Bicycle Shoes - Red Headed Stepchildren to Tap Shoes!

From the perspective of looking funky, bicycle shoes are second only to weird looking tap shoes. Tap shoes come to mind because you can perform a decent accompaniment to popular tap dance songs while wearing bicycle shoes. Gotta love those cleats! You can also fall and break your neck in the slippery rascals. But while they aren’t made to scale Mt Everest, they are unsurpassed in their specialized function.

But What Function is That?

I guess it depends on your needs.

Are you a casual biker? If so, you may have no particular specialized needs. You have my permission to wear any shoe except cowboy boots.

Are you a mountain biker? Now you have to decide whether to go with toe clips or with clipless pedals. That changes which shoes you’ll buy. With clipless pedals you’re more ‘one with the bike’ and thus less able to extricate yourself when things go wrong, sometimes terribly wrong. But on the other hand, because you’re attached to the bike it’s easier to do bunnyhops should you get the urge. Toe clips on a mountain bike usually allow you to get off the bike more easily. They also allow you to use a wider variety of shoes for your bicycle shoes needs.

Are you a road biker? Here’s where the bicycle shoes look like they come from a different planet. Some come from France so I guess you could argue strongly for such an origin. Road bikers are almost exclusively clipless enthusiasts, complete with the goofy looking shoes first seen in early episodes of the Jetsons. Why the funny shoes? Power, baby! It’s all about power transfer. With the stiff soles of the road cycling shoes there is no flexing, and therefore no loss of energy from the mighty legs to the crank.

Tell Me More About This Toe Clip/Clipless Dichotomy

It’s actually kind of backward. With clipless bicycle shoes and pedals you clip your shoes onto the pedals. Clipless bicycle shoes have a metal or plastic cleat on the bottom that attaches to a binding on the pedal. Toe clip pedals consist of a clip and webbing which you stick your toe into.

Toeclip advantages- These are relatively inexpensive. They are also usually easier to get out of when things go wrong, or when you’re merely stopping on a steep climb, pretending to be waiting for your slower cycling partner. Additionally, you can use most athletic shoes with toe clips if you aren’t obsessed with loss of power transfer.

Toeclip disadvantages- As has been stated too many times previously, these are less efficient than clipless pedals. However, they’re more efficient than those rubber pedals on your old Huffy.

Clipless advantages- There is a better power transfer since there is very little ‘give’ betwixt shoe and pedal. There is usually a little movement in the ‘shearing’ orientation. More on that later. Another advantage is that you can pull on the upstroke when you’re stuck to the pedal using the clipless system.

Clipless disadvantages- They can be more difficult to get out of. Additionally, they usually necessitate wearing funny looking shoes.

What About Float?

When cyclists started firmly affixing themselves to their pedals some bad things happened to the knees. Those cyclists who weren’t blessed with perfect biomechanics of the knee couldn’t pedal hour after hour with their knee torqued a little bit off. So a new bicycle shoe/pedal interface was developed. Praying to the cycling idols on the Acropolis that there would be no loss of coveted energy transfer, the shoe cleat was reshaped in such a way that there is now a bit of twist allowed between the pedal and shoe. This ‘float’ enables the knee to find its own optimum angle. Cyclists' consumption of Tylenol decreased.

Types of Bicycle Shoes

Well you’ve got your basic recreational mountain bicycle shoes, your racing mountain bike shoes, and your road bike shoes.

Recreational mountain bicycle shoes- These are flexible in the forefoot so that you don’t have to walk around like a dork. They’re stiff from the heel to the ball of the foot in an attempt to preserve the precious power transfer.

Racing Mountain bicycle shoes- These babies have a stiff sole, fit snugly, and have an aggressive tread pattern. The tread pattern is for when you’ve got to climb that rise that’s too steep for pedaling.

Road bicycle shoes- Sleekly styled to cut down on wind resistance, these shoes would never be mistaken for hiking boots. Of course they’re stiff to the max and they’ve got a cleat under the ball of the foot. This allows you to walk around like you’re wearing an extreme pair of Earth Shoes, toe in the air.

Road shoes can be pretty narrow. I’ve seen this blamed on the narrow European lasts that they build the road shoe around. Is there no road bicycle shoe made for the fleshy American foot, for cryin out loud? Help is on the way! Several high-end brands like Carnac, and SIDI offer wide sizing. Now you can keep your fat ugly feet and still cycle like there’s no tomorrow. By the way, there always seem to be brand name road shoes for upwards of 70% off at Bike Nashbar .

Give Me Some Features!

Let’s break down some features of bicycle shoes.

Soles- They’re pretty stiff. Yea, Yea where have we heard that before? On Mountain bike shoes there is a variety of tread aggressiveness. Aggressive tread enables the mountain biker who is temporarily not cycling to get up a steep slope without harm to his heinie (yes, that’s how you spell it) or pride. No slipping for the aggressive tread wearer!

Uppers- Road bike uppers are often made of synthetics. Mountain bicycle shoes and high-end road shoes incorporate leather into the upper.

Closure (I’ll bet you wish there was some closure to this article, eh?)- Various shoes use laces, buckles, Velcro, or some combination of the above to keep the zapatos on the feet. Some shoes have a ratcheting system to really cinch the shoe onto those fat non-european feet of yours (somehow I can’t imagine sleek, petite, European Polish feet).

But My Feet Are Freezing. Whine, Whine

What do you do when your bicycle shoes aren’t keeping your feet warm enough? I know this is hard to imagine during those hot summer rides when you’re dripping in sweat. However, drop the temperature several notches and the feet can suffer. You can start by trying thicker socks. This may not work, because I have to remind you that your fat American feet are barely wedged into your shoes to begin with.

You can buy insulated shoe covers. These were developed by narrow-footed Europeans, priced handsomely, and then sold to fleshy footed Yanks. Another angle that they’ve developed is the Neoprene toe cover. Both keep the toes warmer. Eastern Europeans developed the plastic trash bag, which is inserted between the sock and the shoe.

Maintain Them Well so You Can Include Them in Your Will

Some of us don’t mind wearing our bicycle shoes out quickly. It gives us an excuse to buy some newer, more expensive ones. But for those who want to pass your cycling shoes down to your grandkids, here are some tips for bicycle shoe longevity. Don’t walk around in them. I don’t know why you’d want to, but walking around on cleats wears them out quickly, looks foolish, and because they’re slippery- leads to falls.

Keep your cycling shoes dry. You can prolong their life by keeping them dry. Put some paper (preferably dry paper) inside the shoe to sop up all your disgusting foot sweat.

You can make your shoes smell better by putting a scented dryer sheet into the shoe (when you aren’t wearing them).

So There You Have It!

As one of my friends likes to say- ‘So there you have it’. I’ve tried to cover the basics regarding cycling shoes. You can find out more about specific brands and styles by clicking the links below.

And don't forget that if you want to get some great shoes at reduced prices, there are always great deals at BikeNashbar .

Thanks for reading, and come back soon to read more of the drivel emanating out my fingertips.

One With the Bike

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