but perhaps we should. Here are a few unique pedals we've come across, which show that someone out there has indeed been thinking ...