Facebook Friday-Riding In Sandals with Flintstone Toes

With a quizzical brow she commented, “You’re riding in sandals?”  While riding my GS45 Super Cruiser (my pet name for my 1992 Specialized Crossroads hybrid equipped with hand-me-down once high-end components like XTR V-brakes), a friend and neighbor was out in front of her house.  I had a few minutes.  Instead of giving her the wave, I stopped to chat.  I brushed off the sandal comment explaining I was headed to Yoga in the Park.  Sandals are easy to kick off for Yoga.  Besides, trying to do Yoga with shoes is as impossible as scuba diving in a tuxedo.  All through my Yoga practice, I couldn’t put my hands to heart center and Namaste it away.  Since then and a second comment from another friend, it’s been niggling me.  What’s wrong with riding in sandals? 

Dear little baby Jesus!  Maybe it’s my freaky toes.  Tell me it’s not my freaky toes.  If you must know these are my piggies.  As you can see, my big toe looks like Fred Flintstone naked.  My pointing toe next door is as tall, thin and twisted as Amy Winehouse on crack and my pinky toe and his neighbor are about the size of large cashews.  Thanks for the freak toes Dad.  I wonder.  Was her comment my friend’s way of saying sandals should be only reserved for people with perfect ducks in a row toes.  Maybe I need a pedi…or a plastic surgeon. 

I’m guessing it’s an old wives tale.  Don’t eat before you swim, don’t feed the Mogwai after midnight and never ever, under any circumstances wear sandals while cycling.  Like the Gremlins movie quote, when exactly is “after midnight” and what exactly is wrong with biking in sandals.  I mean besides having Gremlin toes.  One advantage I’ve found, opposed to wearing skater shoes, is you can more easily wrap your toes around the platform to get more power to the pedals, especially helpful with Cincinnati’s hills.  Secondly, you won’t burn your ankle on the imaginary muffler.

For me, wearing sandals comes down to convenience and minimalism.  That’s what riding a city bike is all about, getting from point A to point B with as little hastle as possible.  When I commute the 5-6 miles to work on the GS45, I don’t put on my team kit.  I don’t wear gloves, bring a water bottle or carry a lock.  I wear jeans, a collared shirt and loafers.  Really the only cycling related thing I wear is a helmet.  My main goal is getting to work without sweating.  Believe it or not, I ride ridiculously slow.  I park the bike in my office, take off my helmet, finger feather the helmet hair away and I’m ready to go.  It’s a beautifully simple thing.  You wear on the bike what you want to be wearing when you get there.  With a city bike it’s not about the ride.  It’s about the destination. 

Still I’m confounded by the sandal comment.  So, I put the question to you.  Now and then we ask our Facebook friends a question and post the comments here on Fridays.  We call it Facebook Friday.  If you’d like to participate, friend us in the right hand column and follow us. 

Today’s Facebook Friday question was:  “Is it an old wives tale?  Is there inherent danger?  What’s the issue with riding in sandals?”

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    David R: Getting beat up by the bike fashion police.
    

    
    
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    Tim W: That's an old wive's tale. Someone (Teva?) made some SPD capable sandals a few years back, IIRC.
    

    
    
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    Jason G: Aside the obvious danger to scraping the shit outta your feet in a crash or even a curb strike, you would to shave your toes and feet too.
    

    
    
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    Mitchell B: Way back when I was a kid, I nearly scraped my toe to the bone when I crashed wearing sandals! Severe toe road rash! Not fun!
    

    
    
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    Mark H: If it feels good, do it.
    Fly that freak flag high.
    Shimano makes a clipless sandal.
    Here is my rule: Sandals are okay; Thongs, no way!
    

    
    
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    Cameron P: Shimano and Lake both sell cycling sandals. I doubt it's too dangerous.

The Toe Fist

It’s taken me about 15 years of white bloodless cold on-the-brink of frostbite bitten toes to figure out a process of getting dressed to keep my feet from turning into lifeless bricks on cold winter rides.  It is much more effective than dancing like Beyonce’ on the side of the road.  I’ve got friends who insist on a number of other comical solutions, like putting Saran wrap their forefeet.  After trying it, evening using the red color thinking it’d be hotter, I’m come to the conclusion that I’m not into the Saran Wrap foot fetish.  It doesn’t solve the real problem and disrupts the foot-sock-shoe-pedal connection too much.  Chemical toe warmers and foot beds work, but they are only a variable in the happy feet equation and require air to keep working their magic.  The real key to keeping your feet warm in the winter is maintaining good blood flow in your piggies.  It’s science dammit!!  Everything else is just icing.  Dedicated winter cycling shoes work fine, but snug them or regular cycling shoes up too tight and no amount of SIDI Italian leather goodness is going to get your core body heat to reach the ends of your pistons.  So how do you keep air in your shoe and avoid cutting off your circulation?  The toe fist my friend…the toe fist. 

Prior to putting my feet in my shoes, I make a fist with my toes and then lightly cinch up the straps/laces.  Combine this with some or all of the other bright ideas out there, even dancing and singing the chorus to “Single Ladies” and you’ll be golden.  The downfall is that, well duh, your shoes aren’t on tight.  However, you’re not trying to win a summer crit sprint or make the holeshot at the local MTB series.  I have tested my theory through cyclocross season and on both road and mountain bike rides this winter, works every time.  The longest ride I’ve had so far has been nearly 3 and a half hours, plenty for winter.  Cinder block feet are no longer the reason I start heading home.  Chances are some other ailment will get me first; such as being too out of shape to ride more than 3 hours, frozen water bottles or my suspension fork busting a seal. 

Here’s how I get dressed for winter and implement the foot fist technique using embrocation, winter cycling underwear, Toastie Toes and winter booties.

1 Starting naked, grab your warm weather cycling underwear, a towel, your cold & wet conditions cycling embrocation and your thickest warmest newest winter hiking style socks.  Go to the bathroom.  I don’t mean just go there, go there and do your business.  Trust me this is the best step one ever. 

2 Next, don warm weather cycling underwear.  This is the best step 2 ever.

3 Standing on the towel in your skivvies apply embrocation on your legs, feet, toes, forearms.  Use whatever is left on your lower back.  It’ll feel like magic fingers mid-ride.  I won’t get into all the details with embrocation, but there’s a reason you put on underwear and went to the bathroom first.  There are few things in life more painful than accidently causing your junk to catch fire in the middle of nowhere because you dredged your underwear through burning hot chili-pepper embrocation an hour earlier.  Do yourself a favor, when you’re finished wash your hands with soap and keep your hands off the giblets, out of your eyes and away from other tender areas for a while. 

4 Put on those socks.  Affix your Toastie Toes if you got ‘em. 

5 Put on the rest of your winter cycling related gear except for your shoes.

6 If you’re into wrapping your toes with Saran Wrap, do it now.  Then, put on a shoe. 

7 Make the biggest fist you can with your foot inside the shoe. 

8 Starting with the one closest to your toes and with your toe still in fist mode do all the straps and buckles on your shoes.  You should be able to wiggle your piggies inside your shoe and your shoe should be relatively secure on your foot.

9 Repeat with the other shoe.

10 Put on your warm winter weight cycling booties.

 Ride my friend.  Ride.  Unless you’re in freaking Siberia, Alaska or somewhere north of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, you feet will no longer be the reason you come home from a winter bike ride.