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Road Shoe Heel Fit

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Road Shoe Heel Fit

Old 07-31-21, 03:54 PM
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Fastfwd01
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Road Shoe Heel Fit

I decided to switch over from SPD to SPD-SL. I ordered the single sided Garmin Rally power meter pedals. I'm not a 'racer.' I do century rides, gran fondos, etc. Longer distances. So, I don't need a 'race' fit shoe, but if I'm going to be doing a power meter to strive for improvements then I do probably need a shoe that fits well.

I've been wearing some SiDi SPD shoes in a 43 and they seem to fit pretty nice, but admittedly not all that tight. Almost like a slipper around my toes with the SiDi narrower fit. I've done like 15k miles in these and I've had no problems at all. They could be tighter. They don't seem to even try to grip my heel all that much so I don't notice that they are tight or loose in the heel.

I've got a limited selection of brands that I can try on locally. Basically the Trek and Specialized house brands were the only ones I tried on. The Trek Velocis seemed just pretty average fitting. Nothing stood out. The Specialized Torch 3.0 maybe needed to be a half size larger. I thought maybe they were more of a 'race fit.' I was a little shocked that they fit so tightly. They really gripped my heal and I gather that is what you want. I was concerned that they might feel too tight once my feet got a few miles down the road.

I ordered a pair of Lake CX238 that I saw as recommend by a Youtube Channel that I've been watching that features a bike fitter who I seem to feel like knows what he is talking about.


I got the Lake CX238 in today. I followed the Lake fitment guide and ordered a 42. My (larger) foot measures about 95mm wide and 261mm in length. I have seen where these are considered to run a bit wide. The Lake website has a very detailed fitment guide. This shoe was listed to have a 98mm width and I didn't know if that was going to be too wide for my 95mm foot, but it seems ok in the toes.

I was warned that they are known to be pretty wide in the heel. I have to admit these don't grip my heel like those Specialized Torch shoes, but I really think those maybe needed to be a half size bigger too. The arch support in these is nice! Maybe the volume of my foot just fills into these nicely in that part of the shoe. I feel like my toes have enough room, but not too much.

So, I'm afraid I know the answer is going to be that the heel fitting tight is the most important part. I wouldn't say these are particularly 'loose' if I cinch them down in the ankle, but they also don't have as much grip as they could either. How big of a deal is that? Can an insert of some kind help with the heel grip?

I got a pretty good deal on these. They retail for like $330 and they were discounted to like $264 and I had some store credit that got them down to almost $200. I really hate to give up all of the higher end features like the full carbon sole and dual BOA 2-way system that these CX238 feature, but I do understand that the fit is probably the most important thing.

I'm just afraid that if I pass these up that I'm not going to find the 'perfect' shoe unless I have custom shoes made. I could be wrong. Maybe there are many options that would be a better fit, but I'm not paying $400-$500 for shoes. That pretty much rules out SiDi road shoes which might have a little more narrow fit. It rules out the 'race' fit Lake models like the CX332.

Any advice or suggestions?

Last edited by Fastfwd01; 07-31-21 at 04:01 PM.
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Old 07-31-21, 05:46 PM
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After I gave it another go - I've got a few new thoughts on what I'm experiencing. For starters - what I might describe as not gripping my heels as tightly as they could might be because they are 'road shoes' with full carbon soles. These soles are ultra rigid vs my SiDi SPD shoes. What I'm describing as a little 'loose' is when I try to walk in them the soles don't have any flex so they lift at the heel and there is some lift. When I walk in the SiDi's they aren't as stiff for one thing so there is some flex and they have lugs on the bottom like regular shoes that sort of help the shoe to rock forward and it alleviates that lift in the heel. Walking in cycling shoes is probably not any way to gauge how they should fit in the first place, but since I can't really put cleats on the new shoes to try them cycling first that's about my only reference.

