Special Cycling Shoes

All sports have a certain gear connected to them. Essentially, what you wear or what you put on to play a particular sport that will make you comfortable. This gear is important for professional and safety reasons.

While for a sport like swimming or Triathlons, the accessories are multiple like goggles, wet suits, caps, and others. But for Cycling, apart from an excellent top class bike, all you need is a good, firm, strong pair of shoes to get you all the way across the course.

Nowadays, as technology progresses, cycling shoes are created to work as part of clip less pedal systems. In these systems, the pedal is directly attached to the shoe for the purpose of maximum effectiveness of power, which comes by using a clip on the backside of every shoe and a matched fitting on the pedal along with it.

Another system used in modern day cycling is the toe clip system where a toe clip is attached onto the pedal and all the cyclist needs to do is slip his feet inside it. This toe clip ensures grip and makes sure that the cyclist’s feet do not slip off while cycling. Some systems involve shoes already attached to the pedals of the cycles. So the cyclist can just sit and slip it on without further ado. These shoes mostly come with elastic laces so that they don’t have to bother themselves with tying laces.

Cycling shoes are available in a variety of designs and sizes based on how intense the competition is expected to be and how rough is the terrain they work on. The main key features of cycling shoes are rigidity, firmness, lightness, shape and the sole. They come in four basic types: for road racing, touring, spinning, and mountain biking or off-road cycling.

Road cycling must involve the use of shoes that is very smooth, strong and fixed. The sole of these shoes is inflexible in nature and also this sole is bent in a manner such that power can be transferred as well as focused at a single point. Quality is generally measured by the shoe’s rigidity, lasting capability and lightness. Touring shoes on the other hand often give up on rigidity for grip and add treads and a lower-level cleat, so that the rider can both walk and cycle effortlessly.

There is a recessed cleat available in the shoes used for Mountain Biking and along with the sole of these shoes; studs and spikes are also present. This is ensured as the sport of mountain biking involves a very difficult as well as a rocky terrain.

The cleats used for Mountain biking are mostly smaller in size than road cleats. The shoes meant for spinning are something that have been very recently developed on the basis of a brand new concept like a mixture of road and touring shoes, with a hard and firm sole. The spinning shoes are made out of a very light, smooth and thin material to make sure that the biker does not face problems. It is also done on purpose to make sure that the shoes are extremely comfortable, light and can be worn for long hours without bother.