Lightest, stiffest road shoes for 2014?
 

I looked through lots of shoe posts, hunted online in editorial sites, visited some local shops...and was wondering what you guys have found this year so far that impressed you in terms of:

• Stiff sole - For excellent energy transmission
• Light weight
• Comfort & Customizability (realizing comfort is subjective, so customizability is more practical/useful really)
• Airflow (hot days in a shoe with poor venting really stinks--literally)

I've been looking at these shoes with interest:

• Sidi Wire
• Bont Vaypor
• Shimano RH 360 and 220

My goal is to find a very light, stiff-soled shoe, try on a few sizes and see which fit me best, and then do some custom fitting.

I checked out a buddy's Bont shoes this week, and I was blown away by how light they were. Additionally, the toe box is shaped like...a FOOT! Imagine that?! :)

The Bont venting seems well thought out, but it sure does look minimal, so I wonder how hot they can get on a warm day.

So...all that said, which road shoes are interesting you this year?
What's on your short list for a kick-ass lightweight, power-transmitting, satisfyingly comfortable shoe?

Thanks for sharing thoughts on this. :thumb:

IMO stick to real leather shoes if you think venting is an issue. Bonts are good there. Also, you might want to look at the higher end Lake shoes, too.

My Sidis are great - in the winter when I need to keep my feet warm. In the summer, I'll be wearing my Lakes.

Haven't had a chance to try on a Lake, but will try to find one. Any opinions on Northwave?


Do you have Sidis with straps or boa cables? Wondering about boa, have heard good things.

Those are really nice looking, wow. Not that that matters, fit and other features are key, but they seriously did a nice job on the design.

Mavic continues to impress me. I know there are some real Mavic haters, and I know there may be legit opinions for hating any brand, but in recent years, it's appeared to me that they keep upping their design and technology application, and the quality of products I've seen has been incredibly good.

Wonder who carries that shoe in the area, will hunt around. It'd be good to see them firsthand and give a try on.

I found Mavic's shoes to be too narrow for me. I ended up with the Giro Prolight SLX and love them. Of course I had to buy them only months before they released the current Prolights with the replaceable heel pad. Bastards.

The Trek store should carry them

Mavic shoes are narrow. I have a narrow foot and I had to get use to them for a while. A few toes will go numb every now and then...but overall I would get their shoes again.

I have the Galibers, no real complaints and at a sale price of 129.99 I feel cost:performance ratio is spot on.

I have the Sidi 6.6s - straps. My Lakes have the boa, and I think it's great. I have a couple of pair of the CX330s, where the boa also goes around the ankle and really helps to hold my big flat 13EE paddles in place. I hated it when they stopped that - the CX331s have a "normal" boa.

Tried on a bunch of shoes yesterday. The Bonts are pretty harsh/firm inside. I know the heat molding improves shape of the shoe to match your foot shape, but the interior felt too hard---like a hockey skate (where you'd be wearing a heavily padded sock). Not surpirsing as Bont's a skate Co. Then I tried on several other shoes. One of the higher end Giros in the HV (high volume) version felt great. Finally, I tried on the Sidi 6.6 Vent in a mega. Wow. Soooo comfortable around the foot, and the sole is very stiff. This is my front runner now.

If you like the Sidi 6.6 in a mega, try to find a "normal" Lake in the same size. Assuming the CX331 fits the same as the CX330, the Lake should feel pretty much the same as the Sidi. But the Lake is leather. Anything above a Lake CX217 should be about the same. I picked up a pair of less expensive Lake triathlon shoes to go with my 2 pair of CX330s and the triathlon shoes look like they use the exact same CF sole as the CX330s.

Rocket7's score on each point.

Stiff carbon sole.

160-180grams.

Custom molded and customizeable. Very comfortable.

Good airflow.


The misses are price and durability.

That said, you get a better return on comfy feet, than a lot of expensive bike stuff people buy.

Rocket7 Custom Cycling Shoes

I like my Diadora Jetracer, very, very well vented. Comfortable. I'm not sure where they stand for the stiffness and weight, but they are pretty light.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=385343

I've got a pair of Lake CX236's arriving tomorrow, and also a Diadora Vortex Racer to compare. Will report back on fit, stiffness and initial impressions.

Got the Lake CX236 and Diadora Vortex Racer.

