OK, as much as I hate the stereotype, I love shoes. and purses. I rarely actually BUY either of them, but I sure do like to window shop.

I’ve owned a pair of SIDI carbon cycling shoes since 2002 and loved them. But when I hit around 40-50 miles into a ride, my toes started going numb! Talk about gahhhh!!!

So I went back to PV Bike where I got my bike fitting ( A MUST for anyone, I’ll post seperately about that), and brought it up.

Turns out the toes of my shoes are too narrow – if you look at any of the SIDIs, especially the higher end, they have a really narrow, pointy toe. What the heck? Do European men have narrow pointy feet? Do I have giant square feet like The Witches by Roahl Dahl?

I was kind of bummed out because PV Bike had these super awesome SIDI chick shoes for 30% off  that were all pearly and incandescent.  It’s hard to tell but the white part is the incadescent area – it’s so cool. But I know me – I’m a dirt magnet on the bike; these shoes would become filthy in no time.

So I was trying on a pair of Specialized shoes, which have a rounder toe. While trying on a nice pair, I saw some guy come in and pick up his super-mega-1337 (that is ‘elite’ in hax0r) pair. I was like ‘I MUST TRY THOSE ON’. They didn’t have my size in the 2010 model, but had a pair of the 2009 model for 30% off in my size. SCORE. They were much lighter than the other pair I was going to buy, and much more hardcore.

WHY are they more hardcore? Because these shoes have a knob that you turn to tighten the shoe, versus the ‘ratchet’.  Note the round dial  – you push the dial down, and turn, and it tightens    the shoe. Kind of like really nice snowboarding boots.

There IS a big difference between the ’09 and ’10 model – the ’10 model has TWO dials that control upper and lower shoe tightening:

One knob

Two knobs

Pretty considerable difference, but I couldn’t afford the 2010 model and needed new shoes for a century coming up in a week.

It’s hard to tell the difference in the toe but here is a comparison of my new shoes versus my old ones:

New shoes performed amazingly, and I’m super happy with them. Now what to do with my old shoes? (I already have a cheaper pair of SIDIs that have SPD cleats, versus LOOK cleats, that I use for spin class).

As a side note, I got the men’s size. I don’t think there is any major difference between the woman’s and men’s shoes (versus lame ass names for the chick shoes, and goofier color schemes). I’m a size 10 shoe, so I already have large feet. I think that came to a size 41 or 42 in the Euro sizes.