As I get older and ride for longer, my needs in a cycling shoe are different from what they used to be, and it is hard to find shoes that accommodate swelling in the front of my foot while also fitting well around the heel and top of the foot. These are the closest that I've found to accomplishing this fit. In regular footwear, I never wear wide shoes, but in cycling shoes, I now only look at wide shoes. I used to wear SIDI's and S-Works. But in the last couple of years, I've switched to Bont's and Lake 201s. The Bont's fit great around the heel and across the top, but the bathtub-shaped carbon sole bothers my foot after 3 hours, and heat molding hasn't done anything to improve it. The Lake 201s are very accommodating in the toe box, and nice and breathable for hot days or indoor riding, but they are so loose everywhere that I've had to add many inserts in the heel, on the tongue, and on the sides of the mid-shoe so they don't flop around. I can't size down on them, or my toes wouldn't fit, and with only 1 boa dial, I cannot cinch them up to really fit my foot. I was concerned that the 178s would suffer the same problems as the 201s. However, the 178 fits very differently from the 201 - in a good way. I am wearing these with a G8 insole that has adjustable arch support. The heel fit is excellent and doesn't need any additional padding. The upper fits snuggly across the top of my foot with its single boa, to give me much more efficient power transfer. The toe box is nice and generous, with no impingement on my feet so far. The nylon sole is plenty stiff enough for me with my ~850-watt max output. I am happy to save money by going with this nylon sole, which still feels very stiff, comparable to my old SIDI shoes. All that said, there are two things I would like to see from Lake in the future. 1) Dual Boa dials. I would like to cinch up half the shoe a bit more. 2) More ventilated upper. I don't think I can use these on hot summer days. A mesh version with this upper shape would be great, and then I would throw out my 201s. Thank you, Lake, for making these shoes - keep going on this trajectory of making shoes that are shaped like feet!