Vortex is a no-go. Runs smaller than the size chart indicates by a half size at least. But the major factor is that these are VERY flexible. Pretty surprised how flimsy they feel. Great breathable design, great boa closure, and nice looking design for sure. But wow, one of the more flexible soles I've touched in recent years. I'm sure there's a much stiffer one that solves these problems, but unfortunately, I didn't pick it, I went with some online advice on size and model.

The CX236 is a very nice shoe! Stiff (as stiff as top end carbon shoes are, this sole is right there, rock solid), great comfortable and compliant upper, breathable, boa closure couldn't be easier. But I ordered a 46 and I wear a 11.5 US, and they're a little too big surprisingly. Too much room in the toe box length-wise, so I have to crank the boa very tight in order to keep my heel from moving. They make a 45.5 wide, so I'll see if I can get these swapped out. What a lot of shoe for the money, I'm pretty impressed!

I've the Bont Vaypor Premiums. They tick all your boxes.

My opinion, get what fits and you like the color. Any difference in weight or sole stiffness will be negligible. But if the placebo effect is what you want....

You've never had hot spots on your feet, have you?

Mine were a bit big, too, but I solved that with Superfeet insoles. IIRC the insole Lake supplies is really thin and doesn't offer much support.

Tried on the Bonts, the toe box and sides of it are too hard for the bony wide forefeet I've got unfortunately. Impressively light and stiff shoes though!

Higher rotating mass over long distances may not be noticeable, but the effects are what they are. Think of it this way: if you're riding 80 miles, and before you leave, somebody straps a 1/4 lb weight to each foot, do you think that would have zero effect on climbs or acceleration or converting caloric expenditure into speed or distance? Probably not. I totally agree that you can't feel it, but physics is always in effect. You're lifting and then pushing a quarter pound additional weight around in a circle with each foot for 80 miles, or whatever the distance is. If it was pointless, there would be no need for bike racers to use lightweight shoes and bikes, sports and race cars wouldn't need light weight wheels and components to optimize performance, etc.

In terms of stiffness, the Diadora I tried on was noticeably softer flexing than my Shimano, and the Lake was incredibly stiff, much more so than the other two. Again, physics is a factor here. You're either going to transfer energy to the drivetrain, or you're going to absorb some of that energy with a flexible shoe. (Not to mention creating hot spots and other comfort/fatigue issues.) I've already tried riding with a semi-flexible shoe, so now I'm going to ride with a stiffer shoe and see what it's like. I'll still have to do some custom fitting on some level, no matter what the shoe, but that's normal.

I want to get a little closer and closer to efficiency with myself, my bike and my gear ongoing. So I'm including shoes in that equation.

In terms of getting what fits, you're spot on there. Has to fit well. If it fits poorly out of the box, most likely it's going to need either a lot of custom work (which ain't easy), or a ton of break-in (which means many painful miles), or it'll just completely suck the entire time until I give up and replace the shoes. Been down the completely suck road and I'm not doing that again, so I'm taking my time and getting a shoe that fits my foot shape, heel and has a toe box that doesn't hurt and rub my bony feet.

I had just way too much volume in the toe area, so in order to keep the foot from sliding and the heel lifting, I had to crank the boa knob down much too hard, creating a bad fit situation. Kind of like when you get fitted with too large of a ski boot, and you have to crank the buckles down too hard to keep the foot in place. Like that. No good. I have to go down either a half or a full size, these Lakes run a full size bigger than Sidis or Shimanos it appears. Will try on smaller Lakes shortly and report back. Pretty surprised with the shoes, didn't realize I'd like them so much. Looking forward to riding them!

As far as I know, nobody has published any hard data that quantifies any energy lost from flexing a shoe sole. Any minute deflection within the elastic range of the material comes back into the system. As far as weight, where do you get the 1/4 lb (110 grams) on each foot? All shoes I've seen lately range in weight from around 460 to 500 grams/pair. That's 20 grams/shoe, or about 0.04 lb per shoe. Far from the number you quoted. That 20 grams per shoe is minimal.

If you want to split hairs and quote physics as your rationale, go ahead, but in reality, I'm staying with negligible or no difference

The Bonts are heat mouldable so you can give yourself extra room in those tight spots.

How to Heat Mold your Bont Cyling Shoes - YouTube


Molding Your Bont Shoes - YouTube