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Recommend Goldilocks shoes -- not road, not MTB?

1K views 9 replies 8 participants last post by  California L33 
#1 ·
For years I have been looking for road shoes that allow the rider to walk fairly normally, but still have the performance characteristics of good road shoes (i.e., not those canvas or mesh-y commuter-type shoes), and without having huge, chunky MTB-type soles. I did have regular road shoes for awhile, but I hated not being able to walk into a convenience store without feeling like a martian or like I'm about to fall on my rear end. If I'm riding a metric century or longer with my wife, I can guarantee you we will be getting off the bikes 2-3 times and walking a bit to stretch, etc.

The shoes I've seen described as touring shoes look like running shoes with cleats stuck in the bottom. I eventually switched to a pair of Lake MTB shoes that aren't too aggressively soled, but they're heavy and not as stiff as good road shoes.

It seems like one of the shoe companies would have thought of this already ... if you think about the current trend of "plush" bikes, these would be shoes that match that concept.

Anyone know of any shoes that come close to this description?

BTW: A recent thread (http://forums.roadbikereview.com/showthread.php?t=14066) came close to answering my question but not really ... again, the solutions offered covered the choices described above but not the shoe I'm looking for.

Looking forward to reading your collective wisdom!
 
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#2 ·
A thread on the 2004 Vuelta came close to answering your shoe dilemna? Interesting.

I say "high end mtn shoes" such as the Sidi Dominator and Dragon or similar. Alot of those shoes are using carbon soles these days and should have similar stiffness to road shoes, with the addition of a recessed cleat due to the lugged sole.

Plush shoes usually = not so stiff shoes.
 
#4 ·
Back to toe clips

Road shoe stiffness without the road shoe duck walk or huge, chunky MTB-type soles. I think it can't exist with clipless pedals.

There are lots of MTB shoes that are stiff enough, and those "huge, chunky MTB-type soles" give a recess for the cleat to fit into so you don't have the road shoe duck walk. In other words, with clipless pedals, you're either walking on a front cleat in a road shoe or on MTB-style soles (with a recessed cleat). You can get flat-bottomed road shoes for toe-clip pedals, but I bet they are no fun to walk in either, and they lose some of their effectiveness if you don't mount the clip. I'm not sure I get the problem with MTB-type soles, other than aesthetics. Sidi MTB shoes look pretty good to my eye, and I can walk quite well in them.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Most of the shoe companies have an upper end MTB shoe that is the same as the high end road shoe with the addition of a small row of lugs around the sides of the sole. You have to look close and from a low angle to even tell that they are not a road shoe. They are stiff and ride like a road shoe yet are walkable. My set up is a pair of Diadora carbon shoes with CB Quattro 's. Works for me and I can walk fine.
 
#8 ·
jd3 said:
Most of the shoe companies have an upper end MTB shoe that is the same as the high end road shoe with the addition of a small row of lugs around the sides of the sole. You have to look close and from a low angle to even tell that they are not a road shoe. They are stiff and ride like a road shoe yet are walkable. My set up is a pair of Diadora carbon shoes with CB Quattro 's. Works for me and I can walk fine.
Just what I was about to say. I've got the North Wave equivalent- a road shoe with conservative mountain soles- can walk anywhere in them without dragging your cleats, but you still don't want to walk a long way because the soles are so stiff. (Naturally, these are only good for mountain pedals, but as I standardized all my bikes on mountain pedals a while back, that's no problem).
 
#9 ·
Thanks all -- some interesting suggestions but confirms my suspicion that there is a market niche none of the shoe companies is exploiting.

The Shimano (previous post) is a good response and it looks interesting but the shoe still has that running-shoe type material and appears to be heavy, but I will check it out.

The Dragon 2 looks awesome but I was completely unaware that you could spend more than $400 on cycling shoes :eek: (I'm sure they can be found for less than that, but still....)

I will also check out the other suggestions. Again, thanks to all and if there are any shoe company reps reading this post, you might want to be first mover to introduce a shoe for people like me, I think you're missing a market.
 
#10 ·
since17 said:
Thanks all -- some interesting suggestions but confirms my suspicion that there is a market niche none of the shoe companies is exploiting.

The Shimano (previous post) is a good response and it looks interesting but the shoe still has that running-shoe type material and appears to be heavy, but I will check it out.

The Dragon 2 looks awesome but I was completely unaware that you could spend more than $400 on cycling shoes :eek: (I'm sure they can be found for less than that, but still....)

I will also check out the other suggestions. Again, thanks to all and if there are any shoe company reps reading this post, you might want to be first mover to introduce a shoe for people like me, I think you're missing a market.
See if this fits the bill-

http://www.backcountry.com/store/NT...l?CMP_ID=SH_FRO001&CMP_SKU=NTH0089&mv_pc=r126

Most bike shoe companies have something similar.
 
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