that does mean it can be slippery if you step on the pedal with the arch of your foot, or a big root/rock while scampering around
some race shoes have a rubber pad added to the last in the instep just for that
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Who makes actually wide clippy shoes? I bought a pair of 41.5 Giro Code VR70s a few years ago because they were on super-sale (closeout plus my discount) at the shop where I used to work and they are way more comfortable than my old Sidis. Plus fancy carbon and stuff.
In the last couple of years, I learned what it feels like to have shoes that actually fit (US 8.5 2E or 4E, depending on brand) and I am realizing now that these shoes are pretty narrow for me.
Looking around, Iām not seeing many options for stiff-soled SPD shoes (slow road rides, sometimes gravel) that are actually that wide, so I will likely be settling āless too-narrow.ā What do I look for here?
Lake does both āwideā and āextra wideā:
https://lakecycling.com/pages/fit-matrix
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Oh shit yeah
Northwave has always been wide too.
Yeah, the regular Lakes were wider than the āwideā Specialized I tried on last.
Wide Lakes are W I D E.
After a week and change of internet research, I am now deeply resentful of most brands and their weird, one wide offering in a random low-midrange model.
Ordered a pair of Lake MX241s in the W I D E last to see if theyāll do it for me. āExtra Wideā is a designation for their super racey last that is narrower than āWideā in the less racey last, or something. I donāt really get that designation, but it should be pretty fucking wide.
I also ordered a pair of the Shimano RX8 in the wide (E) version, which showed up today. I probably am a full size big in length but am still hanging off the edges of the shoe a bit on the inside, though nowhere near as badly as on the Giros, where Iām just hanging out all around the sole, which I somehow thought was normal when I bought them.
My toes are a lot less squished and my feet look a lot less like sausages in these. I think theyād be a bigass improvement on the bike, but I am going to wait until the Lakes show up before I pick one to actually mount cleats to and ride, since at that point I have to commit to not returning.
These Shimanos really are light AF and look good. Is there a trick to getting them on without putting a crease in the tongue? That seems a little fiddly and irritates the bone spur on top of my foot unless I get them adjusted just right.
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Thanks for doing all this and posting. My feet are also very wide. not sure about yours but mine are wide and fleshy in the middle , not so much wide in the forefoot. I hang off the edges in pretty much all shoes too.
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Mine are widest in the forefoot by a little bit but donāt really taper much in the middle. I have a pretty flat arch, which probably doesnāt help with the bulgy-ness in most shoes. When I walk barefoot on the beach, my footprints look almost rectangular.
Iām curious to see what the sole of the wide Lakes is like. Iām not sure if the pictures on their site are actually of the wide version, but it looks like it might taper more in the middle of the foot than would be ideal for me.
I also looked a lot at Bont, since it is the other brand mentioned when people talk about wide shoes. They have an incredible-looking sole that looks like it might actually cover my whole foot, but I got a little scared away from ordering when I entered my foot measurements into their sizing tool and it told me I would need to custom order double wide shoes from them. Iām not that serious a cyclist, though I suppose I do have $600 of shoes on my credit card right now.
I do appreciate that the shoes they offer in hella wide fits are their best shoes, though.
I really like my rx8s too, worth the money. So light, so comfortable. My feet hang a bit but Iāve come to terms with that over the years. They really are the closest Iāve ever seen to a road style 2-bolt shoe, at least without looking ridiculously racy. I absolutely love standing and stomping my significant weight on the pedals and feeling no flex of any kind at all.
When I did a bunch of shoe shopping a few years ago, I couldnāt even get my foot into most brands at all. Every shop recommended bonts but those did not work for me at ALL. None of the shops I went to carried lake. I remember a set of wide sidis that gave me intense cramping after a couple miles.
When putting them on I just pull the inner tongue as high as I can and slip the shoe on. It creases way less than the less expensive shimano shoes with similar closure, nicer material I guess.
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All this RX8 love makes me want to do something with the pair I bought back in December that been sitting in the box since.
