10:46 12030 watts. That's way more than a toaster.

You’re so comfortable in front of the camera now, Mitch. Great job. Your humor and personality really come through.

Tbh, for most riders, it is all about the feel and the comfort. If we dont race, we dont need to sprint at 100%, we should not care about 5min less on 100km. But I would like to tell beginner/amateur riders that it is perfectly fine to use mtb shoes and good set of flat pedals. Wrongly placed cleats can produce knee problems. So if you feel pain, stop and see a bike fitter.

It's weird how "gravel shoes" used to be called mountain bike shoes.

Great video. One other factor not addressed here: if you ever break down and need to walk out of the woods…there’s only one of these shoes you’d want to be wearing. This happened to me once with some stiff MTB clipless shoes. I ended up with the worst blisters of my life. Now I primarily ride the five-tens for gravel, but if I were to ever use the clipless, I’d pack a pair of flip-flops in my bag just in case.

A carbon soled gravel/mtb shoes ticks all the boxes. Sworks recon is currently my favourite

So many good bikey jokes! My personal rule of thumb is if you're doing less than one handful of miles, ordinary shoes work fine. Once I'm in 10+ mile territory, a flat non SPD shoe like the 510 should be fine for regular riding, urban riding and mountain biking. Clipless and clipped stiff road shoes are the best options for maximum transfer with minimal effort--I will never go clipped if I'm mixing with traffic because . . . you need to be able to bail. So even if I clip, I'll get a flat pedal side for actual traffic mixing. Speed kills when it comes to cars.

I think for most amateur riders the XTs or XTR pedals are perfect. Easy to clip in and enough float to feel comfortable and easy to clip in and out in a hurry if needed. I use to ride mostly keo blades and carbon bottom shoes, but I had a car pull out and I had a sudden stop while going down hill on and slide with down the hill on the carbon soles. It did have some small rubber grippers but the hill was sufficient enough and the pavement damp enough that I literally couldn't stop. I changed to XTR pedals shortly after that except on my wahoo trainer which I still keep my road shoes. I do love your vids. Very informative and entertaining. By the way, I am actually looking at those Qouc Gravel shoes now after watching your video because I am looking for a wider toe box and a more comfortable shoe. My current shoe is the Shimano XC5s and they are okay, but not as comfortable as I like.

Perfect closing to the video! I started with mountain biking before getting into road. Still prefer mountain biking more but do them both pretty equally in terms of time on bike. On the mountain bike I've swapped between clipless and flat often throughout the years for various reasons. Many of those reasons aren't relevant to road cycling. Mostly revolving around bike park downhill and rock gardens. After a few rides foot position on flat pedals isn't an issue at all. Your feet will find where they like to be and it will be comfortable but it takes some time and riding them consistently to get there. Same goes with riding at a higher cadence. Out of curiosity I did some road tests with my flat pedals and shoes a few times. The ONLY advantage I found with being clipped in on the road is maximum sprint power. Consistently I was down 100 to 150watts on peak sprint power. However, for longer sprints the average power at the end of 15 or 20 seconds wasn't all that much different. If you don't care about sprinting just ride in whatever you feel most comfortable. The old trope about stiff clipless shoes being faster or more efficient is false. Unless you care about peak sprint. All of that being said I do prefer the feel of my road shoes with the road bike for no other reason than it just feels right and I like the aesthetic. On the MTB I've been on flats for the past 8 months and enjoying every minute. Even for trips to the downhill park hitting massive jumps at Bryce Bike Park or the extremely chunky rocks at Massanutten.

Thanks for the overview. There's always some discourse over using SPD vs SPD-SL but given the simlar performance, other factors like comfort and off-bike walkability become higher priority to me. PS There are some video rendering glitches in this vid with clips held too long between cuts, some dropped frames, and the title card "Stiffness" was used twice.

Which shoe? One that FITS your foot! A bunch of larger cyclists have wide feet and MOST brands do not make a wide fitting shoe or their definition of "wide" is more material on the same footbed to save money. Please don't ignore that aspect and DO HOLD manufacturers accountable!

i'm still wearing vans skateboard shoes on my road bike, no need for those spikes on the flat pedal either.

