When you can't afford retro shoes...

[bigfatron]

Also not too far from you in Gerrards Cross.
Have you seen the thread about a Berkshire retro ride?
Take a look, Martin's arranging a ride from Windsor on Sunday 5th June at 8 am.
Richie

 

[dirttorpedo]

I've been toying with the idea of wearing vintage bowling shoes to L'Eroica. I can't rationalize 75 quid for vintage shoes. Grant Petersen of Rivendell fame doesn't think much of cycling specific shoes if the pedals are comfortable. He's a big fan of teva sandals which makes me wonder if riding just regular shoes would be ok with the right kind of vintage touring pedals.

 

[mattr]

You'd have to be pretty careful with your shoe and pedal choice.

Bowling shoes have VERY flexible and slippy soles, you'd need a massive and grippy pedal and wouldn't be able to use toe clips and straps.
Same with regular shoes, but to a lesser extent (the soles aren't so slippy, or flexible.)

And every time i read that Rivendell article, the bits of information and provisos that he misses out make me cringe inwardly!

 

[Ajoten]

...Same with regular shoes, but to a lesser extent...

And I can attest to this, it's one of the reasons I'm grumbling to myself about this whole shoe/pedal/strap malarkey and struggling on climbs.

@bigfatron, my usual poison is a 45 in Specialized (they seem to be wider) and thanks for the offer, but it's not worth going mad re shoes when they'll only get worn a couple of times a year. How terrifying are those slotted cleat thingies?

(Also @bigfatron, are you going to the Chiltern Cycling Festival? I've signed up for the 30 mile retro ride, which sadly involves Kop Hill I think.)

 

[Maca]

Re:

I'm going to try and don't he Chilten ride as well. I don't think kop is part of the 30 mile classic is it ????

 

[Ajoten]

You've sown a little seed of hope that it's not. With this macho block I'll never get up it.

 

[bigfatron]

Re:

I've not signed up for the Chiltern ride yet.
I did the 60 mile 2 years ago, it wasn't so tough.
If I go this year I'll do the same again - we'll ride round together Paul?

I have some size 45 Sidi from back in the day if you like Andrew, blue and grey with a Velcro strap, £20 complete with cleats. I bought them for winter but have only worn them twice, they are in good nick, let me know if you're interested.

Richie

 

[mattr]

How terrifying are those slotted cleat thingies?

Not terrifying at all.
You've just got to remember that a) straps aren't meant to be done up tightly unless you are coming up to a sprint or climb etc. Most of the time they should be fairly loose. and b) you need to use a rolling motion to get the clearance to release, rather than the twist of modern clipless pedals.

The new clipless pedals and ratchets/straps/spools allow you to do the shoe up comfortably and still be really really tightly attached to the pedal without breaking bones in your foot. In the old days, if you were really tightly attached to the pedal, you'd not be able to feel your toes after 10 minutes....... so don't do it.

 

[Ajoten]

... straps aren't meant to be done up tightly unless you are coming up to a sprint or climb etc...

While that makes sense, my problem is that when faced with a lowest gearing of 21/45 the likelihood of me needing to unstrap on a climb is quite high

 

[mattr]

45/21? That's certainly a rather stiff gear, got to wonder why!