Fizik R4 Tempo Overcurve Wide shoes

Fizik's R4 Tempo Overcurve shoe is a good quality, well-fitted option for everything up to racing, and the shiny iridescent colour scheme is a winner on dry, sunny days. They're now available in this wide fitting, which is great for people who don't always get on with the standard lasts.

Now you might be looking at these shoes and thinking, 'hang on! I'm sure I've seen these on road.cc before!' And you'd be right, up to a point: Steve Williams reviewed them in 2019, but they're now available in this wider fitting. 'The Overcurve R4 Wide provides a higher volume fit with more room at the forefoot around the ball of the foot and metatarsals,' says Fizik. So, they're a bit wider and a bit taller for any given shoe size.

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Overcurve refers to the asymmetric shape of the closure, which is designed to trace the alignment of the bony bits of your ankle. The upper is a PU laminate and mesh mix, with an exposed section of mesh where your shoe might rub against your crank, which is a nice touch.

You get a single dial Boa IP1-B closure to keep everything snug, and the heel cup has silicone grippers to stop your heel escaping when you're working hard. The upper is perforated to help your feet to breathe, and there are decent vents in the sole too.

The sole is a 15% carbon-reinforced nylon affair, that Fizik rates as a 7 out of 10 on its stiffness rating scale. The three-bolt cleat mount has numbered scales to help you get your position consistent, and front and rear rubber bumpers help with walking off the bike. 

There are a number of colour options available; this iridescent finish will cost you an extra £15 over the flat colours, but they certainly do look spangly on a nice sunny day, and the finish seems to be as hardwearing as a standard shoe. Whether it's worth the money will depend on how much you value spangliness, I suppose.

These are comfy shoes, but it's worth noting that they size up big. I'm generally a 47 and after reading Steve's review opted for a 46.5, which is spot on. The insole has pretty minimal padding but I found that the R4s held my foot very comfortably, with no noticeable pressure points. I've used them for long outdoor rides and also for some fairly long indoor sessions where I find foot pain to be more of an issue, and I've got on really well with them.

They're quite a different shape in terms of the footbed to the Shimano shoes I normally wear, so swapping between one and the other sometimes felt a bit odd, but once I was riding I had no issues at all. Fizik says the cleat is 'positioned slightly further towards the heel compared to traditional placement to optimize pedalling efficiency and reduce knee compression, especially suited to aggressively forward aero riding positions'. I can't say I really noticed, and it's not obvious from looking at the shoe that Fizik's done it, so it must be a pretty small change.

> How to get your shoe cleats set up right 

Fizik says that the R4 Overcurve is an 'all-round road cycling shoe designed to be equally at home on weekend group rides, in daily training, and stretching out on a granfondo'. Certainly in terms of performance and comfort there's plenty to like. These aren't the stiffest shoes I've tried, and Fizik doesn't claim that they are, but I've used them for indoor racing (there isn't any outdoor racing) and never felt like I was losing out in the sprints due to my shoes, it was always my legs that were the limiting factor. The Boa dial gives a good range of adjustment, and you can do them up pretty tight. If you're racing at a level above me (3rd cat / Zwift B) then you might want something a bit stiffer if you're depending on a big sprint.

I haven't worn these back to back with the standard R4 but they are pretty roomy around the widest part of the foot, more so than my standard-width Shimano shoes that are nominally a size bigger. It's not a big difference, but there is a difference. A bit of extra material means they're a bit heavier, and the R4 isn't an especially light shoe anyway, it's more middle of the pack for a performance-orientated shoe. Our pair of 46.5s weighed in at 614g, Fizik claims a weight of 464g for a set of 42s.

> Buyer’s Guide: 24 of the best performance road cycling shoes

The Fiziks are nicely made and finished, but for over £200 you wouldn't say they were ahead of the field in terms of value. You can get elite-level full-carbon soles on shoes like the FLR F-XX.II or Shimano's excellent RC7 for a fair bit less than this. Your options are more limited if you're specifically looking for a wide shoe, though, which makes them well worth considering if that's what you need most of all from a cycling shoe.

Verdict

Great all-rounder road shoes for the wide-footed rider