Beginner’s guide to cycling shoes — the secrets of comfy feet | Road Bike Clipless Pedals

With basic setup markings, the cleat attaches with Shimano’s typical four-hole cleat plate, allowing plenty of fore-aft adjustment. The cleat is protected with a two-compound rubber tread, with a more durable material used at the pedals’ contact point. Just past this, the tread is separated, allowing a more natural step instead of the usual flat-foot stomp of performance shoes. The tread height is generous enough to allow near-silent walking on a hard surface, whereas racier shoes often leave the cleat slightly exposed.

I currently use some carbon soled MTB shoes with M520s.  Would I honestly notice any difference if I switched to a road shoe/pedal system?

Love your clipless pedals? Then by all means keep using them. After all, there’s no denying the thrill of that first "click" as you roll out on a cycling adventure. At the same time, don’t lose sight of what they can and can’t do. Clipless pedals won’t eliminate the dead spot from your pedal stroke, but flat pedals will eliminate the dead spot from your cycling enjoyment.

The toe area is lightly reinforced, with some protection given to the big toes. I managed to test this out on both gravel and mountain bike rides, where rocks flipped up were deflected away without a stubbed toe.

The bold text is quite important, because you need the adjustment freedom a band mount derailleur offers.  Its not difficult to setup and once correctly aligned provides precise and reliable front mech changes time and time again.  Ive not adjusted the position once since I initially dialled in the position.

Ride Concepts Traverse The Traverse takes all the goods from the Skyline and adds an ankle strap for on-the-go adjustment. $160

MTB shoes and SPD cleats/pedals FTW. On this one you can ram The Rules – walking like a penguin on ice is ridiculous.

This article was originally published in Mountain Biking UK magazine, available on Apple Newsstand and Zinio.

It took Carrie Watters, an editor, about two hours to get in from Surprise, via Lyft and then the Surprise Express bus. She somehow had the energy to write about it once she got in.

That meant brand new pads on brand new machined rims. The result was amazing braking from the very beginning. I set a few descending PBs during my tyre testing. I suspect that on the given descents I would have achieved a PB with any of the race tyres installed because it was the braking confidence that created the PB (rather than the specifics of the tyre). Compared to pretty-good carbon braking, I could brake later and harder on these.

 I took my bike to Tenerife recently and there were lots of compliments about how I could hold 90rpm up steep multi hour climbs.  At the end of a long week my legs felt very good and not wrecked like some others 

Ridiculous as that may sound, signs of change are a(bare)foot — beloved B-list Instagram cycle-touring celeb-influencer Ultraromance has done the seemingly impossible in raising Bedrock Sandals to a status of coolness in certain circles. Stranger things!