gear review: shoes & pedals
Addie's shoe review
My good friend Addie is obsessed with shoes (she's 17, go figure) and she inspired me to write about the shoes I used on tour. I couldn't use my beloved Shimano 211's because walking around in a carbon sole with a road cleat while touring is terrible. So I chose a shimano mountain shoe for a similar fit, especially with the custom orthodic that Bill Peterson made for me. For some people (including myself) a high quality orthodic, nice shoes, and the saddle are the most important parts of a bike to achieve perfict fit. I highly reccommend going to Bill in Newport RI to have some made. Pro's fly across the Atlantic just to see him, nuff said.
Shimano 181's: They fit good so I bought them. They proved to be comfortable and that was the important part. The problem I had with them was that they have a ratchet buckle which gets in the way for sitting on the ground and taking leg warmers off while riding. And ratchets are known to break so there's also a potential reliability issue. They seemed kinda heavy too. Shimano makes an all velcro mtn shoe but it doesn't come in half sizes; of course I wear a 44.5. I'll probably check out some other brands of mtn shoe before my next tour.
Shimano XT pedals: These were my first spd pedals and they work just fine. spd's have a great reputation in all sorts of conditions. The cleats started releasing when pulling up (powercrank style) so I increased tension. But it was probably because I am using the SH-56/multi release cleat and should be using the more standard SH-51. Fortunately I felt fine with rotation but I would try a fixed cleat if they made one.
Innov8 roclite 285's: These were my off the bike shoes. I bought them for running last fall to toughen up my legs for the bike tour. I chose them for one reason: the slope from the heel down to the toes is minimal, inside the shoe the heel is only 1 or 2 mm higher than the ball of the foot. Normal running shoes slope 8 to 10mm. This really helped me get back into running because with the heel being nice and low it doesn't strike the ground as hard resulting in more comfort. Additional benifits I experienced using the low heel are 1.) proper posture, especially while running (the whole barefoot is natural theroy) and 2.) its much much harder to roll an ankle with the low profile heel compared to a typical running shoe. I tried an orthodic in the shoe for a bit but didn't like it. Again the whole barefoot is natural theroy, we have an arch in our foot and its there for a reason......some say to absorb the impact and then act like a spring when pushing off. I am in no way an experienced runner so take this with a grain of salt.
That being said I chose these shoes for my tour because they are compact and lightweight, less than 290g for my size 44's. And they dry out okay. But they did get smelly (not terribly) especially in the Swedish rain. Must be what they're made from cuz I don't have smelly feet. The smell spread to my socks sometimes but didn't transfer as far as my 181's. I put them thru the washingmachine in Stokholm which didn't help much. The offroad trail/hiking type tread was great for some campsites. Color....not stealth.
Oracle Jen used Crocs which elimante the smell and drying out issue but were bulky and not the best traction. They are lightweight and the low heel makes them surprisingly stable. I might try Crocs on my next bike tour.
