Are you finding it tough to choose the best possible women’s ‘clipless’ mountain bike shoe? We test 5 of the best shoes on the market to make your decision just a little bit easier.
With the astounding increase in the number or women riding mountain bikes in recent years, the mountain bike industry has been scrambling to offer ‘women specific’ options to a discerning market that demand performance and style. A lot of women will still choose the ‘unisex’ option figuring that a ladies shoe has little more to offer, especially to those ladies with larger feet, but manufacturers are putting a lot of thought into making women specific shoes that work for our traditionally more slender feet and top level performance desires, and there isn’t a flower graphic or pink detailing anywhere to be seen!
Having made a decision about whether you want to ride with flat pedals or use ‘clipless’ pedals, where the shoe has a cleat that attaches to the pedal holding your foot in place, you can start deciding which style and fit works best for you.
When we’re testing a shoe, we are looking for on and off the bike comfort and performance, this includes the stiffness of the sole, grip, comfort around the foot and the available movement of the cleat on the foot bed. The precision of the fit is also important with easy adjustment and a neat finish rating highly with the testers. Features like venting and waterproofing are taken into account but these features vary depending on the target audience for the shoe.
We picked 5 of the top women’s spd mountain bike shoes on the market from 10 – 22, The shoes we tested were Specialized 2FO wmn, Mavic Crossride elite W, Five Ten Kestrel Lace Womens, Liv Salita and Fi’zi:k M5B Donna.
