true confessions (but mostly stealth braggin')

Remember that picture of me mountain biking in pink loafers?

I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I never take those off. I just went hiking in them. They’re so ugly and I probably look really weird but every time I leave the house, I slip them on.

The bottom of the soles are chewed up from the pins in my flat pedals now.

My Mavic XC shoes used to prevent click-clack, but I’ve done so many bike tours in them that I wore the soles down to the point that they click-clack. :frowning:

Yeah I finally replaced my shitty low-end Sidis from 10 years ago with some Giro Code VR70s that were on super sale (sale + alumni discount at the shop I used to work at). Holy shit they are better. The sole is way stiffer and the actual rubber lugs and tread (instead of the hard plastic soccer cleats on the sidis) mean that if I need to unclip I can actually put my foot down wherever and have some reasonable expectation of traction.

I might even try clipless on the mountain bike again, though I’ll probably go back to flats like always.

Everyone’s shoes are so good, and SIDI is stuck in 2006. I don’t know why anyone would buy them.

I have immense brand attachment to SiDi, but when I can get a pair of Giro Trans HV off of Amazon for like $70, I don’t see myself going back to a $300 shoe that pinches my pinkie toes and comes with an insole made out of burlap.
It’s kinda weird. when I got into road bikes, Italian everything was 100% the best in category. Now, the only Italian brands on my radar are a couple of apparel makers who do good weatherproof pieces (Gabba, G Shield). Everything else in my bike consumer world is Shimano, random US custom framebuilders, or cheap gray market small pieces off of ebay or amazon.

I feel like that’s just us becoming more knowledgeable consumers though. I still know people who have a hardon for every Italian component manufacturer, especially in the road world.

Sidi’s shitty stuck-in-2000 advertising was the final nail for me.

Partly, for sure. The US custom frame market back around 2000 was pretty slim pickings, too. And there weren’t as many quality US-based apparel ventures.
And, of course, that was when China was just starting to really cement itself as the default manufacturer for everything but microprocessors and jet engines. Italian stuff was still being made in Italy, which maintained the fiction that a Mr. Castelli was in his workshop, hand-stitching your shorts.

[quote=deadforkinglast]Yeah I finally replaced my shitty low-end Sidis from 10 years ago with some Giro Code VR70s that were on super sale (sale + alumni discount at the shop I used to work at). Holy shit they are better. The sole is way stiffer and the actual rubber lugs and tread (instead of the hard plastic soccer cleats on the sidis) mean that if I need to unclip I can actually put my foot down wherever and have some reasonable expectation of traction.

I might even try clipless on the mountain bike again, though I’ll probably go back to flats like always.[/quote]

I got the same shoes on super sale and love them. The three different arch supports are a nice bonus.

Yeah, that was nice and unexpected, though, somewhat disappointingly, I think I’m best with the middle (stock) configuration, but it’s still nice to have had the option.

I do wish the cleat could be mounted a little bit further back, but that’s true of just about every shoe ever.

[quote=Endpoint]You’re weird. Or maybe I’m weird.

I can’t stomach riding more than a mile on flats. [/quote]

I used to clip in for everything, now I do 20-30 mile mtb rides on flats. Being attached to the pedals no longer seems relevant unless i’m doing a difficult road ride or training/racing at the track. I can pedal hard on flats and ride super technical terrain on flats. I can commute in any pair of shoes I want and not clip clop around in plastic shoes across the gravel at home and up all the stairs at work. Some of y’all just haven’t experienced the liberation that is riding on flats…

[quote=aerobear][quote=Endpoint]You’re weird. Or maybe I’m weird.

I can’t stomach riding more than a mile on flats. [/quote]

I used to clip in for everything, now I do 20-30 mile mtb rides on flats. Being attached to the pedals no longer seems relevant unless i’m doing a difficult road ride or training/racing at the track. I can pedal hard on flats and ride super technical terrain on flats. I can commute in any pair of shoes I want and not clip clop around in plastic shoes across the gravel at home and up all the stairs at work. Some of y’all just haven’t experienced the liberation that is riding on flats…[/quote]
What she said.

[quote=deadforkinglast][quote=aerobear][quote=Endpoint]You’re weird. Or maybe I’m weird.

