In with the new.

For 2009 I bought road shoes. My old cycling shoes were an old pair of mountain bike shoes I had. Someone once told me to get rid of them as someone was going to make fun of me for wearing them on a road bike. However, in 5 years of using them, nobody ever did.

I had gone to pick up a bike stand that I had ordered and lo and behold 169 dollar road shoes were on sale for 99 bucks. They fit me well and had carbon fiber soles which doesn't mean too much to me, but I was excited to see if I could fee a difference now having a super stiff sole vs. the flexible mountain bike shoe. So I bought the shoes. I had a set of speedplay pedals that I had bought this summer and was excited to put these on my bike and use them with the new shoes.

I got home took, the pedals off the shelf then promptly lost them. I mean like they're gone. I've searched every where. I can't find them. I had moved the pedals, waited a day to install them and then they were gone. I have a sneaky suspicion I may have laid them with a bunch of boxes near the recycling pile and thrown them away. Oh and the garbage and recycling had been taken that morning. Ugh.

So I really wanted to go on a ride and I really wanted to use my new shoes. So I bought a pair of Shimano pedals. Now I could have kept looking, but this was 4 days ago and I still haven't found the pedals. So I'm glad about my purchase and I sorta like the larger surface that the Shimano's give me. I put on the pedals, put the cleats on the shoes, road up and down my street adjusting everything and went on a ride.

Things were real nice. The shoes were comfy. I felt I had more power when I was pedaling out of the saddle. Sweet. I then went on another ride a few days later. This one 18 miles. Still the shoes were comfy. Didn't feel if I had more power or not as the feel of my old mountain bike shoes was gone. I did really notice the feel of being aware of my pedal strokes and trying to be smooth. Very positive stuff.