To revisit this thread, I made the decision this weekend that I need to sort my ‘adventure gravel’ footwear.

Day 1 – Sidi XC disco slips (old dominators from my XC racing days) – fine on the bike, just not great off the bike. They are also getting old and tired.
Day 2 – dug out some Northwave laced up cleated numbers I normally used a bit ‘urban’. Horrible – I could feel my whole foot bending around the SPD and once they got wet, they weighed the same as a small planet. Each.

I’ve come to the conclusion that gravel (to me) means cleats and cleats means a stiffer sole XC styled thing rather than a five ten style lace up ‘shoe’ with a cleat.

I’m leaning towards a something like the Specialized Recon 3.0 – so kind of an ‘aggressive disco slipper’ and apparently some built in walking flex whilst being stiff on the bike. Just not cheap…..

And to make choice a touch harder – I want them to be animal free….not sure the recons are, need to research.

Yeah – I have two types of gravel riding. Type A is when I head out knowing I’ll be on decent tracks (and roads) and want to be as “efiicient” as possible. Type B is when it involves a bit more exploring and might mean significant hike-a-bike. Those Recons actually look pretty good as a compromise. I especially like the green version. £230 though – eeek!