New road cycling shoes??

[vickster]

Wow. Did this person just buy clipless cycling shoes without ever realising what they were? How is that even possible?

If they did it in a 'brick and mortar' shop, surely someone would have explained how they work. And even if not, surely they would find the hard soles with holes for bolts unusual, at the very least - and try to find out what are they.

When purchasing online, products have descriptions. That would have mentioned the technology and also have photos of the soles with the holes. Again - surely raising some questions.

I'm just baffled how anyone could buy clipless cycling shoes and have, seemingly, absolutely zero idea what they are.

Because they would have been described as road cycling shoes and they assumed therefore, as someone presumably new to road cycling, they would be suitable for cycling. Why is that so hard to understand?

 

[ColinJ]

How come after a lifetime of cycling, this is news to me, every day is a learning day.

Ditto!

I might buy some of those so I could start using my old Sidi road shoes with MTB-type SPD cleats.

 

[Venod]

I might buy some of those so I could start using my old Sidi road shoes with MTB-type SPD cleats

I have had a search round for some old Soft leather Duegi shoes I had in the 80's but no luck in finding them.

 

[cougie uk]

View attachment 679517 these are my pedals!!

Yeah. You need new pedals to ride with those shoes.
If you're still new to cycling I'd use those pedals and trainers for a while.

Once you're happy with the bike then I'd look at look pedals or something similar. Ask on here for something compatible with the shoes.

 

[antnee]

Well Wayno If you bought these cycling shoes in a bike shop I'm amazed at the bike shop staff not enquiring as to if you had suitable pedals for the shoes!🤨 And as the above post by cougie says I'd be inclined to stick with what you have at the moment and get into the wonders of cycling first. I must admit that I used to cycle in normal shoes until when pedalling faster my feet started slipping off the pedals. Only then did I change to proper cycle footwear.

 

[Dadam]

Wow. Did this person just buy clipless cycling shoes without ever realising what they were? How is that even possible?

I'm just baffled how anyone could buy clipless cycling shoes and have, seemingly, absolutely zero idea what they are.

That could easily have been me 4 years ago. I was new to cycling (well since early teens at least) and I'd never heard of clipless shoes or pedals. I had heard of toe clips though and knew I didn't want them. I could imagine a scenario back then where I ask about shoes for cycling and be asked if I want shoes for clipless pedals. Not knowing what it meant could have said yes thinking it meant flat pedals.

 

[Profpointy]

Wow. Did this person just buy clipless cycling shoes without ever realising what they were? How is that even possible?

If they did it in a 'brick and mortar' shop, surely someone would have explained how they work. And even if not, surely they would find the hard soles with holes for bolts unusual, at the very least - and try to find out what are they.

When purchasing online, products have descriptions. That would have mentioned the technology and also have photos of the soles with the holes. Again - surely raising some questions.

I'm just baffled how anyone could buy clipless cycling shoes and have, seemingly, absolutely zero idea what they are.

"traditional" cycle shops often have the customer service ethos of these guys, so it's far from impossible


View: https://youtu.be/DvswW6M7bMo


And if buying online I can quite imagine making such a goof.

For the OP, there are essentially 3 types of cycling shoe

1: "road" shoes for clip in pedals (confusingly called "clipless). These have 3 bolt holes for attaching the cleats which clip into the special pedals. These shoes are very hard to walk in

2 "mountain bike" shoes. These have 2 bolt holes and the cleats are recessed into the soles so the shoes are perfectly OK to walk around on. I favour this type for this reason, although I have road oriented bikes.





3 Shoes for cycling with toe clips and straps. These are not really wildly different from any stiff soled general purpose shoe or trainer apart from having stiff soles. They are uncommon today, though still exist, as most cyclists going down the "special shoe" route have gone for one of the two styles of "clipless" above. For the me, the big advantage of toe clips and straps is that you can cycle in normal shoes providing the soles are fairly stiff. A traditional smart office shoe is pretty good. for this !

 

[Mike_P]

I went with 2 hole SPDs as they do a quick release cleat. For some reason I could not easily unclip my right foot with a normal cleat so each pair of shoes has a normal cleat on the left shoe and a QR on the right. It does mean I invariably stop with my right foot on the ground rather than the left as m
many recommend.

 

[wayno2110]

Wow. Did this person just buy clipless cycling shoes without ever realising what they were? How is that even possible?

If they did it in a 'brick and mortar' shop, surely someone would have explained how they work. And even if not, surely they would find the hard soles with holes for bolts unusual, at the very least - and try to find out what are they.