One thing about flat pedal foot postition. I am riding all 3 styles of pedals/shoes in different bikes and I tend to ride more midfoot on the flat pedals, which means I setup the bikes that are equiped with flat pedals with the saddle a wee bit more forward, which means handlebar reach needs also to be taken into account. In term of recreational cycling / touring (as well as more gravity focused MTB) I see no downside in riding flat pedals. It also teaches you to bunny hop correctly. Fun fact: I've been riding clipless for more than 30 years so I am way past clipping in / clipping out aniety on the road. I have initially only tried flat pedals as a way to relearn some MTB technics as well as to ride in the snow with regular snow boots instead of buying specific winter cycling shoes. Now although I haven't ditched clipless flat pedals riding accounts for at least 50% of my riding.

I have those same Quoc gravel shoes, they are quite nice if a bit too flex-y under some circumstances. A carbon sole is assuredly best for power transfer, but few people are actually sprinting on their gravel bike where they'd need that kind of support.

I forgot to add this to my last comment. The SPD MTB shoe's( you call them Gravel) that I use on my road bike, get down grade to be used on my MTB. When the shoes that are being used on the MTB die, I buy a new set for the road bike. the shoes that were used on the road bike now get used on the MTB and the cycle goes on.

I love my mountain bike shoes for now. I still haven't decided if i feel comfortable clipping into a pedal especially since i live in the city and have a lot of stopping and starting.

I have road shoes on my road bike, but it's relegated to my trainer setup. I use flats on my outdoor bike, which is a gravel bike. There is a transition period of adapting to flats after a winter on the trainer, but it doesn't take long. I feel if you spend a lot of time on flats you dont really notice any advantage to being clipped in, but going the other way takes more getting used to because you're used to being able to lift the weight off on the up stroke in a sloppy fashion with cleats. There are advantages to being clipped in, like all-out sprints, and I would go that route for those reasons, but i have trouble unclipping because i can't rotate my heel out very well. However, i don't think there's any efficiency advantage once your pedal stroke is adapted to flats.

Looking for shoes and stumbled on this video. Glad I did. Both helpful and entertaining. Thank you!

One of the benefits of now and then riding with 'normal' shoes is that it makes you put your feet in a 'natural' position on the pedal. Makes you more critical of the fixed position a cleated shoe puts you in. But then maybe use flat pedals without spikes.

I've got a pair of xc3 gravel shoes that I do 90% of my mtb riding in now I rode flats for years, still do on my skatepark bike and fatbike (that I also ride on for commuting), but when I decided to race another duathlon last year, I decided I wanted the upgrade from toe cages since I had a much taller running shoe that wouldn't have played nicely with flats It was a bit of a learning curve but the biggest thing for me was not having to question if my foot was in the right spot. It also was nice to remove most of the squish from each pedal stroke, but the consistent placement was the most noticable

Personal favorite shoes : If I cruise gently around town to my local watering hole, only a pair of birks will do If I am bombing city streets jumping stairs and sidewalks with my fixie, skate shoes with flat pedals and straps (although I have never tried MTB shoes) If I am doing gravel stuff on my gravel bike, I love my Bontrager gravel shoes.

Still happily married to my SIDI Genius shoes after many years :) Hard to beat well ventilated and supple leather uppers matched with a stiff sole, all in a handmade shoe. Frankly, I wish all shoes (including non-cycling specific shoes) felt as good as these.

I don't understand why people aren't mentioning climbing. I rode flats and a guy at work convinced me to clip in so I bought mountain bike shoes which I guess you're calling gravel shoes to be able to clip in. It's night and day difference then flats going uphills. I definitely ride regular flat pedals with anything from bare feet to flip-flops when I'm cruising around or just commuting, but if I'm climbing, there's no comparison. Clipping in helps tremendously.

I was wondering if you've encountered this as well: After doing nearly all rides for over two years 'clicked in', I did a few short (errand) rides with regular sneakers on flat pedals. I felt less secure then when clipped in and missed the "raise your foot to raise the pedal" convenience when resuming after a stop at a light, had some clumsy starts there.

Cool Mullet Mitch! 🤙🏼

Recently switched to Freeriders. Previously used exclusively Specialized Recon SPD gravel shoes. I mainly do road endurance and touring, with some gravel. No sprints and extremes of cadences or power. So, did I really need or get much benefit from being clipped in?? Honestly, No. I actually really like the Freeriders. No stopping anxiety with these (yeah, hasn't everyone had 1 clipped-in fall?). And for touring I only need to carry one set of shoes now! The Freeriders are comfortable enough to wear all day - or or off the bike. Still use the Recon shoes some, but not on my touring bike with flat pedals.

