Cycling Sandals, Help Please

[Hammer]

I was thinking about trying to buy some cylcing sandals this season. I managed pretty well with my pearl izumi shoes last season, so it's not a high priority and I am trying to avoid paying full price for them.

Performance Bike doesn't have any sandals available right now, I'm a member with them so if I have to pay full price somewhere, I'd rather do it there so that I can rack up points.

Nashbar.com has a few sandals available.

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?c...untain%20Shoes

Now here's a great deal and I believe that the LAke brand is pretty popular. However, my cycling shoes are 41.5 and these aren't.

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?c...untain%20Shoes

I wonder if these shoes would be okay. They are NAshbar's, and they're affordable... But if they're horribly uncomfortable then I don't want to bother with those at all. Everybody that I've seen has Shimano.

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?c...untain%20Shoes

Does anyone have a thought on this? Thank you in advance for your advice!!

[jobob]

This could be helpful:

http://www.bicycletouring101.com/RidingInSandals.htm

I've used the Shimano sandals, and I also have a pair of Exustar sandles that I got on sale ages ago but I never got around to attaching cleats

The problem I had with my Shimano sandals is that they are sized for men's feet. While I have normal width feet for a woman, for a man's size they're fairly narrow. So the Shimano sandal was a bit wide for me. To compensate, I tightened up the straps but that was very uncomfortable, and my foot still was a bit wobbly which was not good for clipping out. Since my husband has essentially the same size foot as me but wider, I gave them to him and he's very happy with them.

The Exustar sandals are supoosedly narrower, and they seem to be, but I haven't gotten around to actually riding with them.

Based on what I've read & my own experience, if you have wide feet, either the Shimano or Lake sandals (which have the same sole as the Shimanos) should work OK for you. If you have normal width feet, the Exustars might work out. If you have narrow width feet, you may as well just forget about sandals, unless manufactureers ever come out with sandals in women's sizes. And since sandals haven't really caught on (they're sooo fred after all ) then I doubt we'll see them in women's sizes any time soon.

[KnottedYet]

just googled "exustar" sandals, and laughed out loud at Google's logo for the day. (Earth Day)

[Hammer]

just googled "exustar" sandals, and laughed out loud at Google's logo for the day. (Earth Day)

Me too. But, I can't find where the Exustar sandals are sold.

[DarcyInOregon]

I need to ask a follow-up question to this thread.

Today the temperatures were in the 90s and my feet got really hot, so hot that the discomfort and pain made me cut my ride short, which annoyed me considerably. So I don't care how "Fred" cycling sandals are, I am going to get some so that my feet remain cool on the hot summer days.

I am looking at the Shimano sandals, and then at the size chart, and like it has been mentioned, the size comparison is given against mens' sizes. I wear a Euro 40 in Sanita clogs and Birkenstock sandals, which I believe are a "wide" versus a "medium" in width. Is the Euro 40 comparable to a size 40 for these sandals? Otherwise I don't have a clue as to which size to order.

Darcy

[Blueberry]

Disclaimer: my shimano sandals are the old style, so they may have changed....

I wear an 8.5 (39 in most danskos/38 in some birks). I wear a 41/42 (they come in size ranges - or used to) in the shimano sandals. I tried the smaller size (39/40) and couldn't get my foot in it. I wear a 41.5 in Sidis.

Good luck!