Originally Posted by
jrickards
Walking and cycling ideally need different shoes. Pedalling benefits from stiff soles, especially under the forefoot whereas walking benefits from more flexible forefoot soles (mountain hiking would be different but that's not what you're talking about). Although there are cycling shoes that are easier to walk in than others such as MTB vs Road shoes, even the more walkable cycling shoes have their limits: walking around the grocery store would be fine but not much more. I think you should consider different shoes if extended walking is the plan.
The pedal clips you're talking about may simply be regular clips that simply haven't had the straps installed.
I agree with this in principle. In practice, however, not so much. I have had Shimano MT-41 MTB shoes for 5 years and they are seriously stiff for pedaling efficiency. Despite this, I can,and have, walked miles in them on occasions. On cement! On a trail, I would think that up to several miles would be possible. My wife's podiatrist says that limiting flexion at the ball of the foot is actually a good preventative strategy for not developing arthritis pain in that region. Standard toe clips are very floppy without their straps. The clips the o.p. is referring to are much stiffer plastic than regular toe-clips and the tops do not have tab's for straps since they are meant to be used without straps. I mostly use PowerGrips, but with several bikes in the stable, they can't all be so honored. Most of them have regular toe-clips with straps but the straps are never tightened. Works for me.
H