Sidi Ergo 6 Road Shoes

The Sidi Ergo 6 road shoe is a significant departure for the Italian disco slipper manufacturer in that it abandons Sidi’s famous/infamous narrow and pointy shoe shape in favour of something that’s wide and with a rounded toe box. The signature Sidi ratchet dials are still there, as is the race-focused stiff sole, but this could be the Sidi road shoe to wear if you’ve never got on with Sidis.

The Ergo 6 perches on the third branch down in Sidi’s road shoe tree, underneath the Shot 2S and Wire 2S, and Sidi fans and general cycling shoe fetishists will instantly notice that it doesn’t look very Sidi. They’re wide and rounded rather than narrow and pointy. That’s because the Ergo 6 comes with Sidi’s new ‘Millennium’ fit, which means a wider and roomier shoe with a generous toe box – a significant change from the characteristics Sidi shoes have been known for all these years.

Sidi might actually have taken on board the fact that wider shoes, just like rims and tyres, make for a more comfortable, and therefore more efficient in the long run, riding experience. Or it’s realised that not everyone has Italian disco slipper feet, or wants to take part in the cycling equivalent of a Chinese binding ritual every time they go for a ride.

I was a big Sidi fan back in the day, and there’s an entire collection of road and mountain bike shoes that I haven’t used in dusty decades at the bottom of the pile but just can’t throw away. But since their heyday, when acquiring a pair of Sidis was almost a rite of passage that marked you out as a Proper Cyclist, their relevance as a cycling shoe has waned as many other brands have caught up and overtaken them as the Cinderella slipper of choice.

The Ergo 6 and its Millennium fit could ping Sidi back under the radar with a shoe that favours both comfort and more people’s foot shape. That said, the Ergo 6 is Sidi’s only summer road shoe with the Millennium fit (whereas it’s a common last shape among its gravel, cross-country and winter road shoes).

For me, the new Millennium shape is spot on – and the shoes fitted perfectly to my default size, a bonus if you’ve had to previously go up a size in the dainty Sidi shape. The Ergo 6 comes in half sizes too, to get that fit just so. On Sidi’s Fit Scale, which runs from ‘recreational’ up to ‘performance’, the Ergo 6 is an 8 out of 10, which probably puts them in the Etape du Tour league rather than full Tour de France.

The shoe is available in four colours – Dark Grey (black to you and me), Burgundy, Dark Blue and White. There’s a line of tiny little reflective lozenges on the back of the heel and one on the toe as a stylish yet ultimately trivial nod to safety.

Sidi claims the Ergo 6 weighs 278g per shoe, and these size 41s came in at 574g a pair. That’s not the lightest for this level of shoe, although svelteness is not necessarily their raison d’etre.

Sole

They’re shod with a full-carbon R2FC sole, which is rated as 11 out of 12 on Sidi’s stiffness scale, but as there’s no uniformity between different manufacturers’ stiffness ratings it’s kind of a meaningless number; call it one click down from pro-level rigidity. The sole is supplemented with non-replaceable bumpers in the heel and toe, and two vent holes, making the underside smooth and uncluttered in what Sidi calls Aero Powered.

The three road-pattern cleat holes are all mounted on the same internal metal plate and there’s 12mm of fore/aft wiggle room to tighten the cleat in the right place for you.

Insole

The insole is an incredibly basic affair, perforated under the ball of the foot but firm, slim, minimally contoured and with no opportunity to tune the fit with inserts like other shoe brands might offer. Maybe Sidi has figured that people putting down the money for this shoe will have their own insole preferences; I slipped my own favoured and considerably more structured inserts in.

Upper

The microfibre upper and tongue are both heavily perforated, which makes them excellent for warmer days but a bit breezy on rides that are less than balmy. That microfibre upper is seamless and very supple, which makes it incredibly comfortable when wrapped around your foot, with no seams or ridges to encourage rub spots.

Two inverse Vs of Firmor webbing connect the sole to the upper cable points on the inner flank of the shoe, and as well as offering rigidity when tightening the shoe, they provide lateral support to the foot.

The heel cup is firm without being clamp like, and braces more than just the back of the foot, with support extending a long way forward on the shoe to give structure. There’s firm padding all the way around the inside of the topline and it does a great job, alongside that heel counter, of keeping your foot in place even during ugly hillclimb grunts. The tongue is thinly but firmly padded and protects the top of the foot from tension cable hot spots.

The toe has a firm bumper to it, which adds protection, but unfortunately it’s not made of the most robust material and it shows wear easily, scuffs quickly and can even tear, especially prominent on the putty-downy foot. It’s definitely a road shoe for clipping in at the start of the ride, clipping out at the end, and track standing at junctions and lights rather than rides with multiple cafe stops, walking across gravel car parks or wandering around looking at the view.

