First ride for me tonight on my old Road bike and therefore first time I’ve used SPD’s other than on a turbo trainer. No problems clipping in and out and felt pretty safe, the only thing I found was towards the endd of the ride my toes were getting numb 😕 . Any Idea’s ? , Cleats to far to the right / left . The cleats are set so that Im riding on the balls of my feet which is maybe slightly further forward than when using 5.10’s on my mountain bikes.

Your advice / cheek is appreciated as always.

Your shoe soles are too soft.

Shoes done up too tight?

+1

You’ll find riding MTB with just about any spd type shoes are fine, because you change position and move about so much. But for road you need some really good stiff, if not rigid soled shoes otherwise you’ll be fighting cramp, sometimes after just 30minutes.

I used to just have a ‘one shoe for all bikes’ approach thinking I’d get away with it, but nah, after a few months of tingly agony I threw in the towel and bought some cheap (EXUS) carbon soled road specific shoes. Stupid to walk in (house is surrounded by gravel so they look trashed almost instantly), and impossible to walk up mountain passes in (so you literally cannot give in and push, because you won’t be able to), but my feet have never loved me so much.

The shoes are Shimano Mt33 , I bought mtb specific ones as I thought I’m just going to use the bike for commuting and the odd road ride. Strange It hadn’t happened on the turbo trainer but I suppose that was for a shorter length of time than on the road.

You can ghetto stiffen them up by inserting a length of steel flat bar under the insole and duck tape it smooth.

Or have a go with an insole with an aggressive arch shape, that might help improve. I have quite large archs, but they flop flat when I walk (years of wearing pants trainers) so I think thats what gives ME cramp, but you might be different.

For a fiver, certainly worth checking out better insoles 😉

Shoes tightened up enough? Mistake I used to make, keep the shoes loose to help with this kinda thing, but my feet used to slip forwards in the shoe making them squish against the front just enough. Now I have the front looser still, but the strap near the ankle is always tightened down.