Shoes

Lightweight and stiffness is the order of the day when it comes to Giro Factor road shoes. Built on the same lasts as the range topping Prolight SLXs. the Factors are designed to suit virtually every foot in the land.

If you suffer from cold feet while you're out on the bike, the Louis Garneau Glacier Road Shoes could be just what you need. They're essentially road shoes with integrated overshoes and they're really warm.

I've never been into big winter shoes largely on the basis that they look so goddamn clumpy but, on the other hand (so to speak), I've got fed up of frozen feet two or three months a year so I was keen to give these a go.

Chrome make some cycling-specific shoes, including an SPD version of the Kursk which we've tested on road.cc. The Riverton is more of a general purpose knocking about kind of a shoe, and it's nicely made and pretty comfy.

The Riverton is a mid-top pump with a full-grain leather upper and baseball-shoe-style rubber sole. You get a discreet(ish) Kursk logo on the side of the heel and two-hole lacing. The sole is red, with white trim. That's pretty much your lot.

The BG Spirita is Specialized's top end women's specific road shoe, with a fair few BG (Body Geometry) bells and whistles but the first thing that's surprising is how much further up in performance and price the men's options go. At this price, the BG Spirita's are competing with the majority of female specific shoes on the market however, with only a few manufacturers, such as Giro, Lake and Sidi committing to genuinely higher end female specific shoes.

The Northwave Evolution SBS is a high-end shoe from the Italian cobblers in Treviso and the racing slipper of choice for the likes of Cancellara, Greipel, Gilbert, Hincapie and the Schleck brothers, so lord knows what I'm doing with them.

As you'd expect from a top clog Northwave have shoehorned a whole boxful of features into the shoe with SBS, AFS, A.S.R 2, WLI, ST 8:4, BioMap, a Pro Footbed and an Omega heel-cup no less.

Pearl Izumi's Race road shoe is a well-made entry level piece of footwear that's comfortable and performs pretty well, but it's not really doing anything that you can't get elsewhere for a bit less cash.

Shimano's new top-end R315 road shoes come with a super-rigid carbon sole and feature Custom-Fit technology that ensures they're big on comfort.

The R315 takes over from the R310 as Shimano's flagship model, but unlike its predecessor it gets an upper that's made from Rovenica. This is an ultra-fine synthetic material - very supple stuff. It's strong and doesn't stretch to any noticeable degree, but it's very thin.

Like saddles, shoes are always going to be an incredibly personal choice. What suits one person may well be completely unsuitable for someone else, due to foot shape, biomechanical quirks, past injuries or just personal preference. I'm blessed with fairly "standard" feet and suffer from no major biomechanical issues, so I usually find it relatively straightforward to buy footwear for both on and off the bike. This review is therefore based on my personal experience of the BG Spirita Touring Shoe with a fairly neutral foot.

Time RXT shoes are a sound choice for anyone seeking good quality race/training shoes without cruising into overdraft. Vegans and strict vegetarians will welcome the faux hide and the soles offer sufficient rigidity for most generic road duties. Rubberised heels are also a nice touch, eliminating the undignified clubman's hobble when negotiating the kitchen tiles, decking and other notoriously tricky surfaces.