Shimano IC1 Indoor Cycling Shoes

Shimano's IC1 shoe is designed for your indoor riding, and it's decent enough for steady state stuff, but the retention system isn't quite right, and the insole isn't that comfortable either.

The IC1 is specifically designed for indoor training. Specifically, it's designed to be really well vented, easy to get on and off, and comfy to wear with or without socks.

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The upper is a single-piece mesh, which you can see through if you hold it up to the light. It's reinforced at the toe and the heel, and the heel is also reflective, because... well, no one knows.

Over the top of your foot there's a neoprene section which makes the shoe easy to slip on and off. A single doubled-over Velcro-fastened webbing strap is used for holding your foot, and there's a padded and shaped cushion around the back of the heel cup to stop your ankle slipping out.

The sole is glass-fibre-reinforced nylon and scores a 6 on Shimano's Stiffness Index, which goes up to 12 for the top-end road shoe, the RC9. It's well vented, with a toe vent and a longitudinal vent behind the cleat. There are mounts for both 3-bolt and 2-bolt cleats, and there's a rubber bumper at the back.

There's no front bumper, though, which means you'll be clip-clopping around the house in them when you've left one of the things you need for training in another room, ie every time you train. It's more of an issue with metal SPD cleats than with plastic road cleats, in terms of what damage you're likely to do to your floors; it's possible to get walking adapters for SPD cleats that add a rubber bumper on each side if it's going to be an issue for you.

Once you've fitted your cleats, the shoes are super-easy to get on and tighten up. The upper feels comfortable against the skin, so if you want to train without socks then that's not an issue here, at least for the top of your foot.

The insole of the IC1 is perforated so that it's easier for air to move around. It's flat and quite thin, and in my size 48 shoes (the IC1s size up a bit small like most Shimano shoes I've tried) it was a bit gappy, not covering the full width of the footbed at the front of the shoe. Sometimes my toes would find themselves rubbing against the edge, especially when I wasn't wearing socks. I swapped out the insoles with the ones from my RP9 road shoes and the IC1s were immediately much more comfortable. Obviously, that's an expensive shoe with a more supportive insole, but overall I thought the IC1 insoles were a bit under par, even for the £69.99 asking price.

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The single strap retention system is adequate for most of the indoor riding you'll do, but I don't feel it's ideal. It's difficult to get it sufficiently tight without it being uncomfortable, because the way that the strap works – crossing the shoe twice at an angle – means the closure around the top of the foot is a bit low, and it applies pressure across the tarsal bones rather than securing the foot above them.

I think the shoe would be hugely improved by having a couple of simple lateral Velcro straps rather than the big doubled-over one. You'd be able to secure the top of the shoe properly and adjust the top and bottom of the shoe independently to fit.

In use the shoe is pretty comfortable for steady-state efforts and the like, so if your indoor training is centred around FTP intervals and the like then it'll probably suit you quite well. I spend a fair bit of time doing high-intensity intervals and Zwift racing, and the IC1 isn't really ideal for either: it's not stable enough for sprints, and I found the insole a bit uncomfortable for the hard pressures of racing. I didn't ever find sole stiffness an issue, but mostly that's because it would always be a secondary to the closure system here.

Overall, the IC1 shoes were okay, and there's certainly value in having a well-vented lightweight shoe for training indoors, but I'd say the design needs a bit of a tweak before they're going to have universal appeal for the indoor aficionados among us.

Verdict

An interesting entry into the indoor-only market, but the IC1s don't quite hit the mark