Sole Material and Shoe Quality
Soles for cycling shoes are usually divided into three categories. Inexpensive shoes mostly use an injection-molded plastic sole, which is economical but heavier and prone to flexing. Mid-range shoes may use a combination of plastic and carbon fibre, plastic and fibreglass, or an all carbon fibre sole. All manufacturers' high-end competition level shoes manufactured post-2002 use carbon fibre soles. The sole material and amount of tread used in a shoe affects its weight; an expensive pair of road shoes with carbon fibre soles can weigh 650 grams, while a budget-priced pair of mountain bike shoes might weigh 850 to 900 grams.
Some mountain bike shoes have a little engineered flex in the toe area forward of the cleat mount. This assists in walking and in climbing obstacles while carrying the bike. More expensive shoes usually have less frontal flex.
Read more about this topic: Cycling Shoe
Famous quotes containing the words sole, material, shoe and/or quality:
“And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing,
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“True love ennobles and dignifies the material labors of life; and homely services rendered for love’s sake have in them a poetry that is immortal.”
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896)
“The prince was getting tired.
He began to feel like a shoe salesman.
But he gave it one last try.
This time Cinderella fit into the shoe
like a love letter into its envelope.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Writing fiction is ... an endless and always defeated effort to capture some quality of life without killing it.”
—Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1965)