Shoes

Gaerne shoes seem to kick about under the radar but they do so quite successfully on the feet of the likes of Petacchi, Cunego and Van Den Broeck, where admittedly their blurriness makes them hard to spot. These G.Mythos are stacked about mid-way up in the Gaerne shoe-cupboard, suitable for the enthusiastic weekend warrior that can't quite justify the £240 for their top-end racing clogs but want a little taste of that handmade Italian thing.

If you don't wear road road shoes and cleats but don't fancy the standard off-road shoe, looking like a trainer on steroids and with a sole only marginally stiffer than a stale pizza, then you might be in the market for Northwave's Touring shoes. Actual road style shoes, stiff enough to make pedalling a pleasure, some give in the toes to allow you to walk and a built up rubber sole that stops you from executing groin mangling cleat-on-marble splits at the first cafe stop. Ideal for touring, audaxing or just regular sport/leisure riding and of course, commuting.

New to the UK Chain cycling shoes are made in Italy by a company that have over the last 20 years been creating shoes for the likes of Sidi, Gaerne and Fizik. The Nova 2 is part of a range of five road specific models, well we say five but it could be counted as ten due to every shoe coming with a choice of either a carbon reinforced nylon or a carbon sole.

Good shoes these MT60s. They give you plenty of support on the bike, they're easy to walk in off it, they're waterproof and hard wearing and comfy to boot. The styling might be a bit rambler for some of the more style-conscious but as a general purpose commuting/touring/mtbing shoe they're hard to beat.

Oh DZR Strasse, what a can of worms you have opened! Previously, wearing SPD-compatible shoes in town was easy. You simply swallowed your pride and resigned yourself to looking like a bike geek. The only question was, what flavour - clumpy commuter shoes, or more purposeful Shimanos, Specialized, Northwaves or Sidis?

Yet there's always been a market for an SPD trainer, and I've owned several of the previous attempts. Was this particular one better than my beloved, battered pair of Adidas?

Keen's Austin Pedal shoe might have a look best described as geography teacheresque, but that estimable body of men and women have long known a thing or two about the benefits of practical footwear for both the classroom and the great outdoors so if you are after a pair of really well thought out and comfortable all day wear urban cycling shoes look no further because these are the kitties.

Don't want to turn up down the pub sounding like you've come from a tap-dancing lesson but don't have the time to swap your pedals over? You need casual cleats, and Chrome's Kursk Pro is more casual than most. They're pretty good on the bike too, but watch out for the sizing.

Pearl Izumi's Elite Road II is a decent road shoe, its best feature a unidirectional carbon fibre sole.

The sole is fairly slim, with a stack height of 7mm above the pedal. It's also stiff; you can occasionally feel a small amount of torsional flex when you get out of the saddle and jump on the pedals, but very little. As well as being efficient, that means you feel no particular pressure under the ball of your foot when you put the power in.

Lake's CX401 race shoes are expensive, there’s no two ways about that, but they might just be the most comfortable you ever buy thanks to their custom fit.

When we say ‘custom fit’, we’re not talking about moulding the insole or even heating the upper with a hair dryer, as you can with shoes from some other manufacturers. No, it’s the carbon fibre sole that’s shaped to your foot – or, more precisely, the section of the sole that wraps around the sides of the shoe to form the heelbox.

I’m really … err… keen on Keen shoes, so was particularly looking forward to trying the Keen commuter cycling sandals. Unfortunately they didn’t live up to my high hopes.

Keen have a proven track record in designing really comfy and sturdy footwear, I know from experience, my 3 pairs are going as strong as ever. It appears as though they’ve tried their hand at cycling sandals and applied some fresh thinking. They got some things right, but unfortunately they also got some things wrong.