Giro Prolight Techlace Cycling Shoes

Giro's Prolight Techlace Cycling Shoes are ultra-light, attractive top-end shoes that will make a big dent in your wallet but are a worthy purchase if you can justify them.

Giro has been the leader in reintroducing what some might see as an antiquated way of securing your shoes, and these flagship Prolight Techlaces are the latest in the line from the Californian company's range of top-end footwear.

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A pretty ordinary looking box opens to reveal the treasure within: a travel bag, the shoes themselves in all their bright crimson red loveliness, a bag of parts and an instruction manual. Seeing a manual with a pair of shoes threw me to start with, but it did prove useful as it gives easily digested guidance on what to do with the bag of parts, containing the adjustable footbeds and a set of titanium cleat bolts.

The shoes themselves are indeed remarkably light, feeling unbelievably featherlike in the hand, but that's no surprise when they only weigh a scant 193g per shoe for a size 46. The quality of construction is obvious to the eye. The sole is made from Textreme carbon; the science is rather complicated but the upshot is that it's lighter (20% on average) and stronger than your standard carbon. It's also used by Felt on its top-end bikes and PRO uses it for its eye-wateringly expensive wheels.

As regards the upper, I can honestly say I haven't seen anything like it before. The skeleton – literally, as there are many cutouts – of the shoe is made from ultralight Techmesh, then covered with a Teijin TPU top layer, which has an unusual feel to it and is opaque. Yes, really. Choose your socks carefully as where the cutouts are you can see what's underneath. Again, baffling science behind the materials, but it looks good, vents well and is easy to clean.

In the ongoing race for lightness it would seem that going back in time is the key, as more and more shoes hitting the market lately are dropping the ratchet, full Velcro enclosure and even now the Boa dial in a quest to save a few more grams. With the Prolight Techlaces, Giro has taken the full lace setup from its Empire shoe and modified them to the enclosure we find here. Consisting of segmented laced sections with Velcro attachments at the ends rather than two continuous laces, as in a traditional shoe, it offers adjustability at three points similar to a lot of full Velcro closure systems that have been around for years, but reducing the weight by a good margin. In use I found them to work well, getting the fit right quickly before getting on the bike and then easy to adjust when on the move.

I usually use a set of custom made footbeds with any cycling shoes I wear, but after reading through the manual and taking a look at the included adjustable footbed I thought it was worth a try. Far more naturally moulded at the heel than typical, they offer three different arch supports from minimal to high (which I generally fall under). The manual guides you though determining which would be best for you, but I opted for the largest size based on my custom pair and left them in for the first couple of weeks.

They performed very well indeed, not feeling too far off my customs and certainly not giving me any real issues, only proving not perfect on day-long rides when I did get a little discomfort. I have been wearing custom footbeds for six years, though, so it shows they did well in the interim and if you currently just use whatever your shoes came with then they are likely to be a bigger benefit.

Wearing them in general was a pleasure and in no time they became my favourite shoes. They are remarkably comfortable, slipper-like in comfort when putting them on, and when quickly and easily adjusted they feel just great. The lack of weight is very apparent too, especially so when walking around.

On the bike, they are stiff at the sole as expected, but the malleable upper allows a little movement and my feet never felt restricted. If you are after the ultimate in a 'clamped in' fit these may not be to your liking.

In warm weather the under-toe vent along with that paper-thin outer skin is a blessing, keeping temperatures and sweating down a treat. I did wear them on occasions when I was caught out in wet weather and although they still felt light on the foot when wet – let's face it, there isn't much to soak any water up – the summer temperature was not cold enough to feel a chill. They certainly wouldn't work to your benefit in the colder months, although to be honest I'd be more concerned about ruining an expensive, classy looking pair of shoes – these would be kept for summer best.

There are a couple of niggles in amongst all this praise though. The biggest issue was the cleat fitment. Giro has used fixed mounting holes with no adjustability, and they're set further back towards the heel than any of my other shoes. This meant that although I could get the angle right owing to the actual cleat's adjustability, I couldn't quite get them as far forward under the ball of my foot as I would like. It hasn't caused any issues even after a few hundred miles, but it does feel odd for a short time as you transition between pairs of shoes.

The only other issue I encountered was that over time the laces have stretched a little, placing the Velcro portion further down the side of the shoe. It seems to have settled now but I'll be interested to see if it goes further.

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Lastly, there's that price tag. These are Giro's flagship shoes and are some of the absolute lightest on the market, with the quality and selection of materials going some way to justifying the price. However, I recently reviewed the Lake CX-301s, which for the same size 46 weigh in at 201g per shoe and are over £100 less. At the extreme end, the 150g per shoe Rocket7s which are also lace enclosure-based, come in at a staggering £1,200, making the Prolight Techlaces cheap in relative terms.

Verdict

Some of the lightest shoes available with comfort to match, these should be high on your list if you can stomach the cost