Hi Nick,
Nick March schrieb:
> The whole issue of cycling shoes and stiff soles
> is a load of pure, unadultered, copperplated baloney.
For you.
> Clips are really fine. As long as you don't strap your > feet tight. They look good, they are part of the fun > of riding old machines, but to the average cyclist > they offer no advantage whatsoever apart from foot > placement (and mostly people fit any length period > clip irrespective of their shoe size).
The advantage is that you don't slip off of the pedals.
> So why do so many people wear specific shoes locked
> to the pedals ? Because they are like the Baboons on
> Gibraltar rock, they copy whatever they see.
I do it for better control and improved safety on rough rides. If you ever has seen what a german cycle track can look like you would concur. Going a little bit faster on it, it isn't easy not to loose control. In most cases I don't use the cycle tracks and prefer the street but german cardrivers are aggressive and dangerous sometimes so... Doing a fast bunny hop to escape from a bloodthirsty car driver is much easier with clips or- much better- clipless system pedals.
> Tommorow the marketting boys tell the sponsored > racers to ride the Giro mountain stages with a pink > Ostrich feather protuding from the back of their > Lycra pants, 1 000 000 000 cyclist will spend 50 > trillion bucks on pink ostrich feathers.
Well I would like the pink feather thing much, but I will never dress
myself in Lycra.
> This is only my opinion and I can imagine that other
> people won't agree, which is fine, anybody is allowed
> to be wrong, it's a free world.
So what are you trying to tell?
> Plimsoles (sneakers) are fine if you feel good in 'em,
> the only rigidity you need to add is to the underside
> of the sole to stop your soft plims being torn apart by
> the pedal cage edges.
I had problems using Sneakers on racing pedals as I got cramps and the toes began to prickle. As a type 1 diabetic, I have to be extremely carefull for my feets and this is the reason why I use stiff soles- on long rides my feets are well and- to be honest- it is really sexy too to use funny equipment like this, feeling like a pro a little bit.
Riding Oldtimers is also a case of style and not really rational from the mainstream view so what...
best regards, Richard
Richard Timm,
Hamburg, Germany