Cleats. Are they worth the stress?
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That's way too much hassle. I'd be spending half my life going back and forth to the Post Office, and miss hours of work each time.
Just returning a single item is enough hassle. Having to return a dozen or so pairs of shoes in a short space of time would be a nightmare.
My online clothes and shoes purchases have a high success rate. I hardly send anything back, but I ask questions on the chat service before I buy, and I read the reviews, and what my club mates advise.
It also seems that my body isn't particularly fussy. All my bikes & shoes have been "buy then try" rather than the other way round. I've never had a bike fit.
I've been adding up the miles done on my Sidi Ergo's with 'Speedplay ready' soles, and they have done over 35,000 miles since I bought them half price in late 2013. They were half a size bigger than I would have ordinarily chosen, but they were half price! And they're still functioning perfectly.Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.0 -
If you are near an Evans shop you can order a range of shoes and opt for click and collect. When you go and pick them up try them all on in the store immediately and you can return the ones you don't want right away.That's way too much hassle. I'd be spending half my life going back and forth to the Post Office, and miss hours of work each time.
Just returning a single item is enough hassle. Having to return a dozen or so pairs of shoes in a short space of time would be a nightmare.0 -
That's way too much hassle. I'd be spending half my life going back and forth to the Post Office, and miss hours of work each time.
Just returning a single item is enough hassle. Having to return a dozen or so pairs of shoes in a short space of time would be a nightmare.
To be honest if you just assume these things without checking you're onto a hiding to nothing. Wiggle, as a single example, use Collect+ or Doddle. You can have the thing delivered to where you want (I use a local Co-op which is open 7am-9pm Mon-Sat). You try it on, if you want to return it, fill out the form, print the label and drop it off at the same location. It can be done out of work hours with no issue. Evans allow you to order into the shop and you can simply reject the stuff you don't need as soon as you have tried it on which can be done on a Saturday or Sunday.
Moreover, why would you be buying a dozen pairs of shoes in a short time? Do you not do basic research into what you need? I need wide fit stuff so I simply googled it to find out brands who do wide fitting (e.g. Shimano, Lake) and looked at reviews to see how good the fit was. Of the 4 pairs I have ever ordered from Shimano, Lake, Specialized and Northwave I only had to reject one pair due to a poor fit0 -
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
There's no Evans here, just one cycle shop which stocked two or three shoes, none of which were suitable for touring. £100 is three times what I was paying for ordinary shoes. Buying over the internet isn't practical, I've never had any success with shoes/clothes that I haven't already tried on the High St first.
Most cycling shoes are suede, fabric, or open gauze, which are useless for touring as they're not wind/rain resistant. That whittles it down to a tiny handful of shoes on the market (like Exustar Stelvio etc).
There's a lot more to fit than just width, touring shoes have to be suitable for walking all day, not just cycling, and therein lies the rub. Heel lift is not a problem on a bike, but it is when walking, and the rigid sole of cycling shoes makes them more prone to heel lift. That means cycle shoes need to be an even better fit over the instep, but all the ones I tried were a worse fit than ordinary shoes. Absolutely useless.
Regardless of whether there are half a dozen to choose from, or 129, that's minimal compared with the thousands of ordinary shoes on the High St., so there simply isn't the same scope to keep looking until you find something that fits.0 -
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There's no Evans here, just one cycle shop which stocked two or three shoes, none of which were suitable for touring. £100 is three times what I was paying for ordinary shoes. Buying over the internet isn't practical, I've never had any success with shoes/clothes that I haven't already tried on the High St first.
Most cycling shoes are suede, fabric, or open gauze, which are useless for touring as they're not wind/rain resistant. That whittles it down to a tiny handful of shoes on the market (like Exustar Stelvio etc).
There's a lot more to fit than just width, touring shoes have to be suitable for walking all day, not just cycling, and therein lies the rub. Heel lift is not a problem on a bike, but it is when walking, and the rigid sole of cycling shoes makes them more prone to heel lift. That means cycle shoes need to be an even better fit over the instep, but all the ones I tried were a worse fit than ordinary shoes. Absolutely useless.
Regardless of whether there are half a dozen to choose from, or 129, that's minimal compared with the thousands of ordinary shoes on the High St., so there simply isn't the same scope to keep looking until you find something that fits.
