xrazer

I have Specialized Torch 2.0 shoes that fit me fine. However I have a cyst on my left big toe that has grown bigger recently and it rubs painfully against the shoe side. It will be fixed surgically but for various reasons I want to wait until later this year, so I have been looking at shoes with a wider toe box and or soft mesh material on top. I would imagine this will be helpful even after the surgery while the toe heals. So meanwhile I want to continue riding.

A friend has GiroProlight Techlace shoes and they certainly accommodated the toe better than my Spec shoes. But I don't care for the bright red color and lace system. Would prefer Boa. The solution is not a generally wide shoe because they would be too loose. Any other suggestions?

urbanknight

I don't know if these will do the trick for you or not, but Shimano offers wide versions of their shoes (which are already known to be a bit wider than their competitors). I started to develop something (bunion? irritation?) on my left big toe from wearing too narrow of cycling shoes, and the RP4E did the trick for me. They have 2 velcro straps and 1 BOA, but the RC3 or RC300 is all BOA. Those and other Shimano models are all black.

redlude97

lake make the widest shoes IME and have boas on many models.

chaadster

Bont is well known for their wider, anatomical toe box, and the Riot+ model has that, with their heat-moldable tub sole and a very supple, soft material on the upper. You can get them direct from Bont: https://shop.bontcycling.com/collections/road

A few weeks ago while on a ride stop, another rider asked me about my Riot+, noting the outer material around the toe looked soft, I guess because he saw me wriggling my toes. He noticed because his toes, he told me, were uncomfortably constrained in most shoes. FWIW.

Koyote

If it's a corn, a podiatrist can shave it down for you, which will help for a while. Or you can do it yourself, but use a very sharp knife and go slow.

If it's Hammer Toe, you might as well get the surgery now. And forget about riding your bike during the recovery - you'll be wearing a boot.

If it is actually a cyst, well, that's a new one for me. Haven't heard of that. Should be pretty easy to remove, though, right?

As for the shoes: Spesh has some of the largest, most comfortable toe boxes I've found. I don't know if you'll do any better than what you've got.

dscohen

I have the same issue. Lake makes a wide and an extra wide, I believe. I bought a set of wides, but they were so wide that the rubber toe cap edge would catch on my crank arm every time I’d unclip. After two rides, it started ripping off. I had them professionally repaired, but it would just happen again. I considered that poor design. Lake, however, didn’t really care.

I ended up selling those and picking up a pair of S Works 7 wides, which I’m in love with. They’re not quite as wide as the Lakes, but certainly wide enough. They feel lighter and stiffer and are better made as well.

redlude97

care to expand on this? Not sure how width would affect this? At least in terms of position, maybe move the cleat to the inside?

dscohen

I could have moved the cleat, but that would have made me less comfortable. A big component of this was design. With other shoes, contact with your crank arm is usually with the shoe’s upper.

I’ll attach this pic to really drive home the point. It just so happened that where my cleat was situated, unclipping was causing the toe cap to catch the corner of my crank arm and pulled it away.

redlude97

I guess my question is how you decided on cleat position? At least on my pair of lakes it feels more like the added width is on the outside of the last, so my inner foot position and clearance remained unchanged compared to my narrower shoes

zymphad

I also ride the Torch 2.0 wide. The only shoe I found was wider was the Sidi Alba 2 Mega. The toebox is an absolute dream. But for me for some reason the instep is extremely high and was crushing my instep. But the toebox... was heaven. If only the instep wasn't so narrow. Maybe you won't have that problem.

Wouldn't help, he already has the Torch 2.0 wide. It's the same width as the 7.