John has been given a bit of advice on cycling shoes, he is worried that possibly it’s the wrong advice and wants to know what we think. Here is what we think about the right fitting cycling shoes and why!
Question: Regarding cycling shoe fit, I had a salesperson who seemed reasonably knowledgeable tell me that the length of the shoe didn’t matter. He tried selling me a shoe, with a proper rocking motion of moving my foot up and down and no pinching on the side.
However, the shoes were size 13 and I normally try to wear size 11.5. Is he trying to rip me off, or is there some truth in what he is saying. The shoe model was a 2015 Specialized Road Sport shoe.
Hi John,
This advice seems a little strange to me, all shoes should fit properly to all parts of the foot. They should be snug, but comfortable fit across the foot as well as the length of the foot, if you have shoes that are too long then your foot will move back and forward when you are pushing and pulling hard, say on a stiff climb.
Another reason is that the foot has to be in the correct position in the shoe so that the foot is over the shoe plate and in the place over the pedal.
If the shoe is too big the fittings for the shoe plate will be further forward than they should be making all your pedaling wrong and possibly, in the end, this could cause knee and hip problems.
Get the correct size shoes, the ones you are comfortable with.
