An End

I always find it sad when loved cycling kit finally has to be retired, and this week has had such an occasion.

I have a few pairs of cycling shoes in various states of oldness, but they included one pair which I had always had a bit of an odd relationship with. They started as not the most comfortable but the carbon and plastic soles on my Merida shoes made them worth persevering with to ride to work where the stiffness made a difference, where they were not great mountain biking unless the mud was thick enough for the grip to dig in.

Eventually they moulded to the shape of my feet and I have had many happy years with them, keeping more specific mountain bike shoes for “real” rides.

On Tuesday this came to an end. The soles had been detaching a little, which I had slowed with superglue, but the torrential rain as I left work would be the end of them. The sole on the left pulled away too far to be reasonably fixable and with the wet leather the stiffness of the shoe was destroyed as the break worked its way beyond the heel box. And that's the reasonable end of the shoes. It's a sad day.

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