Originally Posted by
sanmi
This was my assumption and is why I asked what shoe would be stiff enough. I'm not worried about ending up with something that is too stiff, rather I'm worried about not springing for something stiff enough so to give me that larger platform. At the same time, I'd prefer to avoid dropping $400+ on shoes, which seems pretty easy to do.
Interesting that the higher end Sidis don't come in mega. Unfortunately my feet are more like 4E so I don't think these options would work for me. Thanks for the suggestions! The speedplay pedals look good, too.
Yeah, I think that those are aimed at those who compete. They tend to be on the small side in the population.
Originally Posted by
TimothyH
I have 3E feet with extra high arches and almost no shoe is wide enough or tall enough in the arch.
Side Dominator MTB shoes are the exact same product as their Genius road shoe but with some rubber lugs at the bottom so that one can walk. I own two pair of Genius Mega and they fit very well, not perfect but very good and I've gone beyond century distance with them.
The only other brand I know of with a truly wide last is Lake but I have not worn them. I've also not read the whole thread so there may be others but I would not hesitate to try on a pair of Dominator Mega if you have the chance.
-Tim-
I lot of times, if a foot is wide but lacks structure, a good supportive insole can help support the foot and stop it from spreading wide. Also, often if the foot isn't anchored properly in the shoe by proper arch support, the foot will slide around and compress at the front or sides of the shoe giving the impression that it doesn't fit when it actually will. Virtually all cycling shoes come with an insole that can best be described as "garbage." I've always thought that they did that because they knew everyone should get a proper insole and they had no way of knowing what every's arches required.
At some point, though, wide is wide and you can't fit 5 gallons into a 3 gallon bucket. Which leaves custom shoes. While they are expensive - $500 and up, they do fit perfectly and you'd have them for years and years. That is really only two off the shelf pairs of shoes and one discarded because it didn't fit (how many times has that happened?). There are several sources of custom shoes. If your feet are that far down the distribution, it may be the only choice. In my view, if I couldn't find a workable off the shelf shoe, I'd go there for sure. Good cycling shoes enhance the ride significantly and, truthfully, with all I have in bicycles and bicycle accessories, while it would't be fun, it would make economic sense.
Note that I believe the half sizing trick with Sidi's also applies to Mega shoes. And it's good news the Sidi is starting to support Mega in more than just the Dominators/Genius shoes. I wore those for years and they are great shoes.