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Video: Mavic Comete Ultimate shoes - first impressions of £900 cycling shoes

We've been testing Mavic's £900 shoes. Are they any good? Do they justify the price tag?...

Hide your credit card, here are Mavic’s brand new £900 Comete Ultimate cycling shoes.

I’ve been testing the French company’s radical new shoes for the past few weeks and in the video above I go through the key design features and provide a first impression on their performance ahead of my full and in-depth review being published soon.

You can learn more about the new shoes in our first look story, and read about the backstory to their development and the performance claims Mavic is making for them here.

- 14 of the best performance road cycling shoes 

You can see more product videos on our growing YouTube page here.

David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes

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20 comments

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steviemarco | 7 years ago
0 likes

Everyone should get them on the cycle to work scheme! 

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Chris Hayes | 7 years ago
0 likes

Payment-plan shoes.  GBP 15 a month over 5 years doesn't sound so bad.  If Mavic will guarantee a residual value, then we can all pile them on PCP plans to bring it down a bit further  1

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Flying Scot | 7 years ago
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I would say that I find well fitting shoes with rigid carbon bases mated to 3 point cleats a worthwhile upgrade and indeed I do have '£300'  Fizik shoes  ( I bought a run out model) They are as good as any £300 upgrade on a bike. It may be a placebo, but I feel power transfer is a lot better than more flexible options.

However in awful weather I wear my £50 dhb's and for commuting a pair of Aldi SPD shoes, so I dont see this £1000 package as much of a bargain.

I must say though, its a good move by Mavic, as some people just need the 'best'

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Yemble | 7 years ago
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Get some J&L covers on those speedplay cleats!

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hsiaolc | 7 years ago
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Not for me. Don't believe I will even consider it if I have the money. 

Unless it's £900 and will update a new shoe every year for 10 years. 

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Rapha Nadal | 7 years ago
0 likes

Who are you arguing with just out of interest?

The higher end Specialized shoes are indeed leagues ahead of a £30 pair of Shimano shoes but I'm sure the friendly bike fitter wouldn't have begrudged ordering shoes more within your price range/comfort zone.  As long as you've got something to moan about though, hey

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flathunt | 7 years ago
4 likes

I can't see Rapha taking this lying down.

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part_robot | 7 years ago
5 likes

A £320 pair for summer and a £320 pair for winter? U wot m8? These shoes are expensive and quite possibly awesome, but you can't apply logic to their price. You can either buy them because you're rich or you buy them because you have weird priorities or you don't buy them. I can't imagine anyone who's going to buy a £900 pair of non-custom (e.g. if you have foot issues) shoes because they represent "good value".

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blakey | 7 years ago
0 likes

I have tested these and they are brilliant. The price is acutally not so massively different as a whole solution if the timing to purchase shoes aligns. Hear me out before i get flamed. 

Top shoes are £300-320 so a pair for winter and the same for summer is near £600

Custom foot beds are £100, in the box you get two depths many people have different sized feed.

Rain over shoe from say Rapha or Asos £60-90

so essentially £800.

In the box you get all of the above, plus the winter sock for i think another £100, effectively £1000

so you are asking me to justify £200 to look tht good, 4 watts per pedal stroke and 15% energy saving over a 2 hour ride.

It's not all perfect, walking on them i would be careful, no memory clip for look cleats but they were fantastic to ride, felt locked to the bike rather than having a pair of shoes on.

They are not for everyone, but some people will prefer to spend their money on shoes as opposed to a hifi or better stereo in their new car ?? each to their own but these shoes in my opinion are an innovation and that is what is needed as it filters down over time.

 

 

 

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sergius replied to blakey | 7 years ago
0 likes

blakey wrote:

Top shoes are £300-320 so a pair for winter and the same for summer is near £600

 

I just wear my S-Works shoes year round, in winter with thicker socks and overshoes...

