"Jim, N2VX" <
[email protected]> writes:
> I'm looking for large winter shoes/boots. I tried a pair of Lake MXZ-300's and a size 48 was
> painfully small.
>
> Are there any winter shoes sized large? Or perhaps neoprene booties made to fit larger shoes? All
> the booties I've seen are too small.
Welcome to the wonderful world of bicycle shoes. If you have big feet (size 48 for me) it's hard to
find shoes that fit. I've had good luck with Lake shoes, but haven't tried the MXZ-300. Your feet
might be wide, too; Lake make their shoes in wide and regular. So does Sidi, which makes up to a 50
IIRC. Finding 'em is yet another problem- few bike shops will stock the large size shoes for fear of
never selling them.
You could try the Sidi and Lake Web sites to check their range of shoe sizes. I don't think you're
going to find much joy with the other winter cycling shoe makers (Northwave and Gaerne, neither of
them seem to make a shoe larger than a 47 and those run small).
I have a pair of Sidi winter road shoes in size 48 that work pretty well. Per the US distributor,
these were never imported into the US so he doesn't know where the guy I bought them from got 'em.
Sidi had a very similar MTB shoe (same upper, different sole), but I think the design has changed a
bit since then.
My booties are Sidetrak neoprene, and they're the best fit of any booties I've found. With a good
thick wool sock inside the shoe and the Sidetraks, I'm pretty comfortable even in my Lake MX-101
summer shoes down to about 40 degrees F. Below that I wear the Sidis. Below 32 deg F I don't think
riding a bike is much fun any more, so I rarely
do. If I did, I'd use platform pedals and my Steger mukluks, which would probably keep me toasty
warm to about 25 below 0 F.
In the winter I snowshoe and cross-country ski, while pining for summer and hot days over rolling
terrain. Aaaahhh.