When purchasing online, products have descriptions. That would have mentioned the technology and also have photos of the soles with the holes. Again - surely raising some questions.

I'm just baffled how anyone could buy clipless cycling shoes and have, seemingly, absolutely zero idea what they are.

There actually the first ever pair of cyclists shoes I have purchased! And on the Adidas website they are sold as cycling shoes only with no description of fixings or anything like that so that’s obviously why I was wondering what the score was with them! I was actually after some helpful feedback like everyone else has provided apart from yourself so thanks for that!

 

[fossyant]

Either try and stick with them, you'll need pedals, or go down the SPD route (with converter). I have both road pedals and SPD - the SPD I use for commuting and MTB - just so much easier being able to walk from the bike shelter into work, and back. Road shoes are great for longer distances, but a nightmare if you want to walk more than from the front door to the bike.

 

[T4tomo]

If you buy some pedals, either Shimano SPD SL or Look Keo, then there should be an option buy the cleats (that fix to the bottom of the shoes) with them / will include compatible cleats (check the description)

spa have really good value look keo compatible ones

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m17b0s86p4729/EXUSTAR-PR1-Pedals

 

[ClichéGuevara]

I think it's a bit extravagant getting posh shoes just because it's a new road.

 

[vickster]

@wayno2110 if you want to go the 3 bolt road pedal direction, Shimano do a light action pedal for easier clipping. Don't think you can easily get new other than from ebay, eg
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275549568373?

 

[Mike_P]

Think I can safely say I've misread or not noted fully a description or what it means for some item and I suspect that goes for the majority. The one that sticks in the mind was buying an ebike control display from the USA with all the import duties on top and not realising the cables were sold separately. Ended up selling that on eBay as the converted ebike failed big time in the meanwhile.
Plenty of cyclists do not use cleats for whatever reason so buying a pair of road bike shoes does not automatically mean you need cleats but if you are finding your feet and the pedals disengaging then a set of cleats would be appropriate.
How hilly is it around you? If there is a fair possibility of coming to a standstill on a hill that is just that bit too steep then that is another reason to look at the 2 bolt SPDs with an adaptor so that you can easily walk the bike to the top.

 

[mustang1]

Wow. Did this person just buy clipless cycling shoes without ever realising what they were? How is that even possible?

If they did it in a 'brick and mortar' shop, surely someone would have explained how they work. And even if not, surely they would find the hard soles with holes for bolts unusual, at the very least - and try to find out what are they.

When purchasing online, products have descriptions. That would have mentioned the technology and also have photos of the soles with the holes. Again - surely raising some questions.

I'm just baffled how anyone could buy clipless cycling shoes and have, seemingly, absolutely zero idea what they are.

I suppose that is kinda funny!
Hey @wayno2110 , welcome aboard CC! Good to have you here. It's ok, most of us cyclists done some weird stuff when we started off (well, maybe ). Anyway, that picture of the pedals you posted are just normal flat pedals which means you can wear whichever normal street shoes you normallly do (trainers, shoes, boots, comfortable shoes, dress shoes, just normal daily non-bike related shoes). So you don't need any cycling specific shoes to ride your bike.

At some point in the future if you did want to use your new "road cycling shoes", then you will need to buy cleats that attach to your shoes. You attach the cleats to the shoes with the supplied screws and bracket. Once attached, put on your new shoes, get on the bike then "clip in" to the pedals when you start riding. BE VERY CAREFUL! YOU MAY FALL. Suggest you lean against a wall and apply the brakes then practice clipping in and out of the pedals WITH ONLY ONE FOOT AT A TIME so if you are practicing with your right foot, then lean against a wall on the right and make sure your left foot is available to put down immediately if you lose balance. The cleats you need for the shoes in your photo are called "SPD-SL" cleats (you can also use "Look Keo" cleats). Cleats have their own little thing going on: you get some which have "float" which allows you to move your foot left or right by a few degress (gives your ankle some wiggle room) or some cleats are locked in place (allowing no ankle movement, in other words, the foot points forwards and you cannot twist your foot, there is no wiggle room) so choose your cleats carefully (suggest you get cleats with plently of wiggle room in case you have knee/ankle problems etc).
BE VERY AWARE when walking with road cycling shoes because the cleats make things very slippery (you can get covers to put on your cleats when you want to walk but I always found that a faff). If you want to walk with your cycling shoes on, then I recommend getting MTB style cycling shoes. These require a different cleat, a 2-bolt one. These cleats sit "inside" of the sole of the shoes so are far better to walk in but you should still be careful.

Ok cool, hope that helps.