Cycling Shoes For Road Racing Cyclists

There are many different shoes, but they all do the same thing.A solid sol e and a secure fastening system are the most important in all shoes.

The sole of the road cycling shoe now come in different materials, they used to be made of leather and you had to nail the shoe plate onto the sole, this was a very tricky exercise.

In those days shoe plates were two metal bars that slotted onto the back plate of the pedal and with toe clips and straps your foot was held tight.

The shoe plate had to be fitted correctly or you could get big problems with your knees.

Now of course every-one uses clip less pedals that screw to the sole and are fully adjustable with a float system so even if you are a bit off with you fitting or you have a problem with your knees or one leg is different from the other this will allow for that and should save you a lot of pain and trouble.

Now the sole of the road cycling shoe is made of plastic or more expensively carbon. Plastic can be made to any shape and is fairly cheap to produce, so is the perfect material for the sole, threaded recesses for the different kinds of shoe plates are set into the plastic so you just have to screw you plates straight on.

Carbon soles are now very popular, they also have the fittings for your shoe plates, but the main advantage is their strength and lightweight, but there is no “give” in the sole so can cause sore feet. Some carbon soles now come with a stiffness adjustability, the other problem with carbon is the price, it is not cheep, but is now the choice of most professional cyclists.

The Upper Of The Road Cycling Shoe

The upper part of the road cycling shoe also used to be made of leather, very comfortable but it stretched and also they hurt your feet where the lacing rubbed on the top of your foot.

When clip-less pedals were invented it was soon discovered that the top of the shoe had to be a lot stronger as now there was no clips and straps around the shoe and the shoe itself had to take the strain of pulling up on the pedal. Now most cycling shoe manufacturers use a mixture of plastic mesh for strength and ventilation and leather for comfort.

The fixing systems now are mostly the same on all different makes of shoes, an adjustable ratchet clip on the top of the shoe where lacing used to be, usually with two, three or some times four clips, is now the norm.

Other systems are being used but all do the same to hold your foot tightly in the shoe, you must try a few to see which is most comfortable for you.

DMT Flash Carbon Soled Cycling Shoes
“If you want to sprint like the Italian Super Star, Alessandro Pettacchi you need to do two things, get a pair of DMT cycling Shoes and, more difficultly, train for many hours over many miles for a long time, oh and have a special sprinters ability!”