Lake MX331 Cross Shoe Review

 

The sole design from Lake is contrary to just about every other manufacturer’s design. Rather than building a shoe with a semi-stiff heel-to-ball of foot and a flexible toe, Lake has built the stiffest sole possible all the way from heel to toe tip. Further, rather than covering the sole with an aggressive tread from toe to heel, Lake has focused on adding six stud anchors (four in the toe and two in the heel) and a smaller rubberized tread under the ball of the foot. Lake includes a number of studs with the shoes, allowing the rider to customize the sole according to personal preference, course design, and soil conditions. For the soft conditions of the UK, I chose two aggressive toe spikes paired with two large football studs on the toe and two football studs on the heel.

 

 

The shoe was ready for mud and suffering, how would it compare to my current favorite cyclcoross shoe, the Sidi Mountain Spiders?

 

 
Riding Impressions

 

These shoes are uncompromising, cyclocross specific, and quite costly (£269.99). Before I rode the MX331 for the first time I had a host of concerns… Would the exposed sole scrape and damage easily? Would the stiffness of the shoe make me waddle like a duck? Would the high arch and deep heel cup further hinder my running and add pressure points? It took only a single two hour ride to start addressing these questions and just a couple of weeks to put them all to bed.
 

 
The MX331 works because Lake addressed the potential disaster of running and riding on an ultra-rigid sole by focusing on an amazing fit and a complement of tread and spikes on the toe and heel. On the bike, the MX331 feels like a road model. The shoe is so stiff that every ounce of power is delivered through the shoe. You’d expect this out of the box, just looking at the design but what I didn’t expect was the level of comfort the MX331 provided.

 

I’ll admit, it did take 10 days to get the fit perfect. A few goes in the oven and experimentation with lace configuration kept me secure in the shoe with a low lace tension. My feet never cramped, ached, blistered, or developed pressure points despite hours in the saddle, sometimes racing consecutive races on the same day, in a range of temperatures. They have been the best fitting shoes I’ve owned, road, mountain, or cyclocross.

 

Off the bike, I didn’t notice the lack of flex in the shoe. First, let’s be honest, cyclocross doesn’t usually require miles of running so a shoe good for 100 yards at a time is usually enough. If you’re running more, sole flex doesn’t matter much because the ground under foot is usually too soft to ride. For short bursts or longer muddy slogs, the Lake worked really well. The curve of the rubber tread transitions well to the toe spikes as you run on flat ground, and the four studs in the toe allow you to churn up hills without hesitation. Experiments running downhill showed similar results with the two heel spikes digging in.

 

The only terrain you might feel uncomfortable on is pavement and heavily rooted sections. The combination of toe spikes and heel spikes combined with the limited rubber area made pavement running slick. Removing the toe spikes entirely would help, but these are cyclocross shoes! Roots provided a different challenge. The area, under the foot arch, between the rubber grip on under the ball of the foot and the heel is largely bare. A few times I mis-trod, placing my arch on a root, causing a slip.

 
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