I felt like I'd been mugged when I spent close to £300 on them (bike fitter did a very good sales job on me), at that price I make sure I wear them as much as possible!

A couple of years on I'm a bit less sore about it, and they are very nice shoes. But they still cost about the same as all my other pairs of shoes combined...

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Rapha Nadal replied to sergius | 7 years ago
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sergius wrote:

blakey wrote:

Top shoes are £300-320 so a pair for winter and the same for summer is near £600

 

I just wear my S-Works shoes year round, in winter with thicker socks and overshoes...

I felt like I'd been mugged when I spent close to £300 on them (bike fitter did a very good sales job on me), at that price I make sure I wear them as much as possible!

A couple of years on I'm a bit less sore about it, and they are very nice shoes. But they still cost about the same as all my other pairs of shoes combined...

Man buys decent shoes yet spends the rest of his life griping over the price.  Why bother in the first place then?!  Did the big bike fitter man force you to do it?

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sergius replied to Rapha Nadal | 7 years ago
2 likes

Rapha Nadal wrote:

sergius wrote:

blakey wrote:

Top shoes are £300-320 so a pair for winter and the same for summer is near £600

 

I just wear my S-Works shoes year round, in winter with thicker socks and overshoes...

I felt like I'd been mugged when I spent close to £300 on them (bike fitter did a very good sales job on me), at that price I make sure I wear them as much as possible!

A couple of years on I'm a bit less sore about it, and they are very nice shoes. But they still cost about the same as all my other pairs of shoes combined...

Man buys decent shoes yet spends the rest of his life griping over the price.  Why bother in the first place then?!  Did the big bike fitter man force you to do it?

Nice.

I'm clearly a grown up and am responsible for my own actions.  The bike fitter did a very good sales job on the shoes, they basically only stocked s-works shoes and compared to the £30 Shimano ones I came in wearing the Specialised ones were clearly leagues ahead.  At the time, having only just started riding again, those shoes cost about a third as much as my bike did.

 

Lord knows why I bother arguing on an internet forum  1

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beezus fufoon replied to blakey | 7 years ago
2 likes

blakey wrote:

...some people will prefer to spend their money on shoes as opposed to a hifi...

are hifi's still a thing?

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Cyclespeed Tours replied to blakey | 7 years ago
0 likes

blakey wrote:

 

so you are asking me to justify £200 to look tht good, 4 watts per pedal stroke and 15% energy saving over a 2 hour ride.

 

 

Please don't tell me you actually believe that?

So a 2 hour ride has now become 15% more efficient? 

Do these shoes generate 4 Watts of power through some kind of flux matrix capacitor?!

Or are we saying that top end 'normal' road shoes are sapping loads of power from us, and we just didn't realize it?!

 

LOL.

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Grahamd | 7 years ago
2 likes

No mention of being disc brake proof.

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bendertherobot | 7 years ago
1 like

They looked at skiwear.

Then also multiplied by 3.

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fustuarium | 7 years ago
0 likes

I guess it depends what the comeptition is at that price point. What are the next nearest to £900? I thought the topped out around the £300 mark for world tour type shoes.

Also, they've missed a trick. Or have they? Maybe the review will illuminate.  If the heel is removable then there could be an alternative heel to make shoes level when you stand in Speedplay cleats. 

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steviemarco replied to fustuarium | 7 years ago
0 likes

fustuarium wrote:

I guess it depends what the comeptition is at that price point. What are the next nearest to £900? I thought the topped out around the £300 mark for world tour type shoes.

Also, they've missed a trick. Or have they? Maybe the review will illuminate.  If the heel is removable then there could be an alternative heel to make shoes level when you stand in Speedplay cleats. 

Rocket 7 as worn by GVA?

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Alessandro | 7 years ago
2 likes

No.

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peted76 | 7 years ago
0 likes

As ridiculous as the price tag is, they are one sexy pair of shoes which also double up as slippers! 

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