I have a pair of these shoes in white as well. They look amazing. I did have a hard time breaking them in though. There isn’t any padding around the ankle area like my last set of Specilized shoes I had for 10 years. After 2 months, these shoes are finally broken in for my feet.
They did take a bit to break in for me too, but now they are super comfortable
1 Like
I just got a pair and they look great, however it was a royal pita to cut open the insole and ‘flip’ the cleats. I guess I should have done a little research, because had I known that I’d be taking a razor blade to a brand new pair of shoes I would have found another option.
I turned mine around without cutting anything.
How? I couldn’t get them set correctly
I just used a pick.
1 Like
Now that these shoes have been around awhile, any feedback on fit would be helpful. I’m considering abandoning Bont.
Info I am curious about…
Re: toe box
How does it compare? I loved the freedom upfront that the Bont’s have. The Riot+ just doesn’t breathe and isn’t the lightest. Anyone have the S-Works-Torch? How roomy is their “more roomy” toe box? Anyone else go from Bont to the S-Works?
Re: Cleat positioning:
How does it compare to other brands? My first pair of Bon’t allowed me to get them back where I liked them. Second pair, same size but the cleat positioning was noticeably different (maybe a defect…either way, not going to buy another pair to find out).
Re: sizing
I measured my foot and Specialized recommended a full size smaller than anything I ever wore. Any sizing experiences/suggestions? Now I’m worried if I go with a size too big this will negatively impact my ability to get the cleats back but this could be moot if there really is that much adjustability with their cleat nut system.
Thanks!
2 Likes
I’ve never ridden Bonts so can’t help you there. However, I really like the Torches. I would call the toe box roomy, but still relatively low volume; it’s low and flat and wide, if that makes sense. Having tried Shimano, Fizik, Sidi, Giro and Rapha in the past, all those eventually cause hot spots or discomfort due to their narrow wedge-shaped toe boxes, particularly on the big toe side. Torch does not!
With the Torch the heel and arch areas are pretty snug, with the extra room really only kicking in for the toes. I like this fit a lot. I would maybe prefer a more complex boa closure over the toes, e.g. another cross/loop like Shimano uses to allow a bit more adjustment rather than just the single cinch point. But TBH the way they’re designed work well enough and this would probably just cause more fiddling on my part with no major fit improvement.
Shimano and Sidi 47s are snug on me but I’m definitely a 46.5 Specialized, and could probably get into a 46. 46.5 was what the online tool suggested for me, and it was correct, so I’d trust it.
For those that bought these, did you use the fitting app and go with the size recommended?
A year or so ago I went into a local Specialized dealer, and walked out with a 46. Can’t recall exactly, they probably only had 45 and 46.
Feels just a little big, like a half size. I have two other Specialized shoes and both are 46 and fit fine.
Online calculator - just put my foot measurements in and it returned 45.5 so that seems about right.
For all other non-cycling shoes, I’ve always needed a roomy toe box. These fit really well. My bike fitter has Bonts, tried them on and they don’t fit me.
1 Like
To me, the sworks torch feel like wearing sandels, total freedom to wiggle my toes when riding. It believe my torch are a half size smaller than my last pair of spec shoes. I like them so much i just bought a pair of recon for the mtb so i can have the same fit.
1 Like
Been using the S-Works Torch since the release in June 2022 and my experience with them has been meh.
The Good:
- The fit, probably the best fitting shoe I’ve used, paired with Solestar Kontrol 2 insoles it’s perfect.
The Bad:
- Quality, I’ve had multiple quality problems with the shoe. I’ve changed the BOA’s 3 times, and finding que correct ones is hard, I had to go through BOA EMEA to get the silver dials with white strings.
The heel lug is another weak point, I lost one I don’t know how and getting a replacement was a PITA, because Specialized doesn’t sell it directly and you have to go through a store that sells Specialized shoes, they don’t have the number part on the system and the only way to get one is creating a order for something that’s not on their systems and pray that Specialized knows what part they need. Mine took 3 weeks to arrive.
And finally probably the worst part considering it’s a €400 shoe, the yellowing. Everything apart from the heel cup is yellow, looks like crap.
For the price, next time I’ll add €50 more and get some Nimbl Exceed, or spend less for other brands, but the quality of the S-Works Torch is atrocious, the only positive is the fit.
1 Like
Your experience reflects my own observations after just 3 months of use. The BOA dials get stuck often and the plastic bits have started to yellow despite cleaning after each use.
They fit great and feel great, but will be retired to trainer use only after this season.
1 Like
FWIW I think the new non-SWorks Torch also have the wider toe box fit, and probably perform nearly as well. Just slightly heavier. Spesh also has a great no questions asked return policy, so if you can order them online you can ride em for a month then return if you don’t like them.
I’ll add that I also tried the lace up version of these and really liked them. They’re overall quite a bit lighter (lighter uppers, a bit less padded tongue) and the laces work really well. They genuinely feel like wearing slippers (in a good way) and if you ride in the heat they’re super airy and light.
Had mine since july 2022 and I havent had any of those problems. Guess my next mouth is going to be rough?
Not even yellowing? Everyone of my friends with Torch has at least yellowing on their shoes. That’s unacceptable for such an expensive shoe.
Not yellowing and I ride outside all the time. 409 to clean them. LBS said they use a little acetone to clean up, haven’t tried it myself.
1 Like