Giro Imperial Road Shoes (White) (48)

These are not my exact shoes, which are not shown. None of these expensive Giro shoes has a review and I thought I'd offer one that might be close enough. Giro may be modifying them, whatever. Mine have one ratchet knob tightener, aft on the shoe (nearer the ankle), and two velcro tabs which look like laces, in the direction of the toe. Why do they make them look like laces? Don't ask me. Laces to me signify "this might be tight over the instep." Or "You can't customize anything about how these feel on your feet." Anyway they're NOT really laces, mine. The ventilation is different from any shown (August 21, 2021). Mine are white.

My feet are a little narrow, not a lot. Used to wear a C width dress shoe. Some years ago, looking for something that ran narrow, I spoke to a Performance tech person who led me to Mavic shoes. These worked great until Mavic stopped making them. (I then got a pair or two on eBay.) I am also prone to "hot feet" which can be cured or helped by sticking an old hotel room key (card) under your instep under the inner sole of a shoe to spread out the pressure. (Also don't tighten your shoes so much.) That condition was coming back too, maybe. Time for another tech call. I asked if there was such a thing as a shoe that was extra stiff in the sole, and he pretty much said they're all the same, but try these expensive Giro shoes and I got them. He said don't worry if they don't work, we'll take them back.

They're fine, but before I get to that: let me describe putting on the cleats. Crazy. I've got big calves, and I've always considered myself an ankle-user. I mount cleats more toward the toe than average. These shoes wouldn't even go there. I have the cleats as far to the toe as possible, and they're still very different from what I've been used to. It may be only 3mm, but it's huge. It might even be better for me! Not knocking it necessarily, maybe a godsend. I might be working the calves more, oddly enough. But just be aware of this, and if Giro is paying attention: these shoes have a nutty interface with cleats, trust me. To be clear: my extreme setting was 3 mm off of a mid range setting on any other shoe. So this problem is a lot greater than 3mm.

One thing that happens with the change in cleat location, is you are used to getting the cleat in the pedal a certain way, and that's out the window. It's taking longer than I would have expected to acquire the new habit, but I haven't fallen over, yet.

One other peculiarity: it's about the two velcro straps on each shoe, masquerading as shoelaces. On the left shoe the velcro just barely makes contact. So far so good but: wha?

The shoes themselves are fine. (Don't get them if you have a real wide foot.) They come with three arch supports. The medium one is in there on arrival. I left it. I have a high instep, so this is not my thing. The bike shop and running shop I spoke to about this both thought this could be part of the hot feet cure (so did the Performance guy), but I think it's irrelevant. If you like arch support, though, you've got it in spades here (I guess).

The Mavics I had were yellow, then white, so I got into the white shoe thing for some reason. Yes they get dirty, tell me about it. These shoes are great in that they're like patent leather. Seemed a little chi-chi at first, but that took no getting used to, and they're lot easier to keep clean. Ask me in a year how clean they are :-)