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« on: May 10, 2009, 08:51:23 pm »
All I can say is based on my personal experience.
After years of suffering with mild foot pain from clip-style pedals, I reluctantly tried clipless shoes/pedals and HATED them. My feet were more sore than ever after being locked into ONE foot position for mile after mile. A little secret...rumor has it that there are those who lurk among us claiming studies show even professional cyclists only pull UP on their pedals a very small portion of ride time. To me, cycling is an exercise in freedom. Why LOCK one's foot to the bike if pulling up on the pedal on the backstroke only happens occasionally for people who make a living doing so? Nor less an amature who just wants a pain-free-pedaling-experience? The best arguement I've heard for clipless pedals is from retailers who want to sell cyclists another pricey gadget (in my humble opinion).
Anyway...here's what works for me...hold you laughs...hang on now...get the kids out of the room...lock your doors...what works for me...is...FLIP FLOPS! Serious as a heart attack. Flip flops. I'll wait a second for you to stop laughing. Ok...anytime now. That's better.
My experience - my PERSONAL EXPERIENCE - is that nothing works better for me than flip flops. Nothing is cooler than flip flops. With flip flops my feet are free to move about the pedal, so if one area of foot is getting sore - near the middle of the sole, for instance - I can move my foot forward on the pedal and sort of pedal on my heels for a while. If I decide to really mash on some gears while going up a hill I can move to the ball of each foot and bring some serious calf muscle action into the picture. I can flair the feet out like a duck for a while, or pedal pigeon-toed if that's what relieves tension on my "dogs". Speaking of dogs, I ride pulling my 90 pound black lab behind me in a Wike brand trailor. I'm pullin' about 125 pounds behind me with every ride. I just pulled the mutt 26 miles last Friday after work, and another 44 miles Saturday afternoon...all while wearing flip flops! This ain't no hoity-toity sweat free leisure cycling I'm talkin' bout (although it IS great fun). It's some serious work. Still, flip flops are my normal summertime cycling footwear if the temp are above about 60 degrees F or so, and I've done this for two years. I even laughed at myself when I first thought about trying it...but they're great! The only drawback I first had was the pressure of the thong between my toes. I soon got used to it - maybe even had tissue build up to resist it - and wouldn't do any summer pedaling in anything but flip flops from now on. I can't tell you how pain free my cycling has become now that I've gotten away from the locked-in clipless mindset. Just another perspective to consider. Look at it this way...try flip flops first for a couple of weeks and see what you think. Worst case scenario? You're out $14 but ready for your next trip to the beach.
What about winter? In cool weather I wear RedWing boots. One pair will last a cyclist a lifetime. RedWing stores will even oil them and re-lace them for free for the life of the shoe/boot. They come in honest-to-goodness wide sizes (I wear an EE), and various heights from oxford style low-cuts to full-fledged logger boots (real honest to goodness logger boots). I'm not suggesting logger boots are good for cycling but if you don't laugh TOO much at me in my flip flops I won't laugh too much at whatever you find works for you.
One last idea...barefoot pedals! I haven't tried them yet, but I will by mid-summer. Just "Google" em...you'll find em. If you try em, let me know what you think...ok?
Peaceful Pedalin!
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