Specialized BG Expert MTB shoe

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