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Old 06-10-21, 12:31 AM
  #87  
Calsun
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My first bicycling shoes were from Italy and they had cleats that were nailed to the bottom and they were OK for many years except that I made a tapping noise going into a store or cafe and got everyone's attention and it was important to move slowly on linoleum flooring. Twenty five years ago I bought a new bike and put on clipless pedals and bought some Shimano clipless shoes that took 2-bolt cleats and have plenty of sole for traction I was in heaven as I could safely walk and cycle with the same pair of shoes. But they wore out and looking for new road shoes I found that I needed to go to SPD-L 3-bolt ones which are far from ideal. I need to put on the special rubber cleat booties when off the bike so it was like going back to the 1970's.

The one advantage of the SPD-L cleats is that they are available with three different degrees of rotation to fit how one like to ride and the newer SPD-L pedals require a lot less force to break my foot free while still not having to worry about popping out while pushing up a hill. For general touring I would be using a mountain bike shoe that had the 2-bolt cleat mounting. On the trails I do not like using cleats and bought a pair of Five Ten shoes with their sticky bottoms (much like rock climbing shoes).
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