Breakthru with Slippery Shoes
Last night I rode my race bike into town to a meeting. To keep things light, I didn’t bring spare shoes, just race cleats with slippery exposed cleats and hard plastic curved sole. I wouldn’t have to do any walking. But the folks at the meeting wondered about my get-up. They wondered what if I ever DID have to do some walking, like if my bike broke down, what would I do? That was awkward. I like riding prepared, spares, tools and all. But I hadn’t thought about my feet, walking or shoes in any other sense than riding. Jeez.
The funny thing is that I have recently thought about this, and when I needed new pedals for my commuter bike I also got new shoes which could be used for walking. It’s silly how limited my race shoes are. But I still use them when riding the race bike! I usually don’t go shopping in them. (But often enough I do! A slippery, silly experience!)
I just plain never thought about an actual need to walk that might come up on a ride.
In my whole life, though, while road riding, I’ve only had to walk a couple times. I guess with the race shoes I’d walk no more than a half mile; I could walk barefoot (depending if possible); I could hitch-hike.
Anyway: I have the very nice Nike Pedali Combo shoes for my commuter/walking. They used to be pretty purple/green. Now they’re ugly black. But maybe they’re not stiff enough for really intense race-like roadwork. Does anyone know of a race-worthy shoe that you can still walk in OK? Not too pricey? I spose that means stiff sole, some rubber tread and recessed SPUD cleat. Maybe I’ll get a pair and some new pedals, too. Or maybe I’ll just use my Pedali’s on the road. Anyone else use these shoes?
