Mountain biking has become an amazing sport and its following grows year by year. More people than ever are finding this a great way to stay in shape, enjoy time outdoors, and even as an alternative way to get to work while getting some exercise in at the same time. As mountain bikes become more high tech, so have the shoes that mountain bikers are wearing to make the ride that much more enjoyable and powerful.
You may not realize it, but when you ride, you put much more time in on the legs and feet than you do anywhere else. Although you do hold on to the handle bars the whole ride and sit on the seat for a good portion of it (which have their own unique technologies to make you more comfortable as well as safe), the thing to consider is that the power transfer travels from the legs, through the feet, and is transferred to the bike at the point of contact where the feet meet the bike... at the shoes.
It stands to reason, then, that you need decent mtb shoes (mountain bike shoes) to handle the job. Given the fact that you are hopping on and off the bike in tough terrain and at times running with your bike, any regular cycling shoe just won't do. Nope. When you're mountain biking hard, you need a shoe that can withstand some pretty intense conditions.
Your mtb shoes need to be strong, especially the sole, so when you push down on those peddles all that energy is sent into the forward motion of the bike, not absorbed into the knees or muscles. Many of today's mtb shoes are designed with a shaped bottom sole made of a very strong carbon fiber material that keeps the shoe strong and stiff. This also helps with wear and tear on your shoes as you will be putting them through their paces as they need to be able to handle the intense vibrations, knocking them on trees and rocks, and scraping of the peddles without them losing integrity.
Besides that, the shoes need to work off the bike just as well. Especially if you are racing, you need to be able to run in the shoes to get over and around obstacles quickly. Combining these different and often opposing characteristics, today's mountain bike shoes are truly mind blowing, and they are just as great to look at as they are at protecting your feet!
Bicycle enthusiast and cycling entrepreneur, Erick Campagna's passion is working with people to get them the best cycling set up possible, so that they enjoy each and every trek out on the bike. Just click to find out more about MTB Shoes and Mountain Bike Shoes.
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