Shimano

SH-ME5 Cycling Shoe - Men's

The ME5 Men's Cycling Shoe is the most robust member of Shimano's beat-'em-up trail and enduro shoes, recommending it for everything up to—and often including—gravity shuttle laps. Its key technology may well be the Torbal sole, which is engineered to flex in specific ways in order to translate body English to the bike while you're flowing through loops on your local trail system.

The sole itself forgoes the more expensive carbon of the ME7 model in favor of the standard nylon/synthetic cocktail that we've been happily abusing for years. The ME5 also has a less elaborate lug design on the rubber outsole, which adds more negative space for clearing mud and debris while hiking through impassable terrain or scuttling down a hillside in pursuit of your lost machine. While you're actually on the bike, the mid-range stiffness (six out of 12) and a reinforced cleat zone mean you won't be uselessly sacrificing watts to a void of sloppy flex during long climbs.

The synthetic uppers are reinforced throughout with rubberized armor, giving the common strike points much more survivability. The enclosure system does its part to stay out of the way, maintaining a low profile in order to avoid grasping trail furniture. The system consists of the standard ratcheting buckle with two supporting hook-and-loop straps in order to keep your foot glued to the pedals so the Torbal's engineered flex isn't wasted on a noodly body/shoe interface.