A strange and unpleasant phenomenon. I bought some purpose made cycling shoes: Shimano DX, that look like rather clunky trennis shoes but have good grip on pedals and a host of other features.
Unfortunately, 15 minutes into a ride, the balls of my feet start to tingle with pins and needles.
I suspect it’s the reinforcing in the sole of the shoe, so that all my pedalling force is applied trhough a small area of the sole of my foot. In my old tennis shoes, there was a bit more sponginess and “give”.
Does anyone else have this problem, and if so, any suggestions for a cure? Other than get rid of an expensive pair of new shoes.
I bought some shimano shoes when I started using clipless pedals on the bikes, and had the same problem. On a bike it wasn’t too bad; you can just pull on the pedals rather than pushing to get some feeling back; not so on a unicycle…
I found it went away after a few rides, and I haven’t had a problem since. It might just take a while for your feet to get used to the utter lack of any kind of padding between foot and pedal.
If the shoes are similar, the biggest problem I’ve found is that they don’t like walking uphill… too much pushing gives me blisters on the back of my heels. I guess in Nottingham this shouldn’t be too much of a problem…
A new footbed (insole) can make a huge difference in the comfort of a
shoe. I’ve had good luck with Superfeet, among others. Actually, I
like some of the others even better, but can’t recall the brand - they
came from my bootfitter. JC has mentioned Dr. Scholls positively.
I had this problem when I bought a new pair of trainers. The problem has now reduced a lot. I put it down to the trainers stretching. My husband, who has probably done more orthopoedic nursing that I did said it was because something was pinching the nerve.
Maybe the shoes are too narrow, causing the nerves that run between the metatarsal bones to get squeezed. Once those nerves get irritated they can cause a lot more discomfort than mere tingling.
