Originally Posted by LittleGinseng
Unless you are going to be racing, why would you need a shoe with stiff soles? Modern cycling shoes, be they for the track or road, are designed with stiff soles for cleat support. I have an old pair of Duegi Road shoes for clips and straps, and they have a super stiff sole because of the presence of an adjustable slotted cleat. I simply prefer nice comfy sneakers when riding with pedals with clips and straps, be they Adidas, Reeboks, Keds, or whatever.
I want a stiff sole because I don't want to feel the rails of my cage-type pedals (Campy NR Strada and various toe-clip platform pedals). I don't really care about the "power enhancement" of stiff soles, Ijust don't want to feel the pedal rails gouging my feet. Racing has nothing to do with it, for me. If I had rubber tread pedals, I wouldn't care about this, but then I couldn't use metal toe clips.
I can sympathize perfectly with TimJ's concern.
Ken