Worn Out

These are my old bike shoes.

Can you tell which foot I use to push off with?  It is time to finally retire this pair.  I was getting a bit more wind on my toes than was designed.

When I bought my bike in 2008 I went with an upper middle level quality bike.  I knew that I would use it enough to justify the quality.  I didn’t go with very high quality shoes.  They were just barely above entry level.  They fit perfectly though, and at that point I wouldn’t have been able to tell the performance difference.

Now, as the components to my bike break down, I have been slowly upgrading the quality.  It’s one of the few spending areas that I am regularly willing to go above and beyond that which would suffice.

Each year my parents struggle to find me gifts for Christmas that I need or want.  This year I made it fairly easy on them and just made a list.  On this list was a new pair of bike shoes.  Obviously, you can’t get something that has to fit as well as bike shoes without the actual recipient present.  So, they just gave me the means to do so.

I turned that into these

They are so awesome!  Sorry, I’ll stop acting like I’m 12.

They are light, have a perfectly stiff sole – desired to transfer power to the pedals more efficiently, the soles are carbon – carbon is the gold standard for many things in the bike world, have replaceable heel cups, and have clasps that allow me to adjust the fit while rolling on the bike.  

I’ll show you a special surprise handmade gift related to biking in another post.