If you want to find the absolute best cycling shoes available, I can walk you through a variety of different ways to evaluate what will be best for you and there are options available for everyone. At least that’s true if money is no object. If you’ve got the money to spend, the choices are actually overwhelming and it’s more about focusing on the details that matter to you.
Tech Specs: Fizik Tempo Powerstrap R5
Price: $129.99 / €134.99
Sizes: 36-48
Weight: 249g per side, Size 43
Colours: Black, Blue, Navy, White, Pink
Nobody’s budget is unlimited. When you are shopping for cycling shoes on a budget, that’s when it can be difficult to find a good option. Every company has to make sacrifices to hit the prices that consumers are looking for, and the question lies in how to do that without negatively affecting the final product.
What Fizik has done is take a feature from the top of the brand’s model lineup and allow it to trickle down. The Fizik Tempo Powerstrap R5 has the same closure system you can find on one of the most expensive models in the lineup, the Powerstrap R2 Aeroweave, but in the budget shoe, it’s even more brilliant.
Design and aesthetics
Understanding the design of the Fizik Tempo Powerstrap R5 is all about understanding the Powerstrap system. Understandably so, most people have a negative association with Velcro closure systems. The Velcro systems you’ve likely seen before are narrow and they only pull across the opening in the top of the shoe. In modern cycling shoes you most often see these types of systems over the toes. Many times those systems are so completely ineffective you’d be just as well served without them.
The Fizik Powerstrap is completely different. The strap itself is wide enough, at 3cm, that it’s easy to grab and manoeuvre. At the end you’ll find a strip of Velcro which, at almost 8cm, has plenty of room for whatever position works for you. Instead of the thick straps you’ve seen elsewhere, the Powerstrap is reminiscent of a seatbelt. It’s only around 1mm thick and, as already mentioned, it’s easy to reposition. There’s also a difference in how it’s integrated.
Instead of just pulling across an opening on the top of the shoe, the Powerstrap system connects to the sole and there are two zones each with its own strap. The front zone connects on the…
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