Hey this is a question that may have been asked before, maybe even by me, but:
when heat molding shoes, at, say, 160f (Bontās recommended temp), should you take the Boa dials and laces off your shoes, or can they stay on? Iām going to take off cleats and remove insoles as recommended.
repeated attempts to get Bont to weigh in have not been successful, so I guess Iāll do what you all tell me to do, or not if it sounds like terrible advice.
this dude seems to just pull out the insoles and put them on a baking sheet.
Ahhh thanks ok Iām going to take this dude at his word that he is working with Bont on this video, and that he thus knows what heās talking about.
Iāve watched a lot of similar videos that have a sort of seat-of-pants vibe, which doesnāt really inspire a lot of confidence.
I guess if it doesnāt work, I can always try a sous vide heat molding
Well, the Lakes showed up today and they are way wider and a lot more adjustable than the Shimanos. The Shimanos feel like they would be nicer for my purposes if they fit me, since they are lighter and feel a little stiffer when I try to flex the soles with my hands, but they are just a bit too narrow, even a full size bigger than matches the length of my foot.
The Lakes are a fair bit wider in a shorter overall length (41/ 260mm), which suits my weird feet. The two boas are nice for getting everything wrapped around my foot properly.
They donāt feel any stiffer than the Giros that they are replacing when squeezing by hand, but on the bike the power transfer is immediately, noticeably better. They felt stiffer, but that might just be that my feet arenāt squishing all around the outside of the sole in the forefoot.
Iām not too worried about the small bit of heel lift in these shoes when Iām walking, since it doesnāt happen on the bike at all, but I might try to heat mold the heel cups at some point. Just because.
They are definitely not pretty, but hopefully the strappy black leather will grow on me once it looks a little less new.
The RX8s are definitely going back unless anyone needs a 42 (267mm) E (wide) in black.
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The Lake competition last heel cups were loose for me too. Definitely had heel lift when walking and probably could have pulled out on the bike if I tried / put down watts. Kind of a trade off, best overall shoes Iād found at the time.
The Spec heel cups have been the best for me, nice and secure. Initially, the RX8 feel close to that while also being enough volume in the rest of the shoe to actually be usable. Still need to put miles on them tho.
Yeah, Iām gonna have to keep an eye on it on the bike. It wasnāt a problem in my very short test yesterday, but that was just a couple of miles. I guess I can bake them and try to reshape the heel cup as needed.
iām a few hundred miles into Shimano XC7 shoes. combo of road and gravel and MTB miles. these are Shimanoās top of the āxc racerā line, not the gravelly kind.
i love them so much. theyāre the best shoes iāve ever owned.
i have previously had: sidi dominators (in various sub-styles), which i liked. i also had giro empires which i hated.
the XC7 boas are in the perfect spot. itās so easy to get the fit perfect, my feet never swell up (like they did in the giros) or get numb toes.
the front boa actually feels like it controls the entire front of the shoe, but itās a lot more forgiving than the sidi velcro straps. itās nice to be able to independently control the front of the shoe (which is something i could never do with the lace-up Giros).
the back boa is fine, itās not really a dramatic improvement over a sidi buckle. the one benefit is that the tongue of the shoe can be super super soft, whereas the top of the sidi tongue would occasionally rub on a bare foot.
hidden and weird feature that i love: the heel cup has this directional fiber that makes it easy to get your foot in but hard to get your heel up - itās like shark skin. not sure how long it will last but itās really nice.
the rubber is fairly soft, i think the shoes are pretty walkable. they are definitely made for riding, so if you want to run cyclocross style you have to crank the back boa a lot tighter, which is fine for a race but i wouldnāt want to be messing with it all day.
they wipe clean really well if you get mud splatters on them.
they also breathe a lot better than the old sidis or giros. and iām not patient enough to lace up a giro every time so thatās another bonus.
overall i am thrilled. i got them 50% off and it was totally worth it.
that is my review.
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you fucker, you just sold me on them and i dont necessarily need new shoes
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Just be aware that I have pretty narrow feet! Iām not sure Iād recommend them if you have even average width feet