Vibram XS Road Cleat

The Vibram XS Road Cleat is a unique offering: an alternative to a regular Look cleat, offering more grip on slippery surfaces and, well, they’re pink! Are they better than Look’s own Keo Grip Cleats, which cost much less? Marginally, but durability is still a bit of an issue.

Anyone who’s shuffled along a slippery wet cafe floor in the middle of winter will all too well know the issue of a lack of grip offered by the underside of your road shoes. For those of you with a bike fitted with Look Keo pedals, there’s a new option in town from Vibram which might just help to make such off-the-bike moments a little bit easier. Sadly, there’s no option for the Shimano SPD-SL crew.

Vibram is a pretty well known brand that makes grippy soles for a massive variety of shoes. This includes hiking shoes, sandals, and even those slightly odd-looking trainers that look like rubberised feet. The company’s now segued into the niche of road cycling shoes and launched these cleats. Yep, I didn’t see that one coming either.

The cleats look virtually identical to Look’s own, save for the hot pink body colour, bright yellow Vibram logo, and a sliver of textured rubber across the underside. Striking, then – not that anyone’s really going to see them.

Nobody other than you is going to see the neat cardboard presentation box they arrive in either, which houses the cleats and requisite screws and plates, as well as promising “to increase grip when walking, making those transition moments safer”.

Sound enticing? Before you rush out to buy a pair, it’s worth pointing out Vibram only offers these in a 4.5 degree float, so if you have knee issues that looser cleats help you with, or you just don’t like being too locked in, then you’ll want to look elsewhere as these might not be suitable for you. However, if you normally wear standard Look cleats then you’re all good.

In terms of fitting them to your road shoes – no surprise here, they fit pretty much just like regular Look cleats, given they’re almost identical. I say almost, because the top screw had a slight issue reaching the thread, which I think might be because the body is ever so slightly thicker. Not a biggie – with a bit of fiddling I managed to get it to go in after a couple of minutes. I’ve had no issues with them since fitting, though I do regularly check tightness before any long ride.

Out on the road, again they operate just like a regular Look cleat, with no issues clipping in or out.

But the real question is: are they grippier than regular Look cleats? This is an easy one: yes, they are – but then the standard plastic Look cleats were hardly difficult to improve on.

Just to be sure they cut the mustard, I performed a mini test on my patio decking. During winter, it basically goes green and offers as much grip as greased Teflon (don’t worry, I’ll crack out the pressure washer when it stops raining…). With the standard cleats, it’s game over the moment the first foot touches down, but with the Vibram XS Road Cleats, there was a decent improvement. I’m not going to say it was good enough to do the Tango, but it was much less lethal.

For those of you wondering – yes I do have a pair of Look’s Keo Grip cleats, which are basically the standard Look Keo cleats with a couple of small bits of rubber added to the top and bottom section. They’re also better than the standard offering, but I think the Vibram option is marginally better still.

My only real gripe (other than the price – more on that in a sec) is the question of durability. After only 200 miles, the corner of the left-hand cleat (the side that I unclip and touch down on when stopping) is starting to wear pretty rapidly. In fairness, every single cleat I’ve ever used eventually wears in this area, including Look’s own Keo Grip cleats (the rubber actually just fell off after one ride), so I think it’s to be expected – roads are pretty rough, after all.

Value

Vibram’s XS Road Cleats are only available from Vibram or All4Cycling. They’re 30 euros. This works out about £6 pricier than Look’s own Keo Grip cleats, which retail for about £20. There’s also the fact that because they’re only available via these Euro-based sites, you have to pay about £12 to get them shipped, so they actually end up costing about £38, at which point I think they’re pretty poor value (unless you perhaps get several pairs at the same time).

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I do think these are better quality, and they are slightly grippier, if not necessarily longer lasting, but it’s hard to justify a £38 price tag. Hopefully a UK-based distributor will start offering them at some point for a little bit less.

Conclusion

If you’re in the market for a slightly superior, though slightly pricier, alternative to Look’s own Keo Grip cleats, Vibram’s XS Road Cleats are certainly worthy of a second look – at least once you’re able to get them without the hefty shipping fee.

It’s a bit of a shame (not to mention odd) that Vibram isn’t making an option for Shimano SPD-SL users though.