George's Weblog

It's finally time for a new pair of road shoes. When I got back on my bike in the Fall of 2011 I bought a pair of Specialized Expert shoes. I've replaced the cleats a few times and recently replaced the Boa laces (under warranty. Structurally the shoes are still okay and they fit me well. But they have gotten quite beat up with about 20,000 miles on them. So I decided to get a new pair and use the Experts as backup shoes.

Of course I considered different shoes before settling on the Specialized S-Works. I looked the Sidi Wire. Everyone says they are made very well, possibly better than the S-Works. I always rode Sidi in the early days of leather shoes and old-style cleats with toe clips. I'm sure the fit has changed over the years but they used to be a little narrow for my foot and they would take quite a few miles to conform to my foot and become comfortable. The toe box was usually the part that bothered me. I know they make a wider version now as well. Also, I looked at Diadora. They make some really comfortable shoes and of course they are Italian. The only problem is that there aren't any dealers near me that stock them and I hesitate to buy them online. Searching the web for people who could compare sizes was difficult.

So I finally looked in the S-Works. Keswick Cycle didn't have a 43 in stock in any color. I tried on a 42 and 44 but they were missing the mark. Luckily they had a pair of 43s at another location and had them sent over. I brought a pair of socks that were the right thickness with me so I could make sure they were right. They felt like a pair of slippers when I put them on.

While I was in the shop I also used their thermal footbed tool. I found I needed the blue footbeds instead of the red ones that came with the shoes. So I tried on the shoes with the blue footbeds. They were very solid and supportive. If I feel too much pressure on the arch I can always fall back to the red ones which came with the shoes.

Keswick made me a pretty good deal, I got my 10% SCU club discount and I had a $10 gift certificate. Adding in the Look Keo cleats and the footbeds came to $425 with my discount. Not too bad for a top-of-the-line shoe. I'll post a better  review once I get the cleat position dialed in and do a few miles.

By the way, the S-Works shoes weighed in at 580 grams including the Look cleats. My Specialized Expert shoes weigh 620 grams. so that's a 40 gram weight savings. Not that significant but compared to Sidi which weighs about 1/2 pound more it is a lot.

I'll be writing again once the weather warms up a bit and I have the chance to try riding with these shoes.