When I bought my first set of cycling shoes, for my old steel frame back in the early 90"s. I got what is now called Gravel bike shoes (but they were MTB shoes back then.) For two reasons 1. They are easier to walk in. 2. I had heard enough stories and listened to people complaining about broken clips from walking around in their Road Shoes and not being able to clip in for the rest of the ride. I am still using the same type of shoe today and they have only got better and do the job well I have to disagree with you about the contract.

As you know, the first rule of cycling is that looking good is more important than being fast ("Fara bella figura" as we Colnago riders say) and clearly the road shoes would win here. Even better if they do produce those 12,000 Boyer Watts.

It's not just you, I only ride flat pedals and ride multiple times a week on them. I still have foot placement anxiety, 30 years in. It's not just are they the right position on my foot, but is the angle straight and are both my feet identical 😂 Is more to do with the aggressive pins, they lock you in so hard so micro adjustments sort of don't work. Flipside, if you get tired, you can adjust position to best your heel and it activates fairly different muscles so you kind of have a second wind and can rest some muscles by moving your pedal placement.

Tell me you've been to Australia without telling me you've been to Australia - grows a mullet

Road cleats have an advantage for long rides, for riders with a very assymetrical pedaling motion: they allow less float, so they tend to protect your knees. When I rode on SPD pedales, my left knee bobbed all over the place and gave me chronic pain. That being said, great video as always man.

I had some of those regular shoes that clip in before. I swear it gave me perm nerve damage. I found they weren't worth it and just ended up putting flats on my commuter bike. But I guess I could see it being useful if you had to ride a bike w/ spd into the office.

Honestly I think the most important thing is fit and comfort. The stiffest and lightest roadshoe is still useless if you get numb feet or experience pain. So my priority would be fit and after that you have to consider what's your prefered type of riding, e.g. road only, allroad or whatever. And the most important thing is that you don't need any kind of cycling specific shoe to start cycling in the first place, the whole marketing wants you to believe that you need all this stuff. A friend of mine cylced for almost a year all around europe just wearing slippers ...

"Comfort" is an individual thing, since everyone has a different shaped foot. Shoe manufacturers make their shoes on a last. If their last is close to the shape of your foot, it'll be more comfortable. For example, Five Ten shoes are made for wider feet -- that is, they're built on a wide last -- and they won't fit people who have a narrow foot.

great video! different kind of question haha, which software did you use for the graphics? you were editing it at 10:33.. Figma? looked great!

Underrated channel!

Without watching the video first - the winner is the white shoe. Am I right? Who would have guessed 🙂

I use carbon mountainbike shoes on road, track, cross/gravel and mountainbike. They are completely stiff, not like that gravel shoe. Even to get to my road bike I need to walk down 3 stairs.. And this way one pair does it all. Although on the mountainbike I mostly use an older but identical pair. I am sure there are benefits in 'real' roadshoes and cleats/pedals (SPD-SL, Look, Time), but I have never made that step.

I am up to five pairs of shoes: my fifteen year old Sidi Ergos that have been retiired to trainer duty, my new Sidi Shot 2s that are my road shoes, my Sidi Dragon 2 MTB shoes, a. set of suuuuuuper light Specialiized race shoes (white, of course), and a set of bike shoes for flats when we're just taking the kids to the river and riding flat pedals. Your video underscores the need for at least three pairs of shoes for the different purposes.

Great content as usual Mitch

didnt know Sebastian Vettel was a youtuber, nice!

Excellent video, fun, funny and unbiased review because of being based on numbers. you got a new follower !!! 👍

I ride in cages/straps and use vans/converse/adidas skate shoes. Could we get a rerating on "normie" shoes with foot retention?

5:10 that view 🤩

One thing about cycling shoes, doesn't matter the discipline, is that sole stiffness varies. That's why they have a stiffness index number. And they come in various stiffness numbers. So we can't have a blanket statement saying that mountain bike shoes are less stiff than gravel and gravel are less stiff than road.

not my favourite shoes but my favourite cycling youtubers - Mitch Boyer and Dustin Klein. Started watching your videos when you were doing the print stuff!

Mitch since you're finding ine if the steepest hill you should try blackwall of the Philippines that has max grade of 35% it has a few recovery but sure a pain

Awesome details like the flux trainer, adidas velosamba and quoc shoes!

MTB flat rider here. Gravity/enduro, I couldn’t care less about cadence and all that. You get used to ignoring foot placement. When you learn no footers and nac nacs you’ll never clip in again

today as it's Summer here, i drive with sandals(+ sock) but its only ~8km from a to b, so... ;)

6:26 - Neuromuscular efforts don't require oxygen. They are almost entirely anaerobic.

