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My current bike shoes are 2.5 years old and getting a bit stretched and beat up, so I’ve been thinking about replacing them with a pair of Specialized-brand shoes because I’ve heard good things from a number of friends about how well their Body Geometry products fit. (I’ve also been very happy with their Phenom saddle, another BG product.)
On Friday I stopped into Fraser Bicycle and Fitness to pick up another Feedback Sports RAKK and while there I noticed that they had a number of last year’s shoes on clearance, including a pair of Specialized MTB shoes in my size for 50% off. Being ~$70 instead of ~$140 made it an easy choice. The shoes I ended up with are 2010 Comp MTB Shoe, in brown, size 46. They can be seen above fitted with toe studs, brand new Crank Brothers Eggbeater cleats, and Crank Brothers Shoe Shields.
As part of adjusting them I removed the toe studs and moved the cleats up about 10mm, roughly two marks on the bottoms of the shoes. While I like the idea of the toe studs they make walking prohibitively difficult and I don’t think I’m likely to find myself in a situation where they are needed. I might install them for a cyclocross race in the fall, but otherwise I think they’ll stay off the shoes.
Hopefully I’ll have a chance to try them out for actual trail riding and see how they work. The uppers of these seem quite a bit stiffer than my previous shoes so hopefully that won’t be a bother. I don’t remember what the Sidis were like when I got them, but I don’t remember them being quite this stiff. Hopefully this won’t be a problem.