Dial Sidi

Closure is via a pair of Sidi dials; don’t call them Boas, whatever you do, don’t mention Boa. These are Sidi’s own ratchet dials with a lightweight Dyneema tension cable and it’s a system the company has been using and improving upon for over 30 years. Sidi fans of old will recognise them instantly. If you’re not used to them you might find them fiddly compared with a grab/twist/click Boa dial.

To tension the dial you have to open the half-moon-shaped tab by either flipping it up or pressing the ridged button in the middle of the dial. The latter is a lot easier, and the ‘Push’ on each dial suggest Sidi really want you to do it that way, and then rotate it clockwise to tighten.

The tightening direction isn’t left and right shoe-specific like a Boa dial but clockwise for all dials on both feet, which can feel counter-intuitive. And while pushing that little release button, rotating the tab and clicking it back down again is wonderfully tactile and pleasing to use, it does feel unnecessarily finicky, and slow, and if you’re using oversocks or overshoes then it’s definitely going to be fumblingly difficult to perform.

But as Sidi has been using this system for decades, it’s not going to suddenly dump it in deference to the Boa system, no matter how much simpler that is to use.

Releasing tension is by pushing two little tabs either side of the dial – micro-release performed by dabbing just one, while pushing in both at once dumps all the tension for when you want to remove the shoe. Again this is more fiddly than it needs to be, as which tab you press to micro-release alternates with each press. In use it’s no biggie really, and quite a jolly little finger dance, so a feature not a bug. On a more positive note, they sit aesthetically agreeably more flush to the body of the shoe than many other tensioning roundels, which might even save you half a watt, and it definitely marks the shoe out as a Sidi.

Roooooomy

Now to that big difference… If you’re used to the tight squeeze of a traditional Sidi then the roominess of the Ergo 6 and its Millennium fit might feel a little weird, but after a few hours in the saddle it’s a revelation and feels a whole world more comfortable. I was a tighter-is-better rider and an inveterate dial ratcheter for a long, long while, and therefore a steadfast Sidi user, until I migrated through a variety of other makes of shoe and realised that compressed wasn’t necessarily the way for bike shoes – especially for rides that might stretch over more than a couple of hours.

The Sidi Ergo 6 is a very, very good shoe that balances high performance and slipper-like comfort, something that’s especially welcome if you regularly venture into a longer ride.

If you really want to crank up the ratchets they only really influence the bridge of the foot, so you still get a secure shoe when pulling up on the pedals, if that’s what you want, while the front of the foot and toes continue to get plenty of wiggle room.

There is a potential issue in the Ergo 6 that if you have a thinner foot and crank up the dials then some wrinkling of the upper can occur. This may be a massive stylistic faux pas for you or nothing at all to bother about. While racier types might enjoy the psychosomatic gains of constrictive and clamp ratcheted shoes, for everybody else the comfort benefits of a broader and more spacious shoe are going to be a performance plus towards longer distances where your feet are likely to swell over the ride and appreciate the extra breathing room, especially if you’re pedalling up warmer climbs.

Value

While £299 is a chunk of money to spend on shoes, it’s on a par with others we’ve reviewed recently on road.cc, and still not top dollar by a long stretch.

Lake’s CX239 shoes are similar in price to the Ergo 6 at £295 and come in a range of sizes (including half sizes) and widths. If you really favour a more generous fit then they’re worth a look. Stu loved their stiff full-carbon sole and even in the regular width found them roomy, and if that isn’t spacious enough for you Lake offers a wide version too.

If you’re in the mood for something boutique and Italian, because shoes, the Northwave Extreme Pros are £296.99. They’re extremely stiff with a sole that goes all the way up to 15, and come with Northwave’s excellent tensioning dials – although some wearing in might be required.

Making the Sidis look better value are Quoc’s M3 Pros at £320. They have a similar aesthetic to the Ergo 6, and although praised for being a pleasing blend of light weight, comfort and performance, they have a slim last and the tension dials don’t micro-release.

You can spend a little less: the Udog Cento, which received a road.cc Recommends award, have a wide and roomy toe box, stiff sole and comfort, for around £260. They also come with a crash replacement and repair service which adds to their value in the long term.

Check out more options in our guide to the best road cycling shoes.

Conclusion

The Sidi Ergo 6 is a very, very good shoe, and while it might be roomy, it still has plenty of security. That Firmor webbing holds the mid-foot under control, and the heel cup keeps rearward lift at bay during efforts and steep climbs, as well as minimising any heel float and yaw with its extended forward support. The carbon sole, while bothering the top of Sidi’s stiffness chart, manages to be both rigid enough to feel every inch the shoe’s performance claims (and price) but still not so stiff that it’s uncomfortably rigid towards the end of a distancey ride. Is it possible to have a mullet shoe? Business underneath, party on the top?

Verdict

A significant departure for Sidi with its roomy fit, and it really works, providing comfort and performance for miles

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