I've been riding on a pair of Exustar mountain shoes with SPD's for quite a few years. I found a set of Shimano R540 pedals on a killer sale so I bought a pair of PI Attack road shoes on Nashbar on sale for $60 to pair them. When I got them, I found them to be quite uncomfortable. My feet are pretty narrow and thin, but long.

I wear a size 46-47 in length, but in width and heighth I'm more like a 45. The PI's fit perfect in length, but In order for the PI's to fit snugly I had to cinch the 2 bottom velcro straps all the way down and the ratchet pretty far down. But when I got on my bike and pedaled, I immediately noticed a lot of extra space still in the sides of the shoe (so much that the material was folding) and a ton of pressure points around my ankle and the top of my foot.

This led me to go by my local Specialized store. I ended up walking out with a size 47 pair of their BG Elite road shoes. The length fit was again near perfect, a tad big, but the 46 was definitely too small. The width and height were definitely better than the PI's and I was able to fit them snug without having to cinch everything down as much as the PI's. There's very little extra space and the overall feels good. However, again, once I got on the bike, I noticed a fair amount of pressure points around the front of my ankle on the top of my foot.

My question has to do with shoe break in. How much break in will occur and how long does it take for a new pair of shoes to break in? And also, I'm pretty sure the PI's aren't going to work but what are your thoughts on that much extra space in a shoe? I want to get what's going to be better in the long run, but spending twice as much is a little hard to swallow

Any advice is greatly appreciated!