!!! note
The following was not sponsored by DSR, I swear, although I would *love* a sponsorship if one came my way since I have no problem talking them up honestly. I love everything about DSR as a company.
Having been some decades since I followed the cycling scene seriously at all, I was super pleased to see that Shimano SPDs are still the preferred cycling clipless pedals. I had some of the first ones ever released in the 90s both on my road and mountain bikes back then, and that is the number one reason to put SPDs on all my bikes now — especially my Salsa Marrakesh adventure/gravel/touring machine and my single-speed minimalist urban bike. Knowing I have the most universal clipless pedals system the world has ever seen on my bike that will see as much of the world as I can possibly manage makes me more warm and fuzzy because chances are I can find a replacement anywhere in the world if and when these were to break (but let’s be honest, they just never break). But that’s definitely not even the main reason.
SPDs are cooler than the others because they have the broadest support among companies that produce fashionable footwear that is SPD enabled because they are so minimal. My new DZR H2Os aren’t just the coolest bike shoes I’ve ever owned, they are possibly the coolest shoes I’ve ever owned, period. They’re leather makes them look so damn nice. They have a skater look, in fact, I’m quite sure I’d be able to skate with them in a pinch. They are 100% waterproof so rain and show be damned. They have ankle support and can be worn with or without socks equally well. In fact, I find myself planning urban excursions on my single-speed or gravel bike just to be able to wear these specific shoes, and any shoe that makes me want to bike more is definitely worth that extra few dollars.
But how expensive really? For the price of one pair of clickity-clack, duck walking, nerdy pro clipless shoes (Specialized S-Works are $480) I can buy four pairs of DZRs.
SPDs are for people who have a variety of interests. I feel at home wearing DZRs both to Critical Mass events and art openings. Nothing says more about a person than their shoe choice, and I love everything DZRs shoes say about those who wear them, and that I can immediately identify a member of the urban cycling tribe no matter what the event is … or recruit new members.
“Where’s you get those shoes? I love them.”
“Oh you do?”
“Yeah, are they leather skater shoes?”
“Yes and know. They’re urban cycling shoes.”
“The leather looks so amazing, what did they treat it with? Are they waterproof?”
“Yep. Perfect for walking city streets between bike rides.”
“Damn! I love them. I might have to take up commuting so I can justify buying some.”
“Hell yeah! And when you do, come the Critical Mass event with us on 4th Fridays.”
“Definitely!”
When I’m outside on my bikes, I’m not dressing like a fucking bike snob and avoiding stops along the way because they’ll fuck up my Strava segment times. Hell, I don’t even shave my legs these days. (Oh God, oh GOD!) I actually want to enjoy life. I was young, stupid, and fast once. I’ve (thankfully) grown out of that. If I want to be fast and drop people I’ll do it using fitness strategy and safely in Zwift where I won’t see broken clavicle bones and chain-rings embedded in quads spurting blood (both of which I actually saw during my crit days). To me, cycling is about connecting with nature and people, a faster way to see more of nature and people than running, yes, but not so fast that you don’t want to take your eyes off the road to look at the sunset for fear of death, or bending a fragile, stupid road rim. This is why I only ride gravel and urban bikes today and have absolutely zero desire to get a $15,000 time-trial/triathlon bike (how fucking stupid do you have to be to pay that much money for a bike at all). For the price of that bike, I could fund at least two cross-country bike trips, a much better use of money on something that would only get used maybe three times a year in some stupid competitive event (my god have I changed).
What am I giving up? They are not as cool as the Time ATAC that all the fixie-obsessed bike messengers used (who require then to keep clipped in more reliably when they don’t have a break, which is just fucking stupid). But honestly, I don’t care about that. I have a brain that works and want to keep it that way, so I ride single-speed (with a freewheel and break) in urban environments and don’t need to do any of the crazy tricks that a bike messenger would. The SPDs are just fine for the occasional bunny hop I might be forced to do. Besides, in my outdoor streaming world I would be doing many bunny hops anyway because I’ll have my streaming camera rig on my back usually. In other words, I have to be a smarter cyclist instead of depending on my harder-to-randomly-clip-out clipless pedals making up for my stupidity, like choosing to ride a bike that requires a forced skid to stop instead of a fucking break. Nothing says “I’m a moron with a death wish” more than riding a fixie. At least it makes it easy who to avoid riding with (which these morons also prefer).