Footwear

• L wrote in this evening to enquire about purchasing a pair of most excellent wooden soled Rivats for her 1985ish Vitus. And you know, I really wasn't entirely certain how to answer. On the one hand, I would like to encourage her to aggressively embrace the anachronistic mode that her altogether ridiculous roadie represents. It's French. It's 80s. It's a retro-modern, Eurotrash, dated high performance bicycle. A full-force embrace would more likely involve some first generation TIME, LOOK, or Mavic clipless pedals and some truly horrible multi-hued shoes with lots of mesh and crummy plastic soles. Truth be told, the Rivats (and more generally, clips and straps) would be a bit too 70s and staid for the 979. The Rivats would win points on the Sunday morning style rides, and are a perfectly legitimate footwear choice, but I wonder whether it's something to build towards, rather than adopt immediately. It's kind of like someone who gets into jazz music and jumps right into collecting vinyl and maybe starts saving up for a vacuum tube amplifier.

  On the one hand, I imagine that like most avid cyclists, she will eventually end up with more than one bicycle -- and her closet will adapt to the modal and functional differences between them. To some, the Vitus would make a fine "special occasion" ride -- which would probably entail clips an straps, some vintage kicks, and leisurely group rides for tea and crumpets or picnicking. Others might view it as a perfectly legitimate road bike (it is, after all, only 18 pounds, and plenty swift) and therefore "upgrade" to a contemporary clipless "system". But as an all-rounder, the 979 would probably do fine with a set of decent platform pedals so as to accommodate all manners of clogs, Puma trainers, heels, Uggs, and ballet slippers. Hm.

  Personally, I only wear two types of shoes: Birkenstock clogs and full-bore cycling shoes. The clogs do just fine with platform pedals of course (40 miles through the snow last Sunday with this configuration!) and can grip my clipless pedals without too much trouble in a pinch... but that's one of the reasons I use TIME pedals. Unlike most clipless systems, they present a reasonably flat and broad platform that allows for reasonably safe riding with non-clipless shoes.

  Over the years, I've experimented many different shoes, starting out with Adidas, Rivat and Marressi, then on to mesh/plastic Specialized and Diadoras. With "adult" income came Sidis and later, Carnacs -- to which I was pretty committed until recently. After dropping clips and straps around 1986, I tried all the major systems, and most of the minor ones, including extended stints with Sampson Stratics and early Speedplay. But try as they might, none of the challengers have ever surpassed TIME in terms of adjustability, ergonomics, or build quality. The only major drawbacks with TIME have traditionally been price and aesthetics, but that's a topic for another post.

  Over the past couple of years, I've come to accept that sadly, Carnac is only making shoes that a Mirage fighter pilot could love, and that until I work in an office again, I don't deserve a pair of Marresi HTi. Thankfully, the designers over at Adidas seem to be attacking the core of the shoe market with the usual array of synthetic overkill and macho buckling while tempering the effort with throwback styles to their early collaborations with Eddy Merckx. You see, unlike Nike, the marquee actually does have a legitimate design history in cycling that spans several decades, albeit with significant gaps. They're somewhat spendy, but the Adistar Super-Pro Classic looks as if it's from 1972, but is constructed with the latest in leather and carbon wizardry. I like to believe cycling shoes wear about five times as long as tires, so in my case that's about twenty thousand miles. Mine have about five thousand miles on them so far and should last at least that long; the uppers are very soft and supportive, but of course the sole is absurd. As with any super stiff shoe, I'd suggest using a full orthodic or a gel-type cushioning system. It really makes a tremendous difference! Ultimately, I choose to run this shoe based on its nostalgic aesthetics, but quite honestly, I really don't see how any other shoe in its class offers an advantage. Heavier and/or stronger riders ma require a ski boot-styled buckling system; riders in climates without winter may prefer a mesh-heavy design; and folks with an unfortunate sense of style might prefer something a bit louder, but the Classic is perfect for me.