Here’s a few more things that caught our eye at Eurobike today: some sexy new cross-country race shoes from fi’zi:k; new flat-sole and skate style SPD shoes from Giro and lights from Lezyne.
fi’zi:k gets dirty
fi’zi:k entered the shoe market last year with some gorgeously made road shoes. This year they’ve added mountain bike shoes to the line, in the form of these M1 and M5 shoes, which means you should start to see fi’zi:k shoes in more shops because retailers like to stock a broad offering if they’re going to get into a new shoe line.
The £299.99 M1 shoes are, it has to be admitted, a bit pricy. For your money you get a carbon fiber sole, mesh and kangaroo leather upper and a sole with replaceable lugs so you can swap them out if they get damaged.
The sole is made from high-friction rubber and the the toe and sides are covered in anti-scuff leather for extra protection. The straps are made from low-stretch sail cloth, a feature shared with the R1 road shoes, and the insole is a heat-mouldable Sidas unit that really helps make the shoes comfy.
As well as a pair of Velcro straps, there’s a micro-adjust buckle with offset catches that provide finer adjustment that a standard ratchet strap. Three hundred quid is a lot for a pair of shoes, but fi’zi:k have piled a lot of features and quality into the R1.
If your budget doesn’t stretch that far, the new R5 is the ‘budget’ option at £159.99. The upper is mesh and microtex synthetic leather and the sole is carbon-reinforced nylon with fixed lugs. An aluminium buckle provides closure.
There’s also a women’s version of the R5, the R5 Donna.
Giro flats out
At the other end of the shoe scale, Giro has a brace of new models, the Chamber and Jacket, for less frantically fast applications. The SPD-compatible chamber is intended for use with platform clipless pedals, while the Jacket has no cleat slot, for pure flat pedal use.
Top downhiller Aaron Gwin was heavily involved with the development of both pedals, which tells you where Giro’s coming from here, but we can see lots of other uses like relaxed trail riding, street and going down the pub.
Both shoes have grippy Vibram soles, and neat details such as a sleeved tongue to keep out stones and dust.
If are getting seriously gnarly, both shoes have a deeply cushioned heel so you can bail mid-air and have a slightly less hard landing – assuming, that is, you manage to land on your feet.
Lezyne brightens up
Lezyne has expanded its range of lights for 2013 and the most notable addition to the selection is the Mega Drive, a 1000-lumen, single-unit light with a replaceable battery.
The Mega Drive has four levels of light, enduro (500 lumen), blast (1000lm), economy (200 lumen), and flash. A long button press engages Race mode, after which only blast and enduro are available so you don’t have to switch between flash and economy modes in steady unlit riding.
This is Lezyne’s first serious off-road light, and it looks promising for the £164.99 asking price. For £199.99 you can get a ‘fully loaded’ kit with a second battery and an aluminium handlebar mount.
If you don’t need quite that much light, the single LED Super Drive XL puts out 500 lumens but has much the same features. It’s beefier than the previous Super Drive because there’s more aluminium in the body. Like the Mega Drive’s finned shell, this serves as a heat sink to allow the LED to be driven harder for more light output.
Out back, Lezyne has more rear lights for 2013, including the USB-rechargeable Micro Drive Rear, which has a super-bright daylight flash mode for getting the attention of drivers who are distracted by talking on the phone, texting, reading billboards and passing members of the opposite sex.
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