The Torque from O’Neal is their first attempt at a clipless-specific shoe, and it’s pretty damn good. Style-wise, it ticks all the right boxes and when it comes to features, we love the high inside ankle padding as it does a good job of preventing those eye-watering knocks.
The cut-out for the cleat is generous and gives plenty of room to play with placement, leaving enough room so there’s no interference between the cleat, sole and pedal, or any mud-clogging issues.
The sole isn’t as stiff as some but, providing you’re using a platform-style clipless pedal, we don’t think it’s a bad thing. You still get enough stability to turn on the power and we like that extra bit of feel. We’d have liked some reinforced lace eyelets, and O’Neal now plan on adding these.
A stiffer soled version for those who want to use it as a trail shoe would be good too.
