Buying road shoes can be an expensive business, with top-end pairs costing hundreds of pounds, so it’s good to see German bike and accessory giants Rose offering a fully featured shoe at a fraction of the usual price.
The upper is soft polyurethane-coated leather and features two Velcro closures on the forefoot and a micro-adjust ratchet dial to fine-tune the fit. The shape is generous across the width and depth so we found ourselves adjusting all three closures quite a bit, which lead to some bunching of the leather around the toe box.
Our test shoe (euro size 45) weighed 720g for the pair and fitted well length-wise, but in all other dimensions was like a larger size. The well-shaped sole is fibre-glass-reinforced nylon with a channelled ridge adding to the stiffness and plenty of cooling vents. It’s not as stiff as the latest carbon-soled designs, but then it doesn’t come with a carbon price tag either.
The small amount of flex and large heel and toe bumpers make it very easy to walk in for a road shoe, so the RRS 02 is an ideal choice if you’re new to cycling. The bolt fixings on the sole are compatible with all road pedal systems, with the addition of two-bolt mountain bike-style fixings – handy if you have more than one bike in the shed.
What lets the RRS 02 down though is the insole: its minimal, flat form doesn’t keep your foot particularly stable and the feel is awkward and uncomfortable. Once we’d switched to a more form-fitting insole, the whole shoe was transformed. All in all this shoe is a bargain – it’s well made and compatible with all types of pedals, but make sure that you factor in the price of some decent insoles before you make the investment. The RRS02 is available in euro sizes 38-48.
This article was originally published in Cycling Plus magazine.