For my purpose of riding longer distances and not racing closed course (or whatever might require a race fit) I'm not sure these aren't perfectly suitable. They have plenty of room in the front and ankle to be tightened down so far as I can tell. I'm not sure exactly how much more they can go, but they look like they aren't even close to being fully cinched up. My SiDi's require me to pull the ratchet as far as it can go to keep them fully snug, but they seem to work and I sometimes loosen them up a notch or so after some miles.
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Old 08-04-21, 10:04 PM
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Well, not that anyone seems to care about this topic, but I decided to put cleats on the shoes and ride with them. I can't imagine them fitting much better. I'm sure the heel could be a tighter fit, but I'm not sure why it might need to be. I was able to stand and climb and everything else and they didn't slip a bit.

I hate to confess that the road shoes are a whole new ballgame of feeling connected to the bike vs SPD. At least these full carbon Lakes do.....
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Old 08-04-21, 10:13 PM
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Awesome, congrats on finding a shoe that works. I tried the 238s this summer but they were just a little too big / wide for my low volume feet. I then tried the 241s and they were perfect. Just getting to know them but enjoying the shoes so far.
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Old 08-05-21, 09:51 AM
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Haven't tried it myself, but wondering if "moleskin" might work?
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Old 08-05-21, 10:41 AM
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I don't think you have anything to worry about. The biggest issue I hear about around here are problems with tightness when the toes swell at the 2 hour mark. If you were riding with regular shoes and toe clips (like 1980), you wouldn't be thinking about heels at all.
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Old 08-05-21, 11:48 AM
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And I thought I was always too wordy...... <grin> Sometimes cutting to the chase and then adding details as you get replies is better and easy than reading "War and Peace".

I find many times new shoes seem loose in the heel and it goes away after they are worn a few times. The Sidi's I just bought were loose in the heel too, but for pedaling, they weren't a problem at all. After finding that I needed to simply snug up the BOA several times more, there was no heel slippage after getting off the bike from my first ride with them. And though I thought I might be tightening too much, the BOA let everything even out and the shoes were just as comfortable at the end of the ride as when I put them on.
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Old 08-05-21, 06:09 PM
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Almost all the distance riders around here wear Dominators, me too. I love the heel fit and I'm a puller-upper. I try to pedal with contact in the heel cups most of the time, whether pushing down or pulling back and then up. We really like that we can walk around in them, because distance riders do need to walk around to resupply, controls, event stops, that sort of thing. I can lift the rear wheel right off the ground in a hill sprint, though I obviously try to avoid that. The exact fit can be varied with socks. My fit allows me to run thin socks in summer and thick socks in winter. I just crank them down more with thin socks. I probably have 80,000 miles in Dominators. I'm on my second pair only because the first pair got stolen.
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Old 08-06-21, 06:03 AM
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Lakes do have a fairly wide heel cup, and I've found my heel slipping some too. It was really bad in a pair I had about 10 years ago that had a BOA dial. I could feel my heel slipping out of the shoe as the BOA laces pulled tighter across my toes.

For my current pair, which uses regular laces and I use on the track, I bought some heel inserts and stuck them in to help keep my heel in place. They've held in mostly OK. The heel pads are not designed for athletic shoes, let alone cycling shoes, but they've done what I need them to do.
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Old 08-09-21, 03:06 PM
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Originally Posted by freeranger
Haven't tried it myself, but wondering if "moleskin" might work?
I did see that there is a pretty common street wear type shoe heel inserts that might be worth a try if this was ever a problem for anyone. Not the ideal solution, but it might be worth a try. It seems that fitters use just about every other type of insert to get a better fit to the bike anyway.

Originally Posted by Iride01
And I thought I was always too wordy...... <grin> Sometimes cutting to the chase and then adding details as you get replies is better and easy than reading "War and Peace".
Point taken. I can get pretty worked up about whatever the latest thing is and tend to go a little deep into detail.

Thanks for the replies. These Lakes seem to really be doing well for me. I've taken them out on 3 rides so far and I'm not noticing any problems at all. They don't really fall into the featherweight category, but I like it that they seem more built to last than the lighter weight type shoes. Some of those just look like they were made to last one season. IDK

I will have to adjust to road shoes for the type of riding I do. I'm not sure if that means getting the covers for the cleats or just being ready for the expense of new cleats on a more regular basis, but the connected feel of the SPD-SL with the full carbon sole is definitely noticeable. I'm not sure if I have realized that it lessens fatigue with lots of miles as I've seen it described by some, but I wouldn't doubt that it is more efficient by some margin.
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