| One of the nicest things about cycling is that it's | | | | regular shoes or snickers, and this allows you both |
| generally possible to do it in your normal clothes | | | | to pedal more efficiently, and also helps the blood |
| without spending ages getting changed, or | | | | flow freely in your feet, which will help keep you |
| messing around with gadgets and pieces of kit. | | | | warm in cold weather, and cool in hot weather. |
| There is however one exception - regular cycling | | | | Clipless Pedals: |
| wears out your shoes very quickly, and for this | | | | Once you have become a regular cyclist, one of |
| reason it's best to wear specialist cycling shoes | | | | the things that you may wish to look into is |
| whenever possible. | | | | clipless pedals. These require special shoes with |
| The reason why cycling is hard on shoes, is that | | | | metal cleats on their soles: your feet are then |
| your feet need to grip the pedals, and this grip | | | | able to lock securely to the pedals, although you |
| tends to tear aware at the soles of your shoes. | | | | can receive instant release (for example in an |
| Thus you'll find it's a false economy to "save | | | | emergency) by simply twisting your feet. |
| money" money by buying sneakers and cycling in | | | | Shoes and cleats from different manufacturers |
| those. | | | | are generally interchangeable so you can mix and |
| Aside from durability, there other reason to | | | | match your choice of gear. In general, there are |
| choose specialist cycling shoes if possible. Cycling | | | | two bolt holes recessed in the sole of the shoe, |
| shoes are designed to support the whole of your | | | | and the cleat attaches to this. However, cleats |
| foot's sole, and this avoids you getting sore | | | | and clipless pedals are generally sold together and |
| patches at the places where the pedals touch. | | | | only work in specific combinations - so for these |
| Additionally, cycling shoes have stiffer soles than | | | | you cant mix and match. |