My quest for a road shoe you can walk on is over! I've been looking for a pair of comfortable and stiff - in short, performance - cycling shoes in the what manufacturers would call MTB class.
I've always thought this was a bit short-sighted. What about commuters, audaxers, people who own more than one bike but only want one pair of shoes,... the list continues. Clearly the best choice is a shoe with a recessed cleat.
With a shoe with a stiff carbon sole that you can tighten up properly to fit your foot snugly, there isn't actually that much difference between a road shoe and an MTB shoe, except of course that you can walk on the latter without looking like a duck. Or that you don't break/wear out your cleat if you need to walk every now and again.
Don't get me wrong, there's a time and a place for road shoes, but commuting, in my opinion, isn't that time and place. Especially not if you can find SPD shoes with a weight and performance that is pretty much identical to road shoes.
Anyway, on to the shoes! You've probably guessed that I like these. They fit, they're comfortable, I can do them up tight for when I want performance, I can do loosen them off a tad if my feet start swelling, they're stiff, I don't get hot foot, pretty much perfect really. I could not find anything I didn't like about these shoes.
It's worth noting that Specialized tend to be quite wide, as opposed to Sidi, for example, which I've found a bit too narrow. I've you've got wider feet and Sidi or similar are uncomfortable, these might be perfect.
It's also worth noting that Specialized tend to come up a size smaller. My normal foot size is EUR43, but in Specialized I know I need a EUR44.
Verdict
The perfect performance commuter/audax shoe
road.cc test report
Make and model: Specialized BG Expert MTB shoe
Rate the product for quality of construction:
8/10
Rate the product for performance:
10/10
Rate the product for durability:
9/10
Rate the product for weight, if applicable:
9/10
Rate the product for comfort, if applicable:
10/10
Rate the product for value:
9/10
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes
Would you consider buying the product? Definitely
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes
Age: 32 Height: 1.78m Weight: 76kg
I usually ride: All of them! My best bike is: Cervelo Dual
I've been riding for: Over 20 years I ride: Every day I would class myself as: Expert
I regularly do the following types of riding: time trialling, commuting, touring, club rides, fixed/singlespeed, Audax
You are missing a key point of comment; yes, it shouldn't be the cyclists' roles to police the roads, but with almost total indifference from...
If one is prepared to pay £28 for a TPU tube, the butyl comparison should be Continental's Supersonic ~50g or Schwalbe at 70g. Both costing £8 - ...
I'd buy that for a dollar.
Media needs to do their part, but the readr/consumer also needs to do theirs as well:...
You can't do around getting rid of grass verges. They provide much needed parking space.
Kona makes practical, affordable commuter bikes and goes bust. Colnago makes toys for the affluent and it is booming. Just goes to show that the...
To answer your question, yes you can sometimes feel the difference. Built a set of wheels for a friend and he installed them with new lightweight...
Cycling infrastructure does not force drivers to break the law, drivers are the reason they break the law, no one else.
Ah but taking pictures of things to defy the man (avoid a fine) is righteous. Taking pictures of people to grass on them to the cops (perhaps...
As a woman, this works great for me! My chain broke once, and a kind guy stopped with a chain breaker and sorted it all out for me. We stopped at a...