Mountain Bike, Road & Triathlon Cycling Shoes

Find out where to buy cycling shoes and which retailers have the best current prices

If this is the first time you have considered buying cycling shoes, try reading our information pages before you decide or buy. We have covered the different types of shoe available for various cycling activities, including leisure, touring and competitive rides.

We've outlined some of the basic differences between shoes below.

Looking for a particular brand ? - Use the left hand menu for shoe lists & prices

Reasons for buying cycling shoes

The main benefit of using cycling specific shoes is to make your rides more effective and more comfortable. Cycling shoes of all types are designed with a more rigid sole than a standard shoe or trainer, so this reduces fatigue and discomfort on the foot, buy spreading the load when you are cycling.

For many types of cycling, particularly competitive rides, a clipless system is used to link the shoe to the pedal. Read more about this below.

Clipless cycling shoes

If you have only been cycling casually, you'll probably have pedals with toe clips on, but for cycle racing of any sort its common to use clipless pedals, combined with special cycling shoes.

On the base of these shoes there is what is known as a cleat, which allows them to snap into the pedal. This means that the forces you apply are more evenly, more comfortably and more efficiently transmitted into the bike, with no risk of your foot sliding around.

In racing it also means you benefit from pulling up on one pedal, while pushing down on the other, giving more even and powerful pressure.

Leisure and Touring Cycling Shoes

While still being specific to cycling, these are more flexible than competitive shoes but still give more support than a simple trainer. There are recessed cleated models available that will make long days in the saddle more comfortable, while also being very useable for walking and breaks in your journeys.

They generally have a rubber sole and may be known as multi-function, cross-trainers, trail runners or scramblers.

Cycling shoes for competition

If you are looking for shoes to compete in, selection becomes more complex and we have covered the issues separately in different sections. See the left hand menu.

Your budget

Its difficult to generalise, but expect to pay around £30-£50 for a reasonable budget shoe and anything up to £250 for top level competitive shoes.

There are all sorts of options inbetween and your choice depends entirely on how much technology and design has gone into the cycling shoe you are considering.