milesthedog wrote:
My power has
not increased because of my shoes (unfortunately!). But, my comfort is at a level I did not think was possible for a cycling shoe. My knee alignment is spot on... with no wedges. I do think I will benefit from being able to ride better later into rides/races when hot spots in previous shoes surely reduced the power I was producing (it hurt to put out too much torque!). I know to some folks this may sound ludicrous, but after riding in these shoes, I feel $1.9k is a deal. I guess I see it as, if you're riding a P5, R5, Sworks frame, a C'dale Evo or Black Inc., Madone or Speed Concept, or Felt IA, Scott Plasma.... or if you own a power meter, these shoes are right in line. I feel it's just logical.... But I understand why folks would balk at the price: it's unorthodox.
OK, here's more of a strategic business rant that relates to Simmons, other companies, and price:
I would love to see the companies Dash, AX-Lightness, THM, EE and Simmons Racing (shoes) under one umbrella company. Dash and AX would collaborate on wheels (wide, tubeless, zipp-nsw-quality braking surface) and Dash would take over all wheels and saddle responsibilites. AX would only focus on frames (no brakes or components). THM would drop their brakes and only focus on cranks, forks, seatposts and would take over AX's stems and handlebars. EE would provide brakes. Simmons would work with THM, AX and Dash to create a production line for his full custom Mojo shoes. I would also like to see Simmons work with Dash to create a new product: custom saddles created from personal molds; I've never seen this done, but I've dropped Dave Simmons an email about giving this idea a go (Dash never responded to an inquiry I made over a year ago). I've been on a Dash tri.7 on my road bike for 5 years and love it, but after using the Simmons shoes and feeling like the shoes have disappeared from under me allowing me to forget about my feet with the weight distributed evenly across my whole foot even up HC climbs, my standards for comfort have been raised, and I would like to see this standards for comfort carried over to my saddle.
AX has already brought their frame prices down to the level of C'dale Black Inc, S-works and less than the new Madone, so a bit more collaboration on production could bring prices down a tad bit more, allowing these products to retain their niche status while removing the possible negative stigma associated with products that live within the weight-weenie domain. And, more importantly, this group would mimic SRAM when it was just a burgeoning parent company in the late 90's: that move by SRAM allowed them to market to a wider audience and move away from being this niche chain company that also made twist shift better than Grip Shift (for mountain bikes). Would TriRig fit neatly under this umbrella? They would bring pedals and aerobars. I like Nick's brakes, but the dual post EE with the aero cover is areo, provides Duraace quality braking, and is stupid light. That's hard to beat.
I agree with your points that while power may not increse if comfort does over a race, it is worth it and as a result power COULD also increase later due to lack of hot spots. As a minimum, if compensation due to hot spots etc declines then long term this is a good investment. I can really see the value of these in speed skating and also if an XC ski boot could be made in this manner (although FIS would ban it because all XC ski boots used in competition have to be commercially available...at least that was the rule a few years back). In XC ski and speed skating, where you have to dynamically balance, this would have a really big advantage. Less so in cycling, but it still seems like a worthwhile place to spend money. Money on contact points is never really a waste...shoes, pedals, bars, saddles.