To address your points
1) I sympathise with but this is the internet age, shops that can't compete with selection and price as online go under. It is normal now for people to buy 3-4 things online and keep what they need and return the rest. You could get deliveries to all sorts of places - I can use Collect+, Doddle as well as Amazon lockers, UPS collection points etc
2) Yes this is a bugbear for me, trying to get the right fit and features you want is hard for people with weird feet, I had this all through life. Lake and Northwave do good sizes though I had to go a size up for Northwave. The Lake ones are SPD for commuting for me
3) This is not the normal use though, yes it's a pain to need comfortable boots that you can do extended walking in but it's a very rare setup that requires this. If you need to walk 10 miles a day or whatever in shoes then absolutely go for flats, when I do sport on astro pitches near me I cycle in the astro shoes on flat pedals because it's simpler than carrying 2 pairs. However the general point for cycling for leisure/competition and commuting is different and here SPD shoes are fine as you rarely walk more than a short distance0 -
To be honest if you just assume these things without checking you're onto a hiding to nothing. Wiggle, as a single example, use Collect+ or Doddle. You can have the thing delivered to where you want (I use a local Co-op which is open 7am-9pm Mon-Sat). You try it on, if you want to return it, fill out the form, print the label and drop it off at the same location. It can be done out of work hours with no issue.
So all I have to do is walk a few miles for every pair of shoes I want to try. Then walk a few miles back to return them. And before I can do that, I need to buy a printer. Great.
If you assume these things without checking, you're on a hiding to nothing.
Evans allow you to order into the shop and you can simply reject the stuff you don't need as soon as you have tried it on which can be done on a Saturday or Sunday.
Okay, it's only a few hours round trip to the nearest Evans. But last time I went they would only order a maximum of three items at a time.Moreover, why would you be buying a dozen pairs of shoes in a short time? Do you not do basic research into what you need? I need wide fit stuff so I simply googled it to find out brands who do wide fitting (e.g. Shimano, Lake) and looked at reviews to see how good the fit was. Of the 4 pairs I have ever ordered from Shimano, Lake, Specialized and Northwave I only had to reject one pair due to a poor fit
How on earth can you research the shape of your feet and correspondence to shoe comfort?! It's not like feet come in two sizes: standard and wide. There are infinite degrees of difference between different people's feet.0 -
We all have our own experiences, our own comfort tolerances, and our own way of doing things, whether buying online or in an LBS. I researched my latest Giro shoe purchase online, by discovering that they were not slim fit, they had variable arch support, and a half size above my shoe size would be the right size to buy. I ordered them, and they are perfect. I might just be easy to please...
Cyclists are not a homogeneous species. We cycle with different reasons, purposes, ambitions, abilities and sensibilities. I'm frankly tired of trying to explain that to drivers and non-cyclists.
So we do what is right for us. Whether that be picking and choosing online, or in the bike shop. Whether we have feet that make choices difficult, whether that choice is compounded by our 'need/desire' for clipless over flat pedal shoes. As long as the market place has a way of serving that need, why should others' ways be wrong?
More relevant to this thread, why should others be ridiculed or criticised for making different choices, choices that best suit their particular needs, desires and pockets?Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.0 -
So all I have to do is walk a few miles for every pair of shoes I want to try. Then walk a few miles back to return them. And before I can do that, I need to buy a printer. Great.
It's really a stretch to believe you do not have any access to a printer at all (work, home, partner etc). They cost about 20 quid and I use my own for all sorts of stuff. Why do you need to walk miles? Do you not live near any sort of delivery place? Why can't you cycle or drive there or get a lift?Okay, it's only a few hours round trip to the nearest Evans. But last time I went they would only order a maximum of three items at a time.
Why can't the LBS order them in?How on earth can you research the shape of your feet and correspondence to shoe comfort?! It's not like feet come in two sizes: standard and wide. There are infinite degrees of difference between different people's feet.
Now you're just being obtuse. You must buy shoes so you know your shoe size. You know whether you need to go up a size or if a wide fit in your normal shoe length is ok or if you need a bigger shoe in narrow or wide. Even if there are infinite degrees of difference, shoe makers do not make infinite degrees of shoe sizes. So you know where to start. You go on a bike forum or facebook group, you chat to people, you explain what you have now and what you want and people offer help and opinions. You can find out that say Specialized wide fit isn't as wide as Shimano (that was my experience in buying my first pair) or that the ones you soften in the oven to fit you are good or bad etc. You narrow it down to a few pairs and order them in, find the pair that is right then return the others0
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