I can’t stomach riding more than a mile on flats. [/quote]

I used to clip in for everything, now I do 20-30 mile mtb rides on flats. Being attached to the pedals no longer seems relevant unless i’m doing a difficult road ride or training/racing at the track. I can pedal hard on flats and ride super technical terrain on flats. I can commute in any pair of shoes I want and not clip clop around in plastic shoes across the gravel at home and up all the stairs at work. Some of y’all just haven’t experienced the liberation that is riding on flats…[/quote]
What she said.[/quote]

Flats has been this weird thing for me, I rode SPDs and Crank Bros for a long time but back on flats now. While I don’t FEEL as serious or fast? Flats are so convenient and I don’t slip around at all with five ten shoes and decent pedals with pins I am not sure I will go back. I just did a big 100 mile gravel/mtb race with flats on my grando versus mtb and clipless pedals. Got some weird looks but fuck it I finished fine. Plus its nice to be able to dab your foot down if you start to go down too.

I have half-SPD/half-flat pedals (the XT ones) on my commuter bike and I keep thinking about going full-time flat. Main thing stopping me is I do like to ride the SPDs if it’s raining but I guess I mostly just ride the platform side now. 20-30 mile rides on platforms would probably be too much for me though, I find after about 10 miles on platforms that my sneakers start to feel a little too soft.

Feet belts 4 ever

yeah, wear a decent shoe that isnt too squishy. it doesnt need to be stiff though. my first few rides in my 510s, one foot was going numb, but i think once igot used to it, it stopped happening and became pretty normal.

by contrast, i randomly did a road ride in running shoes on flats for the hell of it and the running shoes def didnt give me all of it. just not meant for it.

TC: I basically believe everything Grant Petersen writes about clipless. It’s ideal for racing and race-like riding, and useless for everything else. I use clipless on the bike I ride fast (at this point, just my Elephant), and everything else gets flats.

It bums me out to put clipless on some woman’s sporty hybrid because her friends or husband lied to her about how much more efficient she would be.

It’s not just efficiency though right? If you’re a weekend warrior and you want to find the quickest path to feet that don’t hurt you buy $150 “cycling” shoes and some $50 pedals. Pair it with some proper socks and get happy feet.

Time/miles not speed is the tipping point the way I see it. Comfort bikes and rubber flats at one end of the spectrum, sunny day hybrids and basket commuters in the middle. May as well clip in on anything else if you’re riding more than 5 miles (in terms of pavement/groad anyway).

Eh, your feet aren’t naturally meant to be locked down like that. Grant has it right in that regard. You build up some time in the pedals and you can ride flats all day with no issues. For me, it causes a lot less knee/hip stress since I can move my hips around. It’s probably marginally harder to pump out the watts, but it’s definitely more sustainable over long a duration. Like I said, I went from commuting to gradually working my way up to 3-4 hr mtb rides and once I got over a few initial cases of foot numbness, any discomfort is gone. My knees and hips now feel super weird going back to clipless pedals. It feels absolutely wrong.

I know clip in shoes are deeply embedded into our culture, but i’m becoming more and more doubtful of their benefit in many situations. The pull-up par of the pedal stroke is virtually ineffective at high power outputs. It really only happens at high cadence, low torque. At best, you minimize negative torque (which you can still do on flats).

Like I said, by no means do I think people should switch away from clips if they’re happy with it… but a lot of the “benefits” of clipless pedals we’ve been fed are only halfway true, if true at all. I’m actually pretty sure supporting muscles for my feet and ankles have become pretty severely weakened by years of riding clipless and not doing any other major exercise (aside from some lifting/core stuff in the gym).

I don’t disagree on most of that. I was mainly responding to Josh’s hybrid lady example. That rider type may or may not invest the time (or thought) into unlocking flat pedal lyfe. Stock flats on hybrids and the “athletic” shoes that rider already has are absolutely the wrong tool for the job if the job is more than riding to the coffee shop. High quality flats and and a pair of fivetens or something similar are the flip side of the spd coin. Both cycling specific and neither having much in common with what you average pleasure rider is sporting.

Also… to be clear, I’m not talking about trail riding at all. That’s a completely different animal.