How to Fit Bicycle Shoes

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Will from the Outspokin Bicycle and Sport shop located in Newbury, New Hampshire. Today we are going to talk about how to fit a bicycle shoe. In my hands I have a road shoe. Generally speaking road shoes and high end mountain shoes share a very similar sole platform. In this case there is no tread for aerodynamics, a mountain sole would have a lot of tread for traction. But we are going to talk about the upper more importantly. This fault holds true on both mountain and road. What we are going to focus more on in a good fit is going to be the forefoot. You have a lot of weight put down on the ball of your foot where your pedal is. So a lot of room in the forefoot is really imperative. Too tight might feel great in the store, but when you go up to pedal you will find your foot will fall asleep. And no matter how much you try to loosen up your shoe it just, it's very uncomfortable. So we are going to focus on the forefoot. So even if you are walking around in the shoe you have comfortable forefoot, a little roomy, and you feel a little heel lift. It's okay to have a little heel lift, these are not made for walking they are made for cycling. So once again focus on the ball of your foot. You have various methods for securing your foot in the shoe. In this case we have three velco straps, which are very popular. Because you can just reach down to tightening them up or to loosen them up while you are riding. The least expensive way to do this is just with regular laces they will conform to anybodies instep so that is a good inexpensive way of getting a great fit. And the real high end shoes you might see a ratchet mechanism here that you can tighten down with a plastic ratchet strap. But in essence make sure you focus on the ball of your foot no matter what shoe you buy. And that is how you fit a bicycle shoe."