I’ve got a very new pair of Giro Apeckx road shoes, was really happy with the features and the fit (in the shop).

Since then I’ve fitted my Shimano SPD-SL cleats and put in a couple of short commutes and one 50km ride after work.

The thing I notice immediately is quite localised discomfort on the outside of my foot, behind the ball. I can feel a bulge underfoot in this area which I guess is the cause of the pain.

This is approximately the location of the outer and rear-most cleat bolt, so I experimented by removing this bolt. Even just standing in the shoes I can still feel the odd ‘bulge’ in the same area, so obviously not the bolt.

The only other thing it could be is the cleat itself, the ‘corner’ of the cleat is quite built up in this area, but surely a good road shoe should have a sole stiff enough that you can’t feel the plastic cleat beneath it?

I’m going to have a play with insoles etc. as I’m using my old Specialized BG insoles and perhaps they have compressed or something.

Otherwise I’m stumped, has anyone else had this sort of issue with a road shoe?

Cheers

no because i use custom footbeds, i wouldn’t expect a generic footbed to fit my feet or anyone else’s for that matter apart from a small percentage that have feet exactly like the last used for shoe construction.
maybe you need a different BG footbed?

cheap but good footbeds: speciallized BG
expensive custom but very good: Sidas

If there’s actually a bump (And you should be able to feel it with your fingers then), it’s a manufacturing defect.

More likely I reckon is that the shoe is a little tight at some point and compressing your foot which can lead to cramp and various other feelings such as being convinced there’s something in your shoe.

Take them back to the shop and compare them with another pair of the same shoes to see if there’s a similar bump. It could well be a manufacturing fault.

I suffered from something similar when using Specialized shoes on my MTB.

I switched to Northwaves for road which were wider and I’m using Specialized insoles with them, it was better. I then added a thin cleat wedge to raise the inside of my foot and this was better still. My right foot was putting too much pressure on the outside edge so the wedge helps balance things out.

On my MTB I have recently switch to Giro HV shoes which are much larger than the normal versions. They are a revelation. I used to get hotspots after 20-30 mins riding but the HV shoes sorted this right out.

I have two pairs of Giro shoes, road and MTB and feel that they could benefit from a better insole as I do have some discomfort occasionally.

Thanks all, useful advice.

I’ve checked again and I doubt it’s a manufacturing thing, I took the cleat off completely and put all my weight on that foot, no discomfort or imaginary bulges. Can’t feel any bumps with my fingers either.

Likewise I doubt it’s a fit thing, the feeling was immediate and in my (limited, admittedly) experience, poor fit problems make themselves apparent a good few miles in, not immediately.

I changed the cleat position a bit, rotating it, sliding it back etc. This seemed to ‘move’ the problem elsewhere, so it definitely seems to be an issue with being able to feel the shape of the cleat underfoot. Thankfully the new position felt better, even if I could feel the cleat, so I’ll give it a shot tonight.

I’m still surprised I can feel the cleat at all, have Giro perhaps focused too much on a thin sole/low stack height?

Are the cleat bolts too long? this can cause bumps in the shoe if it’s a low profile sole and the bolts protrude beyond the threaded inserts in the sole.

Yeah, Giro supply short cleat bolts for that reason, initially I just used the Shimano bolts because they looked the same length, but I’ve swapped for the Giro bolts now just in case.

I’ve also experimented by taking one cleat bolt out, but could still feel the cleat through the sole.

Will put the supplied insoles back in tonight, see if they offer any more padding than my 5+ year old BG insoles… 😳

I put up with uncomfortable shoes of various makes for years. Turns out they were all just too small.

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/clothing/shoes/product/review-giro-apeckx-road-shoes-12-45730/

Arch support is minimal, though, and we noticed sole curvature issues with certain pedal systems, too.

Seems to be suggesting that the curvature of the sole may be different (more) than some others – possible cause if you’re having to tighten the bolts up a fair bit?

Ah… very interesting, thanks. I did search for reviews etc. but either didn’t see that one or unconsciously just skipped past the bikeradar link…

I think the sole being too curved would present the opposite problem though e.g. if the sole was NOT curved, then the curved shape of the cleat could put extra pressure through the sole, assuming the cleat is stiffer than the sole (which it shouldn’t be).

Will try emailing Giro. It might be that I get out tonight and have no issues, but the fact that I can still clearly feel the shape of the cleat under my foot doesn’t bode well for long hours in the saddle!

I would try fitting the cleat with washers under each of the bolts (outside the cleat, not between the cleat and the shoe) to reduce the effective bolt length and then see if that still feels odd. It sounds to me like the bolts are still protruding into the shoe even if they are shorter ones.