"gravel" shoes are just clipless mtb shoes. XC has been using them for years and there's many other types of riders (me included), who ride clipped on every bike. It's just simpler to have one pedal system for every bike. If you just ride a road bike for riding's sake then get the road shoes.

You forget the hiker boots with spd cleats. Really good commute shoes.

Im using the Lake MX 242 for everything. Gravel, road. Fantastic shoe. Durable, comfortable, stiff. Just good.

I wore running shoes on a gran fondo once and it was fantastic. I could get off the bike to pee or re-up fuel and water like a normal person instead of in clown shoes. And once you learn to ride in them, you can put out even power no problem. I won the race and it was several hundred people. When an event is really long, you want to avoid sprint efforts, so they work great.

Shimano PD-GR500 Pedals and the 5-10s At my age I can't afford to fall over and break a collar bone or a hip while clipped in. I ride a trek domane with a redshift stem, Very comfortable for long rides , thank you for the video .

Opened my eyes to those commuter style shoes!

Your little dogs are sooo cute!

Shimano Sphyre road ant MTB are identical, depends on the pedals. I go SPD as I do not want to walk like an idiot at the cafes. 😂

Love the “serendipitously” easter egg lol

Mitch, this was simply amazing. Thank you. Keep it up!

Northwave Gravel shoes. 80 € - Basically a steal. comfy as hell. has supported me on like 18k km already.

Is this man Sebastian Vettel’s brother 😂

Hi Mitch! do you have a recommendation for bicycle shoes with high ventilated? especially for touring in summer.

Problem for us folks here in the nordics: what you would consider "wide" is "regular" for us. Meaning, most of the cycling shoes coming from mid-Europe and Eastern focused brands are unsuitable for us by definition. Combined with a smaller market over here, it means that finding some fitting shoes is a major project for us. Oh well..

So all it took for you to drop the crocks from the comparison was a pair of free high end shoes. QUOS got some great return on their investment. Don't worry, we all know the truth. And you do need to eat.

Great video, enjoyable. Perhaps MTB-shoes with carbon sole would take the lead. :)

XC/Gravel spd’s for me. I like walking without tap dancing.

White road shoes and white socks. The only choice. Fight me

Gravel shoes for life, not a fan of clipping into road cleats. Still rocking my first pair of proper cycling shoes, £30 well spent... 😂

Pinned pedals and Vans.

What about gravel spb saddles

I do flats with the most flexible shoes. Complete opposite but nothing hurts on my ride.

I decided never to train myself on road shoes and went straight to five tens. best decision ever

Bro for such comparison you better use 0-1-2 scale rather than 1-2-3.

I have the quoc gravel shoe with laces. After import tax I spent 340 on them and even though I love them hard to justify that much

Hey i wear a 46.5 in fizik and i was looking at quac shoes and their, too small. Is there any plans to make larger oones?

Sebastian Vettel knows so much about shoes!

Last week I wore my mavic deemax mtb shoes for a little road ride, the freaking looks I got for some fellow riders told it all. Judgement was hard in their eyes, couldn't care less 😂

First time here. You look like a tall Sebastian Vettel. How are the bees?

Is that Sebastian vettel? 😂 I think flats are best, convenient for walking and safer when your gears slip on steep climbs!

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 just finished my data analysis. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

im lazy with laces , and i like tech , but i dont like clipless so Ride Concepts Tallac Boa flats

Next ride some single track with those 3 pairs of shoes.

I use a velosamba because I use a folding bike lol

Wouldn't see me dead in white cycling shoes - I get chain and gear marks on my BLACK shoes.

Mullets are back !!!!

Literally the reason I only buy and build used bikes is so I don't have to sign the spandex contract.

"the best" is a wonky statement

Skate shoes>everything else on my mtb to be honest

I’m going to guess that gravel shoe won. Oh well, I was wrong

Those socks look goofy as hell!! They should not go above the ankle!!

OK, but what about MTB shoes with a carbon sole? This is the best competition for road shoes and this is the biggest mystery, which shoes are better.

What flat pedals were you using?

I used to gef numb toes when riding in my old shoes. Then I upgrade to wide carbon soles. Voila! Problem solved. Now I get numb foot because soles are too stiff.

So much confusion, it's US watt or normal watt?

*please make eng subs!*

In Germany we call this: Vokuhila

Sandals. Ride in sandals, well maybe not if you are mountain biking

Those road shoes cost almost as much as my road bike. Like wow