Road Cycling - da Shoe education thread

I did a search, only looked at the first three pages returned and didn't find enough, so...

Edumacate me on shoooooes :D

My shoes -- Diadora Leggera -- are quickly breaking down. The hot spots aren't bad, but they're much worse than a few months ago. I'm gonna guess they have a cheap sole?

What should I look for? What kind of material on the sole? Other factors?

I picked up some Cat 3 (?) at the lbs yesterday and tried to bend them. Zero flex. Sounds good, right? Well, the popular shimano and sidi brands which everyone seems to love -- and are about twice as much $ -- bend more than the Cat's.

Oh, I know fit is critical, but just cuz a shoe feels good in the store doesn't necessarily mean it's right for me.

So, any feedback on the bigger picture of shoes or a link that can teach me about the different aspects would be appreciated.

I thank you. My feet thank you. And Meatwad thanks you.

You sound pretty experienced, so just a couple things...

Shoes are like production bikes - not all brands are gonna fit you. Buy what fits.

Having said that, stiffness of sole will determine whether pressure translates into hot-spots, or the force exerted on the pedal type you use. For instance, Look has more contact surface area (pedal to sole) than Speedplay Zeros, so a stiffer sole will distribute the downward force of the smaller contact area over a wider sole area and (hopefully) eliminate any feeling of all that force pushing on one spot on the sole of your foot.

Kind of like bikes, you'll pay a nice premium for a carbon sole, but it's lightweight and very stiff. In shoes (we won't go anywhere else...), the stiffer the better.

If you have a pretty smooth spin, this is less of a problem, but then you'll need to pay attention to padding on uppers - I'm always surprised at how much you have to pay for a shoe before there's any decent padding on the tongue...seems to always appear/get better at the $200+ (retail) level.

I have Sidi Genius 4's, which you can get these days for about $160 (total) through online sources in Aus or UK. Also have a narrower-than-average 48, so the Shimanos all have too much forefoot/toebox room at that size. Most brands assume that as length goes up, so do the proportions of all other parts of the foot. If your foot is smaller, there are a ton more good options, I'm sure.

Good luck...

Because I'm a tight arse, I'm currently riding with my MTB shoes - Sidi Dominator Megas ( They're the wide version ). I'll probably step up to the road version when I decide to make the switch, although I don't think they're the best bang for buck shoes out there, chi-chi wise.

I think with all these things, the best thing to do is avoid trends. Try on as many pairs of shoes you can, and go on feel, not which ones will impress your mates. I stupidly paid retail for the Sidis ( AU$300 ) simply because they fit the best. With my old Look shoes I used to get sore feet all the time ( what ppl are referring to as 'hot spots' ), but with the Sidis, my feet are very comfy, with no problems whatsoever.

My advise would be ignore looking online for some magical website with everything you needed to know about road shoes - get out there and try as many pairs on as humanly possible, then when you find the ones that have the best comfort/chi-chi/price factor, start shopping around.

I've been riding the Specialized Pro Road shoes (carbon sole) for about 6mos and love them. No problems with hot spots, and the buckle/straps work well for me. IMHO, they're a great bang for the buck.

Kind of like bikes, you'll pay a nice premium for a carbon sole, but it's lightweight and very stiff. In shoes (we won't go anywhere else...), the stiffer the better.

I have Sidi Genius 4's...
I keep hearing that Sidi makes great shoes, but they don't have a carbon sole, correct?


...but then you'll need to pay attention to padding on uppers - I'm always surprised at how much you have to pay for a shoe before there's any decent padding on the tongue...
What's the benefit of a padded tongue?

Lord Opie,
I have no friggin clue if they'll fit your foot type or not. I have a med-high instep and a B width foot. I use nike hautacams. they're on closeout at alot of shops and are going for $99.99. Carbon OCLV 120 (might be 110) sole and look/spd/spd-r compatible. 2 velco strap and 1 wratcheting strap on each shoe. All the other cf soled shoes have been around the $150-$200+ mark. They're completely sold out on trekbikes.com though so you may want to hurry and find them to try them on :) The Poggio and Poggio II replaced this shoe the concurrent seasons i believe. Also, the mouth of the shoe is stiff and hurt in the store, but after riding them for a few days, they started breaking in. absolutely no pain anymore now.

melloboy

http://www.sidiusa.com/rbs/index.html

Just don't look at the prices and you'll be fine. 8-0 An extra US$150 for a carbon sole is a joke in my oppinion, but I'll still end up with the Genius 4 Megawides simply coz they fit. Oh, and they don't look like clown shoes either =)

[ One other comment on stiffness - I actually believe that the torsional stiffness of the sole is slightly more important than the vertical stiffness. If you're positioned properly, the physiology of your legs within the pedal stroke should be such, that any twist would be encouraging you to pedal incorrectly and/or exacerbate any knee/ankle problems you may already have or be succeptable to.
In terms of vertical stiffness, sure, you may loose a little bit of power throught this kind of flex, but in reality any padding within the shoe/sock would cause more deflection than the sole anyway - and when you look a the big picture, it's probably not as important IMHO. Especially when you consider that most of us can't pedal efficiently anyway =) ]

Au contraire...Sidi shoes do have a carbon sole, just that the model I bought doesn't. Sidi (after you choke down the price) has just about anything you'd want across the product line.

About the padded tongue thing, I have found that on long rides it really helps me with pain/fatigue/numbness on the tops of the feet. This could be just me though. I guess it really depends on your pedaling stroke. If you mainly push down to generate power, it doesn't matter as much - I say that because that is how I have pedaled in the past. However, for a number of years now, I have been trying to generate power throughout each stroke/revolution, spinning better. As an aside, I think this is why some have hard time holding a line - especially if they generate power only on the downstroke. The cycle of (right leg) pushdown-tons of torque-letup, then same with the left leg...makes it tremendously difficult for your upper body, arms/shoulders, to try to compensate. If your legs are working together, as you start each revolution at the top of the power curve, the other leg is simultaneously pulling back and slightly up - smoothing/evening out the effort, generating more consistent power, and not making your upper body have to compensate as much for the variability in effort.

Anyway, the pull-back-and-slightly-up part of the stroke is where the padding on the tongue helps me and reduces pain and fatigue. The other thing about Sidis that you might appreciate is the micro adjust buckle system. This makes it super simple to adjust while riding and not have to stop. The buckle click-ratchets to pull in a bit (multiple clicks for a lot...), then after your feet have expanded from heat/effort, you can just squeeze/pull the sides of the buckle to release a few clicks. Great convenience. The sole on the Genius 4's is "Millenium II" (some marketer's lifetime achievement in naming...), not carbon but plenty stiff for me. What material is it? Don't know, but it works...

Hope you find what you're looking for...

Later,

Steve