Lace Up Shoes
 

I have two pairs of Giro Empire SLX and a pair of Empires. Never ever had one set loosen up.
I use them with my track bike and they've been very secure.

Laces work. They worked for 100 years. If triathlons and the need to put shoes on on seconds never happened, laces would still be on most shoes. I've been using strapped shoes since ~1995. 2012 I rode Cycle Oregon on a fix gear. Pulling that hard against those straps led to a series of foot issues: swelling and infections and the sensation of cracked bones on the top of my foot. I had to adjust the straps mid-ride just to mitigate symptoms. After a few years of this, I took my favorite shoes, cut the straps off and installed grommets and laces. Oh yeah! The joys of good fitting shoes were back!

The shoes with laces I've noticed have been $300 shoes. $15 will get you the grommets, the tool and the laces. My feet are in heaven in $100 shoes. (Lakes have lasts that my feet love. I've known that since I tried on my first pair.)

Ben

Shoes don't fit the same when you put them on at the beginning of the ride vs. towards the middle when your feet start swelling. Due to lack of on-the-fly adjustability I guess you'd have to lace them up pretty precisely with that compensation in mind to have them work throughout the whole ride?

What I'm saying is, if I lace them up tight at the beginning, they'll be too tight towards the end, no? I suppose it would have to become second nature to know how tightly to lace the shoes up from the beginning?

Is there some type of friction technology in the lace holes that prevent the laces from slipping?

Are the empires a good fit for wide feet?

I just got Giro Knits a couple of months ago. Most comfortable shoes I've ever worn on a bike. The laces never have loosened, and the shoe seems to expand with my foot during the ride as I never have to re-adjust. I don't tie them any differently than I would a walking shoe.

I had to learn how to tie the laces just so. The first time I rode with them I heard this "tap tap tap" as I pedaled. It was the end of the lace (the plastic tip) on my left show hitting the chainstay every time the shoe went around. Adjust how much of the lace end is out and all is fine.

Empires are not good for wide feet.

I have Giro Republics with laces. Never an issue with loosening. I'm not a sprinter, so I'm not looking for the super tight fit. But I can tell you that you can "set it and forget it" - I rode The DAMn with my Republics, 240 miles and 21 hours, never needed to adjust my shoes.

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(photo credit TMB Images)

Laces and leather provide the ultimate comfort and fit, old school style. Add a hard carbon sole and its as good or better than the new ratcheting systems. Also no longer a problem with catching laces on pedal clips :)

Give me a set of boa laces any day over everything. I got a pair of Louis Garneau Course Air over last winter new on ebay for a steal. These are super light and two boa latches, this is the best cycling purchase I have made outside my TI road bike they are great. No laces for me.

I have the S-Works 6. They do fit pretty snugly around the heel cup and I have to loosen up the boas all the way to put them on and remove them, they are, however still pretty comfy. The newer S-works 7 is a little more relaxed.

Sir Bradley Wiggins

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I have the Giro Republix, their SPD version. They're 100% fine.

SLX in use for a couple of years & various other lace shoes for decades.

Never needed to adjust the laces during a ride. I like Giro shoes.

Had some S works for a while, but the toe area was cramped (since fixed I think). The boas worked OK,

but I find laces actually easier & less fussy. Also more aero.

Another vote for BOA, If I can retrofit boa to my daily foot wear I would. I did manage to score a pair of sneakers by Lake with boa closures.

I started with lace shoes, then moved on to Velcro straps ( remember LOOK used to make shoes), followed by strap ratchet buckles now I am on to BOA.
if you haven't give BOA a try.

I have a paranoia that laces will get untied during ride and end up in my crank.

Have you ridden shoes with laces or are you saying this from your experience with straps? I find that laces are both more comfortable and more forgiving re: tightness than straps. If I lace them up to feel right when I leave, I rarely think about them again.

Example: the 1977 Maine International race. 2nd longest, fastest and hardest race I ever rode. Was supposed to start at 10am. I was ready with my favorite shoes laced up tight knowing the race would be decided at the 90 mile point on a tough climb. (It was.) Well, the race official missed his flight so we had to wait two hours while he drove to the start. Race went on as I described with that hill being tougher than I could have imagined. But everything at the equipment level was working perfectly for me. I made split (in a deeper level of pain than I have ever known, before or since). Finished in the money and under the previous course record (set by a little known racer, John Howard). Hours later, in the team van headed back to Boston, I realized I still had my shoes on and that I hadn't even loosened the laces! Felt good to take them off, but my feet fared just fine. That was 8 hours in shoes laced for a brutal hill climb and sprint, with no ill effect whatsoever.

The place where laced shoes really rule is on the road riding fixed gears, Straps suck because you cannot adjust them while you are riding. (Feet moving.) After 3 hours with straps, I find I may be well into one of the symptoms I mentioned in my previous post. That same ride with laces? When I stop, I may want to adjust the laces but is never to prevent injuries, just an improvement in comfort.

Laces also offer a level of "customization" to your foot. My right foot is bony and adjusting middle and top straps to not sit directly on bone and leaving me with the cracked bone sensation after hard fix gear climbs while still keeping the shoe tight enough to avoid blisters and toe compression is near impossible. But with laces, I simply don't use the holes that would put a crossing over those bones. Looks odd, but my foot loves it.

Ben

Laces are good. The list of things I don't like about them is zero things long. Currently using the Louis Garneau LA84 shoes, got on sale for like $50 a while back.

Laces win races.

New Balance has some current models with Boa closures.

+1. No problems with laces coming loose on my Specialized Recons during 200+ miles at Dirty Kanza this year.

Actually on long rides I find my feet tend to swell, kind of the opposite issue of laces coming loose.

It rhymes, so you know it's true! ;)

Came here for this comment, leaving the thread satisfied. Kudos.

Got to try the S-works and they are snug and non-compliant. Not sure how the foot would fare on a ride