White Shoes, Light Shoes

There is an expression for a cyclist who is obsessed about how much his/her bike weighs and tries to make it as light as possible. He/she is called a ‘weight weenie’. There is even a internet forum where weight weenies trade tips on how to make their bikes skinny.

I must admit that I am a bit of a weight weenie myself. I have accurate scales and any new equipment gets evaluated to see if it makes the bike lighter or heavier. I know how much weight using an Ultegra 11×34 cassette adds compared to a SRAM Red 11×32. Over 100 grams! But I need the lower gear and SRAM Red doesn’t make an 11×34.

I know that my S Works Tarmac weighs 15.2 lbs. with the HED Ardennes wheels. My Look 586 goes 15.4 lbs. with the very light American Classic wheels and 16.5 with the Zipp 303 wheelset that has a Powetap hub. The Sampson with Ultegra parts and the same HED Ardennes wheels is 18.2 lbs. Hmm, maybe I’m more of an obsessive weight weenie than I thought I was.

I don’t always use the lightest parts. My saddle is a very comfortable Fizik Aliente with alloy rails that weighs about 230 grams. I could replace it with an all carbon model with no padding at all and save about 80 grams, but I don’t think my butt would be too happy about it. And I put Ultegra parts on the Sampson when its Dura Ace components finally gave up, instead of opting for something lighter and pricier.

Recently Al, a cycling buddy, showed me a new way to save weight: the Specialized Exos Road Shoe. He said they were the most comfortable shoes he had ever owned, and he let me feel how light they were. I could hardly believe it. I use S-Works road shoes and thought they were extremely light, but they felt lead weighted compared to the Exos.

The Exos shoes’ upper is made from some kind of magic material that feels flimsy but is actually incredibly strong. The sole is the same very stiff version used by the S Works shoes. I read a review by someone who rode them for 6 months in all types of weather with no durability issues. I decided that with all the money Stoker and I are saving on travel during the Covid restrictions I had to spend some of it on a pair. They aren’t cheap; I think I paid $420 plus tax. But boy are they light!

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The Exos shoes weigh all of 400 grams with cleats, while the S Works shoes tip the scale at 650 grams. That is a savings of 0.55/lb., or 8.8 ounces. And it is ‘rotating weight’. Because of something called ‘moment of inertia’ or ‘angular momentum’ or some other concept of physics I don’t understand, this is supposed to be equivalent to reducing the static weight of the frame by about twice that much, some 500 grams.

I haven’t tried the nice light white shoes yet, but now that dry weather and dry roads are here I’m getting ready to put them on and see if they make a difference. Or if they are as comfortable as Al claims they are. I actually wanted to get the shoes in black, so they wouldn’t show dirt, but bike parts and accessories are in short supply because Covid has affected global supply chains and the only ones in my size that I could find were white. So don’t conclude that I’m making any kind of statement choosing white shoes over black ones. You hear me Facebook?