My 12 year old Specialized Trivents finally gave out, and now I need to replace them.
I mostly race Ironman so a true triathlon shoe isn’t exactly required, but I like to leave my shoes on the bike so I don’t have to run in cycling shoes.
what is everyone running? I’ve never done Boa closure, is it worth it?
Giro Empire with the tongue removed and elastic laces
went with the monarch. great tri shoes. such a nice fit. and a frequent slowtwitch poster
I’ve done 7 Ironman in the same low range bike shoes, can’t say I’ve ever thought about my shoes except for putting them on - too much other suffering to worry about perhaps.
Just got some mid range bike shoes in June with Boas - the tongue folds over every time I put my foot in, but again once they’re on I’m not thinking about them.
As someone who came into road racing from triathlon first…I used to always ride in my tri-specific shoes, but then transitioned to road shoes with BOA since the velcro would wear out too quicklly. Right now I’m racing in Specialized S-Works EXOS Road Shoes for triathlon. They are easy enough for me to get in and out of for 70.3s and 140.6s. BOAs are easy to micro-adjust-easier than velcro for me, just having one to adjust. They don’t open up as wide as my velcro tri shoes, but a little Body Glide and practice fixed that.
Bont Zero +
More pros and AGers are running road shoes with boas for long course races. It might take a bit more fiddling to get on but the shoes are more comfortable, powerful, and aero than traditional trathlon shoes.
Probably the most popular shoes are the Shimano S-phyres- they don’t have a tongue, and have a low cut ankle which makes them pretty easy to get into. Fairly light, stiff, decent ventilation, 2 boas. I have the s-phyre 901s, most of the models are prety similar (the new model has a triathlon specific version with a single boa). I did find the shoes pretty hard on my feet though so I had to get some different interts which were more comfortable. The shimanos are also wider than most other cycling shoes- I had the giro emprie with tongue removed and elastic laces before, but they were just too narrow and killed my feet on rides over 2 hours even sizing up.
Some other popular choices of road shoes are the bont zeros with the cover over the boa, bontrager xxx;s, specalized exos (if you can get handle on them as they’ve been discontinued), fizik infinto, nimble (I don’t know they’re models but have seen a few including on Laidlow). Basically any road shoes that has a stiff enough side to not collapse when you put your foot in, a low cut ankle, boas, and either no traditional tongue or one you can keep out of the way easily. Bonus points for shoes that are lighter, more breathable, wider toe box.
Bit of a long post, I’m pretty particular about my shoes as my feet don’t agree with a lot fo traditional cycling shoes that are out there. The shimanos are decent, still nto the best on 3+ hours, I’ve been looking around the classified and marketplace to see if there’s others I might be able to try.
I used to use s-works but the s-work 7s set off an achilles issue so swapped to shimano s-phyre RC-902s. Both are equivalent, available in wide fitting (if needed) and in half sizes right up to US13.5 . For genuine sprint races I use a 25 year old pair of shimano TR-01s, but as someone that has reffed and marshalled more mount / dismount lines than most, I can say that a very low proportion of people save time with flying mounts and lot lose a huge amount of time (and skin). Dismounts is a bit ditterent, but I’ve never struggled to get my foot out of either of those road shoes at the end and so still been fine to do a flying dismount after riding the last 500m pushing down on top of the shoe.
BOAs are great; secure and comfortable. I have some of the Shimano 7-searies road shoes and am very happy with them. You’ll see lots of pros doing IMs in “road” shoes.
That being said, lace-up shoes like the Empire are about 100g lighter per pair and significantly more aero. As mentioned, with elastic laces they are a faster option than BOAs. Pros typically don’t use them due to both contractual obligations, and a much greater focus on transitions (needing to stay with or catch a group on the bike).
Sam Long in Shimano Sphyre shoes w/BOAs
Sam Laidlow running BOAs at Nice
Giro Empires w/o tongue and elastic laces added
Thanks! Glad you are enjoying them!
Thanks all for the updates. Very helpful. I think I’ll pick up a pair of Shimano’s that have the BOA closure and give it a try.
Giro Empire with the tongue removed and elastic laces
Ditto
