Cleats. Are they worth the stress?

House_Martin wrote: »

I can do without the insults brat , where are my tantrums and petulence ? you are losing your argument resorting to insults .. Maybe you being a Police Officer has given you an attitude that you do not like to be questioned in what you say . I hope you don t go around with that attitude on the streets of the UK on a Saturday night , the drunks won t like it

I was baiting to see if your barbs were directed at me. And it seems they were. Can I ask why?

jack_pott wrote: »

Assuming that the £27.99 shoes fit. When I considered giving clipless a try, I gave up, having never found a pair of shoes that fit. Most of the shoes I saw were about twice the price of the Stead & Simpson's Hobos I used to use, and I had spent nearly the price of those on postage returning unsuitable shoes.

Therein lies the point, the market for cycle shoes is absolutely tiny compared with that for ordinary shoes, and the prospect of finding a pair that fit correspondingly smaller too. I don't have anything against trying clipless*, I just CBA with finding a pair.

(*Except that my toeclips enable me to use any shoes I like.)

As I posted way back I bought a pair of wide fit clipless for £56, I have trouble getting shoes to fit as my feet are wide so often have to go 1-2 sizes up even for trainers, yet these fit great. A good pair of proper MTB shoes from someone like Five Ten or Specialized or even Adidas are upwards of £100. Of course you could wear £10 cheapo shoes but they aren't designed for this purpose.


Your second point is total nonsense, Evans stock 129 different spd/spd-sl bike shoes, 77 of which are under £100 and 13 under £50 from 15 brands for Men alone. Wiggle stock over 300 shoes, 142 in the "road" category, 49 pairs are under £100 from 13 different brands (some overlap with Evans) and that's 2 stores. Lake, Tredz, CRC (while it's still operating at arms length from wiggle), Cycle Store, Ribble, Sports Direct etc etc all stock them

Nasqueron wrote: »

Your second point is total nonsense, Evans stock 129 different spd/spd-sl bike shoes, 77 of which are under £100 and 13 under £50 from 15 brands for Men alone. Wiggle stock over 300 shoes, 142 in the "road" category, 49 pairs are under £100 from 13 different brands (some overlap with Evans) and that's 2 stores. Lake, Tredz, CRC (while it's still operating at arms length from wiggle), Cycle Store, Ribble, Sports Direct etc etc all stock them

Personally, I'd never buy shoes without trying them on first. And there aren't any shops with a decent selection of bike shoes anywhere nearby.



Of the 20-ish pairs on display, most are for road cycling, most of the rest are over £150, and of the one or two remaining pairs, they either don't fit or don't have my size in stock.


I gave up looking and got some Wellgo B143 flat pedals. They suit me perfectly. They have a large flat (rather than concave) contact area, and the pins give decent grip on all types of shoe without shredding them (or my shins when I bash them).


Also, you can fit reflectors to them, making them road-legal (not that I'd care if I was going clipless, of course!)



Now, if I had a second bike, or was riding just for pleasure, I'd definitely look at clipless.


Horses for courses.

esuhl wrote: »

Personally, I'd never buy shoes without trying them on first. And there aren't any shops with a decent selection of bike shoes anywhere nearby.



Of the 20-ish pairs on display, most are for road cycling, most of the rest are over £150, and of the one or two remaining pairs, they either don't fit or don't have my size in stock.


I gave up looking and got some Wellgo B143 flat pedals. They suit me perfectly. They have a large flat (rather than concave) contact area, and the pins give decent grip on all types of shoe without shredding them (or my shins when I bash them).


Also, you can fit reflectors to them, making them road-legal (not that I'd care if I was going clipless, of course!)



Now, if I had a second bike, or was riding just for pleasure, I'd definitely look at clipless.


Horses for courses.

All the big retailers online that I have used offer free returns if things don't fit, it's easy enough therefore to order a few pairs and try them. I find it helps to read customer reviews on the site particularly to see common issues. I have also ordered in shoes to Evans to try on, kept the pair that fitted, refund on the rest