When I was down in San Francisco in August, I had the pleasure of going to the Chrome store. First time ever. It was kind of exciting for me. Like a little kid. I’m not going to share any photos because we didn’t ride any bikes. Though in Palo Alto, there is a bike shop that has the most stellar doors! As I sit here typing this during a torrential downpour, I am reminded why Portland can’t have doors like this.

You could keep them open maybe three months out of the year.

Anyway, I realize that there is a Chrome store in Portland so you may be asking why I wasted minutes of my precious four days looking at shoes and doors. This story actually begins months beforehand. I bought a Stock Pasha hoodie (in sage green) – not linking, because they don’t exist anymore. Long story short, I found it on clearance at a bike shop and it being a $100 sweater – and then on clearance, it was still expensive. I bought it with a gift certificate and paid the balance.

I wore it every day after I got it. Four days later, I was at work and we were sanitizing everything because the clients were getting sick. It was hanging on the back of my chair as I was spraying some bleach. I grabbed it and threw it on the stool. Didn’t notice until the end of the night I had spritzed it with bleach. I cried and cried for hours.

Next day I bleached it.

So now I have a tan sweater.

Weird thing is that only the sage fabric bleached tan. None of lining or red stitching or green string pull bleached so it actually looks okay.

About two weeks later a package arrived in the mail. It was the very last size small green Stock Pasha in existence. A secret call had been made to the ordering manager in San Francisco and he went downstairs and pulled it from the sales floor. Last one in sale rotation. There might be a few floating around that haven’t been sold gathering dust at various back alley bike shops, but this is legit.

This is why we went to the Chrome store in San Fran. To give this dude some props for keeping me warm on days requiring sage green hoodies.

I happened to wear pretty lousy shoes on my trip due to the fact that an online order didn’t come through for me. (I was totally attempting to order shoes a few days before a trip and then expecting them to fit and be comfortable. Typical. Pshw.) It was pretty convenient that Chrome was having some sort of end of the summer sale on their shoes.

Score.

That’s how momma walked out wearing a pair of Kursk Pro 2.0 SPD Sneakers in black.

First impressions? I wore them around for four days straight with no cleats while I walked miles each day. They passed the new shoes test as normal shoes. Even with swelling toes and sore feet after a long day of walking around and sightseeing.

When I got back to Portland, it was time for the real test. Cycling. It’s true that I have four other pairs of cycling shoes, but they’re just that. Cycling shoes. What I was really excited about was that I was going to be able to wear these shoes to work and not have to bring a change when I arrived. These were the transition from cycling to getting off my bike and working eight hours in the office. Or go to a social event and not look dorky in my clipless velcroey shiney shoes.

Excited to try out the shoes, I did something that well. . . there are two kind of bike shops in the world. There is a retail store that sells product and has a bike shop within in. There is also a bike shop. These are then broken down into categories. The pro shop where you can get laser fittings, all sorts of elite services, etc. Then there’s the other bike shop. The used parts. The consignment bikes. The bargain bucket. I’ve worked at two different of the latter.

If someone were to tell me that they ran upstairs, grabbed a pair of their cycling shoes and threw them on a brand new pair of shoes. I’d make that face.

You know the one.

That grimace. You’re making it right now. However, while these were second-hand cleats. (Continue grimacing) I got them from the same place as a crankset, and based on the wear of the crankset, I was convinced they were in pretty new condition. Looked more walked on, than ridden anyway.

What I noticed. . . was the shape. It didn’t weird me out at first, but then I thought about it later. I apparently hadn’t thought much about the SPD pedals and this last month has made me a bit of an expert now. When I don’t know something, I love to research.

The first ride to work, I almost died. I literally felt like the shoe was trying to kill me. This is more of a cleat review than a shoe review, but it’s something that I attached to the shoe, so. . .  Apparently I now know the difference between SPD-SH51 and SPD-SH56. Up until that point, and don’t make fun of me, because I honestly didn’t realize that there were different types of brackets available for what equates to similar to the Shimano M540 pedals. (Not saying this is what I run. They just look like this.)

Cleat being stuck and almost tipping over a couple times beside, it was an interesting ride.

• They’re normal shoes, so it feels less snug in the side.
• It was awkward at first hearing the aglets hitting the crank. I kept insisting that my laces were going to get snagged in the chain. *knock on wood* Not yet!
• I do wear them at work and am comfortable walking around with them for eight hours at a time after riding to work with them. They were even okay to wear soaking wet. I took them off after I got to work to dry, though.

A couple days after I got them, I noticed they were clackety more than they were at first. I checked the bottom of the shoes to find that both the external screws were loose on the cleats! Like loose enough I could tighten them with my fingers! I assume it was from yanking my feet out to save my life as I bailed from my bike. A quick tighten with the alan wrench and I have checked since then and they’re fine.

Another irrelevant note on my stupid cleats. I have drug out all my shoes and in addition to the whole SH51/SH56 issue. Turns out I had some off-brand cleats, which in and of itself wasn’t a bad thing, but when I am looking up cleats, it’s difficult to look up 98A or HTI-II when you have no idea what in the world they are.

Next plan is to grab $20 and buy all new SH56s for all my shoes.

Sigh.