smashndash

My thoughts exactly. I was riding clipless on my $300 fixie ahaha

First post pretty much summarized it. You want 3 bolt shoes for those pedals.

When it comes to picking shoes, it’s a total crapshoot. What’s fantastic for one person is horrible for another. I’ve had quite a few pairs so let me share my experience:

a) don’t let anyone tell you heel retention doesn’t matter. If you like smashing HARD out of the saddle, or even just being efficient, you want the best heel retention you can get without hurting your heel. You don’t want to rely on tightening the boas or laces to keep the shoe secure. This will quickly lead to numbness. The Sworks 6 and to a lesser extent, the SWorks 7 are known to have good (possibly painful, depending on your heel shape) heel retention.

b) forefoot retention. Make sure that the shoe you get can actually put some pressure on your forefoot. Fizik’s top end boa lacing system is fantastic for this. You don’t want your forefoot flopping around the front of your shoe, especially if you want to spin fast or pull up a bit on the shoe. My specialized shoes don’t even touch my forefoot when I tighten the strap.

c) width. There are 4 components to width: toe box, forefoot, midfoot and heel. You want the toe box to basically be as wide as possible, or is fashionable. No performance gain to a narrow toe box. You want your forefoot width to be somewhere between just wide enough and slightly too wide. Basically, err towards too wide at the forefoot. It’s fine. But at the midfoot and heel, you want it snug without being painful. One measure is too see how much of your midfoot is “spilling over” the carbon sole on the medial and lateral side of the shoe. Too much, and it’s gonna hurt. Too little, and you might get some movement. Heel retention is harder to gauge. Every shoe will slip if you walk - the alternative is the sole breaking or your ripping your heel skin. But it should take a substantial amount of force to get the heel cup to slip with just a bit of lace tension. I personally have never experienced painful heel retention but look out for that too if you have a bony heel.

d) cleat wedging. If you can’t seem to get your cleat position just right, look up Bikefit 1 degree cleat wedges. One symptom of needing wedges is your knee brushing the top tube, or the outside/lateral part of your foot getting “hotspots” when your knees track straight.

Take my advice with a grain of salt. I’m not an expert. Just someone who has struggled a lot and spent a lot of money trying to get shoes right.