Help with shoe selection
 

Time to buy some cycling shoes. I favor the mountain bike variety, with the recessed cleats and friendly to walking. On multiple day long distance events, I have had some real problems with small toe metatarsal on my bad foot. I have a wide foot and sources have suggested Lake brand shoes. A lot of different options to sort through, as I look at their website. An actual store is several hundred miles away, so it will be purchase online I'm afraid. So I'm looking for some guidance from those of you that know and have found some good shoes that fit the bill. I'm open to other brands/options also. Thanks in advance.

Buy up a size too, you don't want the front of the shoe anywhere near your toes.

A lot of shoe fit depends on pedaling style. I'm a level foot pedaler, pedaling with my heel cups during much of the stroke. My shoes fit perfectly on the bike, but are so short that I can't walk far in them because my toes are definitely touching the end of the shoe. If the shoes were longer, they'd be sloppy on my feet. I can wear thick wool in winter and thin poly in summer, all good. So it's hard to buy online. OTOH if the retailer has a good return policy and one knows what the fit one's looking for feels like, it'd be at least possible. Also, what feels right in the shop, as I'm trying to emphasize, may not feel right on the bike. That makes it tough, because they probably won't take back shoes with cleat marks on them, and good shoes cost the earth. All I can recommend is what I and most of the randos I know wear: Sidi Dominators. They don't move on my feet at all. Their Mega series is the wide-foot version.

I find 2E to 4E most comfortable and bought an online Lake shoe of the ATB variant about 10 yrs ago. It was styled
as extra wide and fits fine, though as noted a larger size is still helpful and this allows a gel insert that improves comfort
on longer rides. For warm weather cycling sandals completely solve the width problem and include lots of velcro
style size adjustments. Shoes are worse than saddles in terms of fit, as what is fine for 100k may be pretty awful
after 300 miles.

For what little it is worth, my US shoe size is 10 or 10.5, nominally Euro 43, but a Shimano 43 was awful after
30-40 miles. Replaced with Shimano ATB in 46, fit fine, and the Lakes are 45W. Both of the larger are a bit
longish but not too much and the insert helps a lot. I find long walks with a backpack result in modest hand
swelling and I suspect the same thing happens with feet on longer rides (centrifugal forces?)

Great point about the foot swelling. My last go-to shoes were laced and I left them a little loose. The same can be done with velcro as well of course. You are spot on about the short ride/long ride comparisons. My measurements would get me in a Euro 44-44.5 (11-11.5), with a 110 mm width. But then I have a custom insert that I've used for the last 20 years to ward off plantar fasciitis. So probably good to measure the insert and compare I suppose. I'm sure we all differ in how much our feet swell. Probably good to go for a double century and then measure?

I use dominators, but I don't think they are good for wide feet. A friend of mine switched to lakes when his feet got too wide for his dominators. If you go to their website, they have a great fit matrix and sizing chart to help find the right shoes.

My feet shrink during long rides. I think it's because I'm not standing on them. I'll have to reach down and ratchet a little after a couple hours.

that would be nice, my feet expand at about 95 miles. I have some really nice shoes that I don't use on long rides anymore because of that. I think shrinking is a definite outlier.

I found out Lake sizing guide to be spot on: https://lakecycling.com/pages/sizing-charts
But I didn't follow their "add 5mm to your actual length measurement to get recommended size" recommendation - just directly selected the size according to the length I've measured. It turned out their regular width MX 238 was wide enough for me, I didn't need to order the wide size. For comparison, in Shimano shoes I've not only needed wide but also a full size up.

Could you add some context? What is a long ride in a day to you? 100 miles, 400 km, other?

100 miles will be a good ride for me. I've never ridden 400 km in one day. Yet. ;-)
Also, same as Carbonfiberboy, I usually find that after some time riding, shoes become a bit more loose and I need to slightly tighten them. I'm not sure why - are feet shrinking or shoes stretching (due to leather warming up?) - but this happens...

Anyway, they recommend to add 5 mm to the measured foot length, not to the width. I don't think that even if feet swell they become noticeably longer. So, I just measured the feet as they say and then selected the size with matching length range. It also matched the feet width I've measured in standard width: 104 mm for size 45 - I've measured 103 for one foot and 105 for another. Wide shoes at the same size 45 are listed as 116 mm wide - this would have been way too wide.

What model of shoe did you get? I'm trying to sort through all that they offer.

Specialized shoes work for me
 

I find Specialized brand shoes to have a very comfortable toe box. I went with their mid-level cross country mtn bike shoe with shimano spd cleats as my multipurpose shoe for touring and randonneuring. It has a good stiffness and enough volume for my wide flat feet. I use their body geometry foot beds too. I have the worst luck buying shoes online. I need to just start buying 2 different sizes and send one back. I never get it right first try. Giro shoes run awfully small in my experience. Specialized have more room to accomodate inserts and larger "high volume" feet. The boa closure system is easy to adjust on the fly and keeps a low profile. Good luck and let us know what you end up figuring out.

I intend to order a few different pairs and select the one that fits best. I think that is the reality of online purchasing. Have to swallow the return freight to get what you want. I haven't really looked at Specialized. Should give them a look. I've got about every other thing from them.

What length are your feet in mm?

Are they more toward the flatter side of things?

Narrow heel? or not?

My longest foot is 275 mm. Adding the 5 mm that Lake suggests, gets me to 280. I also measured my custom inserts and they are 290 mm. First time I ever measured them. No wonder I struggle to get them in a shoe and might trim them a little. I have high arches and did suffer from Plantar fasciitis, thus the custom insoles. Good question on the heel. Haven't measured them, but they are relatively narrow compared to the width of the widest area of my foot.

Was asking; thinking also about Specialized options.

I'm 270mm length, with 111/113 width, but flatter feet and pretty narrow heel.
43cm in the old S-Works mtb 6 fits me very well after a little breaking in. Couple of mm or so gap at the front.

Ignoring $$$ for the moment :) the Specialized Recon 3 in a 43.5 or 44? might work as the heel in that model tends to suit a wider range.
In addition there is more height in the toebox (and subsequently along the length of the shoe?) than the 6.

I mainly thought of it as an option as the carbon sole has their stiffness rating of 10, but the big plus is there is built in flex forward of the cleat (helps when walking around a bit).
The Recon 2 only has their stiffness rating of 6.0.

mx 238.

Keen cycling shoes are the perfect solution with their very wide toe box section and super comfortable soles. I used to wear them but switched to Dromartis as I do not need anything special, but if you have worn Keens in regular footwear you will know what to expect in their cycling shoes. Just buy your normal size, no mis-sizing needed to get the extra room you need.

Thanks!

I talked to the LBS, a Specialized dealer. He said the challenge was Specialized limited number of options in a wide shoe. Whereas Lake as numerous options. I do plan to stop there anyway and try on the one or two possibly, that they have. Thanks!

Note my 112mm width fits the 'standard' width Specialized mtb 6 / Recon.

Good luck.

Can you clarify the Recon model? I only see Recon 1, 2, 3 and S-works in a mountain bike shoe.

Recon 3.0.

This model as it has the stiffer sole combined with front flex.

I just bought Lake's 238 love them