And unless you do a lot of sprinting in rainstorms, you’ll sacrifice little to nothing in terms of performance with flat pedals. In fact they’ll probably improve your performance in the long run, given the fit and positioning issues so many riders seem to have with clipless. (If you need a pedal system with lots of float, ask yourself why you’re bothering with it in the first place.)
Another option for shoe manufactures is to use Velcro straps, sometimes in combination with a ratchet strap or a Boa dial (see below) as on these Fizik M6B Donna shoes. There are usually two or three Velcro straps and these can be placed in an offset design to reduce pressure over the foot. Velcro is quick and easy to use and they hold the shoe firmly in place, but it is easy to overdo tightening one and end up feeling like part of your foot has been clamped, we found it hard to adjust the Velcro on the Giro Manta shoes we reviewed recently but this isn’t always the case, the Fizik shoe design worked well.
Yeah… An article written for people with wide feet needs to be written…or are there still no flats for Fred Flintstone riders?
The inevitable 30-something MAMIL transition saw him shift to skinny tyres and these days he lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
Clip-in shoes and clipless pedals mean your feet are attached to the pedals, they are good for keeping the feet on pedals over rocky terrain and can help with pedalling efficiency too, it’s personal preference though. Cross country and gravel riders will nearly always use clipless pedals, the are pretty common on race scenes from cross county to downhill and many trail riders inbetween.
To start with shoes with laces will usually have a Velcro strap to cover the knot or some sort of elastic strap to hold the laces in place and tuck free end such as these Specialized 2FO Cliplite Lace shoes. Laces can be a bit fiddly, but laces allow you to spread the tension evenly over your foot, which can make them very comfortable.
Clipless pedals have a spring-loaded mechanism that grabs a specially shaped stud, known as a cleat, on the sole of the shoe. You press the cleat down to click it into the mechanism, and twist out to release.
“Heiruspecs is an unusual name for a flat pedal, as it seems to be entirely derived from a Minnesota hip hop band. What these pedals have to do with hip hop, I don’t know, but 45NRTH do also come from the same US state, and they get plenty of snow there, which these pedals are specifically designed for. Bearing that in mind, I gave the pedals a little…” Read the full review here.
Every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a real insight into whether it works or not. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective, and we strive to ensure that all opinions expressed are backed up by facts, but reviews are always a reviewer’s informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don’t intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores. It reflects both a product’s function and value. Good scores are more common than bad, because fortunately good products are more common than bad. Here’s what they mean:
Mavic, Specialized and I’m sure others do similar ‘touring’ shoes that look like road shoes, have a decently stiff sole but take MTB style SPD cleats.
It’s not often I get a product that’s so laissez-faire in its ways that I struggle to find a specific purpose for it. And this isn’t a bad thing — the XC5 proved to be a reliable (and comfortable) choice for just about any bike-related adventure.
David has been a tech editor on road.cc since July 2012. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He’s a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He currently resides in the Cotswolds.
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