Posted by Matthew

New shoes arrived today, nice shiny new Specialized road shoes – my first pair of road bike shoes for road riding. I’ve worn shoes with cleats for a while, but they’ve been mountain bike shoes, which means that you can easily walk in them when you’re off the bike as the cleat is recessed into the sole of the shoe. The new shoes have the cleat sticking out so they are far more efficient for road riding… but much harder to walk in!

Buying new shoes is not easy at the best of times, but cycling shoes are particularly hard to buy. They are not very stylish and certainly can’t be compared with Jimmy Choos, but I’ve gone with a very plain black pair. I was momentarily tempted by the patent red pair, but then thought no, too Wizard of Oz and so put them back on the shelf. So now I have shoes and bike, just need to put the two together and go for a test spin – the only trouble is I’m probably not going to have time to until next Monday :0( At least when I do go for a spin it will be to go and see my friend Polly – and I might even get to meet her man too, for some reason she has kept him well away from me – can’t imagine why.