Recommend me some gravel shoes

As title, but for long days out & flat pedals. I’ve got some Shimano GR5s but they make my toes ache after a few hours and that ball of my foot gets a hot spot.

Thanks.

Flats on gravel bikes doesn’t really compute for me and I’m at the gravelly end of gravel and ride flats on MTB.

As above

Yeah SPDs on gravel all the way for me.

Ok, but for those of us that like to ride flats……any suggestions.

I’ve got some la sportiva tx 4 mids that I use with flats, quite like them but I’m MTB only.

Freerider Pros. No need for anything different to what I ride MTB in 🙂

Lachlan Morton likes Birkenstocks.

You’d just use your normal shoes surely?

As in your flat pedal normal shoes

Ok, but for those of us that like to ride flats……any suggestions.

Go and sit in the corner and think about your life choices?

Fizik terra ergolace flat

SPD version is better but the flat version in a muted colour are all day pedalable and don’t make you look like a weirdo in the pub

https://www.fizik.com/uk_en/terra-ergolace-x2-e-bike.html

Slight threat hijack as clip ins – anyone use the Specialized Recon 2.0?

Yes, I have a pair of the specialised Recon 2.0. I like them. I ride them year-round on my gravel bike. I find them comfy yet suitably stiff and ok for hike a bike, as advertised, certainly better than the Fizik XC shoes they have replaced. The reviews make a lot of how quickly they dry out, which I haven’t found to be true. They can stay wet for days. I’ve started putting them on top of a dehumidifier. I’ve also managed to tear one of the uppers slightly, near the toe, but it isn’t showing any sign of widening.

I’ve done about 150k this weekend in a pair of Asics trail running shoes and a pair of Skechers. If I was heading for the mud, I would have put some light hiking boots on. Raceface Chester pedals.

Gravel shoes should be just like XC shoes, stiff – whether SPD or flats, once you want to ride more than a couple of hours.

I’ve some Shimano MT7 gore-tex SPD shoes, trouble is that after 2-3 hours my feet ache (I use standard small format pedals, Shimano 540’s), whereas with my summer XC shoes or Mavic winter boots I can ride all day, and the rest with no discomfort whatsoever.  I got some 5.10 Kestral SPD shoes in the Evans sale, they feel stiff so hopefully they’ll fill in the gap between my summer & winter shoes.

Ok, but for those of us that like to ride flats……any suggestions.

A less facetious answer than my one yesterday…..

On a mountain bike what makes a great flat shoe and pedal combo is ‘stiction’ – the shoe being really fixed to the pedal by sticky rubber and good pins. Obviously big upsides like foot security. The downside is no float – your foot is pretty much unable to rotate. I don’t think that’s much of a drama on a mtb because it all so dynamic – you are up and down out of your saddle, maybe dabbing from time to time, basically you are all over the place. Gravel bikes are much more like road bike – much more passive riding position and a regular metronomic repeated cadence for long periods of time. That’s the sort of riding the float of an SPD really helps in avoiding hotspots and aches as well as knee niggles. In many ways a good secure mtb might make a bad gravel setup.

So to be honest, counterintuitively,  the best flat setup for gravel might be to go for something less impressively sticky/grippy than the ubiquitous fiveten and use a bog standard trail running or walking shoe that’ll move around a bit more on the pedal. That will of course make it feel less secure…..Or of course go down the spd route and enjoy a bit more floaty goodness whilst still having the security of the clipped element in the rougher stuff.

Can’t help you with recommendations for gravel, as I’m in the ‘SPD for gravel’ camp.  However, on the mountain bike I used to suffer with painful feet when using flats on long rides.  For me, what solved it was to buy pedals with a larger platform to accommodate my size 12s.  That may help if you have big feet – I’m not sure what kind of monkey your username refers to.