adelmeyer

I just bought a pair of Pearl Izumi I-Beams. These are the first pair of road bike shoes that I have owned. The other pair of shoes that I have are Shimano Mtn Bike shoes. The pair of Pearl Izumi's are are a size nine. I can fit into 9's for street shoes, but these seem to cut of circulation in my feet and make them fall asleep while I bike. I was wondering if it is just a matter of breaking the shoes in or if they may just be too small. I bought them last Saturday, and I have only used them on three rides, each ride is about 45mins each. Has this happened to anyone before?

Do my feet have to get used to having just the cleat touching the pedal?

The pair of Shimano's have support around the cleat that sits on the pedal also.

Just to let you know, I have Shimano SPD-M646 pedals (mtn pedals)

Any suggestions as to what it could be? Do my feet just have to get used to the shoes?

Thanks
Andy

Race Condition

You should wear shoes.

roadwarrior

If your feet are falling asleep, it mught be because the cleats are improperly mounted. If your local shop offers fitting, they probably do cleat fitting as well. I will say that typically, you want your toes just touching the front of the shoe in the road world..keeps your foot from slipping around inside the shoe when pedaling. There's a question in my mind about your shoe fit, but you have to pick what feels best.
Did you stand in them (to simulate how your foot will be when pedaling) and have someone check them, or did you go to the internet and buy a shoe at a good price point the same size as your street shoe? If your foot's moving around in the shoe, the typical answer is to cinch down the straps harder. That will also make your foot fall asleep.

Pat

Sometimes I have this problem but usually only after over 50 miles. In my case it is caused by me being lazy and pushing up my foot with my powerstroke instead of lifting it. This leads to constant pressure on the foot and a gradual numbing of the feet. Now if I lift my foot, the pressure release keeps this from happening. Of course, this might not be the cause in your situation.

Prosody

Make sure you do not have the shoes too tight across the top of your foot. They should fit snugly at the ankle so your foot does not slip around in them, but they ought to be only slightly snug across the top of your foot.

SDS

Your toes should not touch the front of the shoes. On a long ride your feet can swell and push the toes farther into the front of the shoe, and your toes will buckle and get scuffed on the inside of the shoe, and that hurts. Also, pushing the nail on the toe into something hurts, and you can lose the nail, which also hurts. You can't support a load pushing forward on your toes for long.

Feet are like wedges. The function of the fastening system on the shoe over the top of the instep is to hold the "wedge" back, so your heel stays in the heel of the shoe and your toes stay away from the front of the shoe.

Ideally, cyling shoes have a tall, wide toe box, with room to wiggle the toes and are perfectly fitted everywhere else. If you are healthy and you get numbness and/or tingling in your feet while wearing cycling shoes, that suggests they don't fit. First thing that I would check would be to make sure you have enough width across the ball of the foot. Insufficient width there will cause you to crush some of the nerves (and you get numbness/tingling) between the metatarsals and can cause long-term neurological problems.

I have size 13A and 13AA feet. I have to find narrow, low-volume shoes, to get the length and enough space in the front for my toes, and then have the fastening system tighten enough across the instep to keep my toes away from the front of the shoes. I suspect you might have wide feet, and that getting shoes just fit for length may mean that you do not have enough width, and that is the cause of your numbness.

When SPD's first came out, a lot of people complained that the cleat was too small, and that their feet rocked laterally, and that that caused a "hot spot" on the bottom of the foot directly above the cleat, and caused numbness/tingling. Supposedly Shimano eventually introduced the SPD-R with it's larger pedaling platform specifically to address that complaint.

It seemed to me that this complaint was rider-specific: some riders complained bitterly and swore off SPDs and switched back to the large pedaling platforms of the Looks or the Times, and some riders never had a problem and thought SPDs worked just fine. It was never clear to me whether this was a rider problem or a shoe (fit) problem, but over the years it has faded away and you don't hear it much anymore. Now I don't hear of riders switching to SPDs and complaining of hot spots and numbness/tingling.

Ebbtide

Yes, your circulation is cut off, shoes should not be too tight. Loosen them up if you can.

adelmeyer

I was wondering if my problem might be about the last paragraph that you are talking about. When I use my mtn bike shoes to ride, I don't have that problem. I did go and get the shoes streched out today at my local bike store, and they felt better tonight, but it hurt where the cleat sits on the bottom of the shoe. I may have to try out either looks or times. I am just getting into road biking, so this is very new to me. Right now, I stuffed about two pairs of socks in each shoe, and tightened the straps, and we will see what they are like tomorrow.

I might just have to ride in them for a while to where them in also. That might be all I need. I guess we will have to see.

SDS

I never had this problem, but I did read about it, and I had friends who had it. One even came over and bought seven pairs of black Look cleats from me because he couldn't stand SPDs.

It seemed to me that the complaint of hot spot / pain / numbness/tingling right on top of the cleat had to be a concidence. The sole of a good road racing cycling shoe is so stiff that there was no way the pressure from the cleat could be transmitted through the sole to just that one spot. Surely, I believed, it had to be a problem with the construction of the inside of the shoe or the foot. But what?

Because only some cyclists had this problem, only a small fraction of all of the users, it could have been that there was something peculiar about the feet of the cyclists that had the problem, perhaps reduced musculature on the bottom of the foot (which would provide less padding for the bones), or perhaps it was a defect in the shoes to which they were particularly sensitive, i.e., insufficiently thick insoles that again, would not provide sufficient padding. The other two possibilities were insufficient width that bowed the metatarsals on the middle of the ball of the foot downward and put excessive pressure on that spot right above the cleat, or excessive dorsiflexion (toes bent upward toward top of foot) caused by the shape of the sole, that put the feet of some people in a position to which they were sensitive, which caused them to report the "hot foot."

The incidence of this problem did drop after a few years, by which I mean that I don't hear about it anymore. For that reason I am inclined to blame some feature of the shoes.

You have guessed that your problem might be width. If that has turned out to be correct, I think that some kind of Sidis will be very good for you, either the normal width or the Mega width. If you look to see what good cyclists with adequate incomes wear and keep wearing, it's Sidis. They are practically the default shoe for people who have a choice who prefer functional and reliable equipment.

I prefer the ratchet ski buckle over any velcro strap. Velcro is only intended to last for two hundred fasten/unfasten cycles, and cycling shoes are a poor application for velcro in the first place. Remember, it is a "hook and loop" fastener. Slightly worn velcro always backs up to the limit of the extension of the loops, so after you fasten your shoes you will lose 1/8"-3/16" of the slack you took up.