I’m trying to find new shoes and it’s a giant pain in the butt since I wear a 14D US sneaker. I think I need a wide width to allow some room for G8 or custom insoles to hopefully sort out some numbess and toe pain I have sometimes. I’ve been using Fizik 48 regular for a while that are long enough but just a bit too snug.
I’ve hear great things about Lake wide shoes, but they don’t offer much in a 49 Wide. The 48 Wide is too snug and I only have 3-4mm clearance from my toes to the edge of the stock footbed (see the pic). A 50W would probably mean ~15mm of clearance…is that too much? I think the width would work. Would that make the shoe too long and affect getting the cleats in the right spot?
I got a killer deal on some Sidi 49 Mega shoes and they’re too big. They fit well with a thick insole and winter wool socks Somehow the Sidi 49 Mega insole (in blue) doesn’t look that different in size from the 48W Lake one.
I going crazy here buying and returning online and can’t actually mount cleats if I want to return them. Any tips are appreciated!!
The arc can act as an optical illusion…we go through this sometimes with out retailers when they try and compare blood pressure cuffs and the lower one appears shorter than the higher one, even though they are the same size.
Stack them together and stand them on the heel and see how they compare then. That is the best way to tell a length difference.
You make a fair point, but just looking at the insoles is maddening. Lots of fit advice I’ve seen says you should have some room beyond your toes (how much?) and your foot shouldn’t stick out over the insole because that means the shoe is too narrow. I’m kind of stuck trying to figure this out by measurements because no shop has multiple shoes I can try and I can’t return shoes to online vendors once I’ve installed cleats and ridden them.
Tried to measure as best as I could with a metric tape measure and making a point not to deform the foot beds…
Sidi 49 Mega: 309mm long, 105mm widest point … shoe is floppy
Lake 48 Wide: 309mm long, 110mm widest point … shoe is too snug
I get it…there is often very little overlap between shoe companies.
You also have to remember that the foot bed / sole is just one part of the equation…how the upper is constructed can have a big influence on how a show fits a foot. So you could have two identical soles but the construction of the uppers between the two shoes can make the feel vastly different.
I have 1 foot a half size bigger than the other so I have had shoe issues. I use Lake wide fit shoes. I find if the length is too long then my heel has a tendency to lift out of the shoe. I find Lake shoes are the best when it comes to having my cleats mounted very far back. Maybe this will help you somewhat.
I’ve always been so concerned about having enough width to be concerned about the length, but every one is different, and having long potentially narrow feet would be the general opposite of what I suffer with. When I started riding, finding a shoe that actually fit my feet was such a treat! I used SPD pedals in the beginning because it seemed MTB shoes fit better, but found some manufacturers that had more ‘sane’ shoes. And when you find a brand, try to stick with them, hoping they don’t change their shoes like some non-bike shoes I’ve tried replacing recently.
Like, some popular shoe brands (Sidi) I’d have to go way above my size to get the width, but the length could have stripes painted on to land planes, they would be so long that keeping my foot from sliding out to the front would be almost impossible, and walking and not tripping on the LONG toe would be comical. Good luck…
I have at least 10mm in front of my toes. I believe that’s too much on average. However, I know my feet are relatively wide at the toebox, and shoes that have less free space in front tend to fit too tight in the toebox for me.
For length, get the smallest size where your toes don’t touch the front inside edge of the shoes, especially when you’re pushing down/putting a load through your foot.
if your toes touch, the shoe is too small.
if your toes don’t touch, make sure they touch in the next smaller size.
But be careful: I found a pair that fit width wise, and yet were a little too short apparently. They caused my toes to kind of arch more as I was riding hard and I developed a hard mass over the joint in a couple toes that I hear is a bunion? (Oh, not a bunion. Not sure what it’s called) It was kind of painful too. The socks rubbing on it and the inside of my shoe set it off I think. After I swapped shoes, it gradually went away. (I’ve heard people having to have those removed at a podiatrist office)
You’re not walking; you’re not running. Cycling shoes basically have a molded arch and two wide points. That’s the first thing you need to size. Space past your toe is irrelevant.
The insole you’re standing on in your OP is too small for you.
Standing on the insole is actually a good trick when sizing. I’d say for cycling shoes 1 - 1.5cm (a finger’s width) is a good amount of space in front of your toes. You don’t need as much as, say, a pair of running shoes or hiking boots (a thumb’s width). You should ensure that you have a good enough lockdown in the heel and midfoot that your foot isn’t sliding forward.
As for width, that’s when the insole trick doesn’t work as well. You’re almost never going to find an insole that you can stand on that appears to be the right width because the insole is nowhere near the widest part of the shoe. Instead, I’d put the shoe on, snug it up, and move your toes around a bit. Wear them for a little while too. If you feel any tingling or numbness, they’re too narrow.
Oftentimes, proper arch support, cleat positioning, shimming/wedging, etc. all play a role in foot comfort as well…
Bike shoes can be such a PITA. Width issues, length issues, arch issues, just too much drama sometimes. (Like buying bibs and deciphering the ‘types’ and how that might fit, and dealing with the company that ‘updates’ your (my) favorite bibs and makes them extra small/tight Racer-X fit, meaning having to buy XXL when a L fit perfectly before )
I’ve had the talk with noob riders who go forth looking to jump start their collection of necessities for their new expensive hobby. Yeah, try on the shoes, sizing really is more of a concept than a fact. If it says ‘race’ anywhere in the description, order at least 2 sizes up and try them on BEFORE you remove the tags…
Yeah… it is EXCEPTIONALLY difficult to buy cycling shoes. It’s exacerbated by the high price, which causes retailers to carry less options… but its something you need to a order a number of them & return or try them on in-person.
Even the same brand’s shoes will fit differently - I’ve got a top spec Spec Torch and Sworks Recon, which should be the same, but the shape of the tongue overlap makes a difference.
With a super stiff shoe you’ve got arch placement, toe shape, sole drop curvature, adjustment placement, ankle cutout, volume accommodation, and padding placement - in addition to length and width - to ruin a shoe in a way you wouldn’t encounter in another athletic shoe.
If there was a bigger market, they’d send you a box of options to try like they do with eyewear.
The other option is Bont, they sell their new Riot in your size. They are relatively affordable at 219 €, and if their predecessor, the Riot+ is anything to go by, super stiff. They also have more expensive shoes in even more sizes and widths.
Background: I have wide feet and owned Sidis in Mega (not great shoes), S-Works 7 in Wide (great, but the successors are ridiculously expensive), Bonts (great shoes, but too stiff if you want to walk a lot — I had the MTB version, which is essentially identical up to the sole and cleat interface), and Lake (great shoes as well). My new go-tos are Bont and Lake. If I eventually have to replace my S-Works, I’ll likely get Bonts. For my MTB/commuter, I’ll stick to Lake shoes.
Somehow the Sidi 49 Mega insole (in blue) doesn’t look that different in size from the 48W Lake one.
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