The epic journey to the land of no day-glo

I'm in Chicago. It's rad. Can't see any Altura anywhere, thus I am happy.
Here is how I got here:

The week started off in Afan. Lovely. Cold, sunny. Then this happened:

Hidden Valley on Penhydd. Best part. Closed. Bummer.

We stopped for lunch. Jam sandwiches. Awesome. Back up the Wall. Stop for a Snickers. Five people cycled past in awful, awful outfits. You're on a bike. Would you wear that to the shops? No. So why on a bike? So I had to do this for a bit to recover:


Back in London. Busy. Tuesday, hit up British Airways for a flight to Chicago. Crap films - All About Steve? Terrible. Virigin rocks. But we ended up here so that's all good:


And the El train is rad. Keep expecting Harrison Ford to pop out from a phone box like in the Fugitive. My sister watched that film and went: 'Great film. Which one was the fugitive?' This one:


We popped over to the Wicker Park district and mooched around the Rapid Transit Bicycle shop:


This dude was after a job there. He is a cyclist. Who looks cool. Not hard really:


And Rapid sold these shirts from Kona. Yum:


And after all that bike browsing effort there was only one thing left to do:

New shoes, new shoes! How much?!

So I get sent this press release which makes me all happy as it has some spokes on it (easy to please) and it's about riding shoes. Now I have a major issue with riding shoes as my feet are quite slender and my Five Ten Freeriders - which let's face it are the best looking MTB shoes available to purchase - are so wide I could fit both my feet in one. I'm not going to go on a big gender issue here and about manufacturers not realising women have smaller feet, but sort it out, yeah?

Anyway the press relase in question was about a new shoe produced through a collaboration between Veja and Paris shop Cyclope for riders on track bikes. Here's a picture:
The shoes are made with some nifty ecological materials and are 'adapted for fixed gear riding.' What this means is they have a reinforced toe and a stiffer sole. Kinda like an Adiddas Campus sneaker. And I'm thinking, hmmm they look quite slender could be good for a Chicksands session.

But they are £95. Ninety-five pounds. Am I the only skint person who rides a bike?! It's a shoe! When did riding a bike mean people were allowed to fleece you? Vance Packard would be so proud.

I continue to read the press release despite my palpatating heart and I spot this:
Help me out. When did riding a track bike become an extreme sport? It's virtually impossible to crack yourself in the shin with your pedal when you bunny hop! Pah! I'll admit those MASH boys go pretty fast down the hills in San Francisco but frankly the most extreme thing about that is how they manage to stop their knees from blowing out. And do people even still use the term 'extreme sport'?

I'm in pain.