Shoe advice please.

[don1]

I'm probably what's considered a new cyclist. I've only been cycling properly about 3 years or so.
When I first started riding clipped in, I was using SPD Shimano M088 shoes with M324 pedals.
However, I always used to get pains in the balls of my feet on longer rides. After reading about this online, I then made the switch to SPD-SL shoes, Wiggles DHB R1.0
It seemed to work. Whether it was down to the stiffer shoes or the larger contact platform I'm not sure, but they've been fine for me for the last couple of years.

But, they're a right royal pain in the backside if you have to walk anywhere so I'm considering going back to SPD.

Therefore I'd like to get some advice on what probably was the likely cause.

Do you think that it could just be that I need a stiffer SPD shoe ?

I'm sure others will have probably experienced something similar, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[CREPELLO]

Yes, a stiffer soled shoe will go some way to alleviate hot foot. Any shoe that is at all tight or ill fitting which induces pressure points will also lead to hot or numbness.

Some Shimano SPD pedals now come with a wider platform to support the cleat section of the shoe (eg XT pedals), thereby reducing pressure points.

[531colin]

MO88 is already a pretty stiff-soled shoe. One difference between MO88 and your road shoes that you don't mention is that little ratchet fastening. If you do that up tight, it is quite powerful enough to collapse your arches, which will lead to sharp pains in the balls of your feet.
Fortunately, my brother was a ski-boot fitter for many years, so he knew what was going on....much better than the GP, who thought I had rheumatoid arthritis....
.....I have just realised i typed all this out before....have a read here......http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=90412&hilit=+arches

[FarOeuf]

I experienced 'hot foot' with mountain bike shoes once, on long road rides. In retrospect I beleive it was simply the straps nearest the toe being done up too tightly, compressing the nerves around the front mid-section of the foot. Undoing/loosening the straps helped at the time. I've since switched to road shoes (carbon soles) and do up the straps in reverse order (tighten the top most strap first).