Gear Review: Specialized S-Works Women’s Road Shoe

April 28th, 2013 • BY

Want to ride faster, longer, and with less discomfort? Get this shoe.

The S-Works Women’s Road Shoe proves just how influential a great piece of gear can be. And it better: At $400, this is no entry-level slipper.

Instead, it’s a light, stiff, race-worthy shoe that acts like a rocket booster when you clip it into your bike. Yet—and here’s the real marvel—the S-Works is also amazingly comfortable and fits feet of various shapes and sizes.

Some high-performance bike shoes, in their pursuit of the best possible power transfer from your foot to the drive train, constrict your piggies into a narrow sausage casing that only feels comfortable on slender-footed riders. But the S-Works conforms to high, wide feet as well as skinny ones.

Two independent Boa dials let you adjust ankle and instep tightness separately—a boon on cold rides, when we loosen the forefoot to keep toes warmer without freeing the heel. By cinching both, we achieved an evenly snug fit that pinched nowhere, yet channeled every watt of our power into the pedals.

Starting into a sprint or accelerating to the head of the pace line, we felt an extra burst of speed when wearing the S-Works, thanks to the stiff carbon sole that wastes none of our energy output. Fine mesh panels on the toe (and even under it, on the sole of the shoe) provide excellent ventilation that kept our feet from overheating on hot rides. Even the footbed is smarter than most, offering substantial arch support to encourage optimal alignment between the foot and knee.

No, the S-Works road shoe is no small investment. But shy of upgrading to a racy set of wheels, it’s just about the best performance boost you can buy.

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Kelly Bastone

About

Once upon a time, contributor Kelly Bastone lived in the Big City of Denver, Colorado, where she visited the mountains as much as she could. Then she wised up and flipped the arrangement: Ten years ago, she moved to Steamboat Springs, where she skis (resort, skate, and backcountry), hikes, mountain bikes, fly-fishes--and occasionally ventures forth from her beautiful mountain valley to visit cities worldwide. A freelance writer,— More about this author →