my SPD shoes were easily a thousand miles overdue for a replacement — looking, as WR so succinctly described his own shoes, "like li’l rascals shoes" — basically coming apart at the seams. and i’ve been eyeing these specialized SPDs for a few months now, so armed with a gift card i got for christmas, i finally snapped them up. some significant upgrades from my current shoes include…

+ ratchet-lock ankle strap — my old shoes had three velcro strips, where these have two velcros and then a ski-boot-like ratchet on the one closest to the ankle for really secure latch-down.
+ INCREDIBLY stiff sole — all cycling shoes have stiff soles, but of the admittedly limited number that i’ve tried over the years, these are by far the stiffest. holding them in my hands and muscling into them, i can barely bend them. yet surprisingly, walking around in them doesn’t feel too awkward.
+ technical inserts — specialized now makes their shoes with one of three technical inserts. basically, you stand in your stocking feet on a heat-sensitive board. when you step off, it shows your foot’s arch in clear relief. by comparing your arch to the little guide on there, you know which type of insert to get with the shoes. the "small" insert doesn’t really do any correction because with a "small" arch, your legs aren’t prone to buckling inward towards your top tube. the "medium" insert (which my feet necessitated) gives you a certain degree of inner arch support to push your knees outboard, away from the top tube and hopefully, perfectly vertical. (i always knew my knees tended to buckle in when riding, which is why these particular shoes and their inserts appealed to me in the first place). the "large" insert gives you even more push.

i haven’t ridden in these shoes yet, and likely won’t till sunday, but walking around in them feels incredibly comfortable, and if these inserts do the job they claim to, i think i’m going to find my knees being more comfortable and my power being increased.

either way, upgrades all around.

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