Footwear

I began my search for bicycling shoes last weekend.  I went to the local REI store to see what they had in stock and I found the Giro Reva, a shoe that I really like ... the style, the color and the tread. The reason I didn't purchase these shoes had everything to do with the fit.  They are a bit too narrow for my feet.  I tried on every style of biking shoe they had there in my size, regardless of appearance, and I found that every pair that fit my foot length was just too narrow.  I glanced over the men's selections and could not locate a pair small enough to fit my foot length.  Bummer.

I went online to see what I could find.  None of the web stores that I visited carry wide sized women's biking shoes.  Several Google searches brought up forum posts containing comments about the lack of wide-width women's bicycling shoes.  I looked around at men's styles and realized that very few men's biking shoes are short enough to fit my foot and the ones that do cost an arm and a leg.

At a lazy moment today, I decided to try another search and found myself an interesting read at http://www.slowtwitch.com/.  SlowTwitch is a place for triathletes and anybody that digs that world probably knows about their web pages.  I'm not a triathlete, but I took the time to look through the forum posts that Google spotted for me there and I found a few options to check out in the coming days.

The majority of posters suggested Louis Garneau and Northwave shoes.  Several other posts commented on which brands are normally more narrow and which are wider.  I also saw some mention of custom made riding shoes, which I'm certain is way outside my price range. The posts I looked through aren't new, and I suspect some of the style models I read about might be discontinued, but at least I have a place to start looking for appropriate shoes.  The search is renewed!