Fizik Arctica R5 Review

I have quite recently moved to a lovely Lancastrian village called Ramsbottom.  The terrain for riding is fantastic, littered with every type of climb and some very hard local races, it’s an aspiring cyclists dream.  That is except for one thing… the weather.  As it’s to the West of the Pennines, it tends to get a bit worse weather than my previous home of Leeds.  While I don’t dislike the rain and I will ride in almost all conditions, I was getting a little fed up of drying out my shoes after riding so decide to invest in the Fizik Artica R5 winter boots.  They promise to be warm with foil lined innersoles and fully waterproof. 

I’ve ridden them throughout the entire winter and covered about 3500 km’s.  My riding has been varied in terms of both duration and conditions so I think I’ve used them enough to justify a full review.

We have had a particularly harsh winter, the first snowfall was in November and currently (March 2018) we are still expecting more snow next week.  So it has been a real test for the shoes.  Each weekend I have been getting out and doing around 4 hours both days with several rides over 6 hours.

Let’s start with comfort.  Now they fit well, very snug and comfy.  They have a nice string system which helps to tighten them internally.  The zip helps to keep them in place and the internal padding allows for abnormalities.  I’ve had next to no issues with comfort.  One issue with the string system is that if you don’t secure it properly under the zip, then it can hang out.  If it does this, it can catch on the front chain ring and snap.  I discovered this the hard way.

As I said before, this winter has been particularly harsh and I have definitely put the shoes to the test.  I have done several 130km rides with average temperatures of -2°C, in full blizzards, sometimes with an inch thick layer of snow on the road.  I’ve used them in the worst conditions I’ve ever ridden in, so bad I shouldn’t really have been riding.  However, on those rides, provided it wasn’t raining too hard my feet stayed warm and dry.  There were points where I could barely feel my fingers and suffered from “frost-nip” for several days afterwards, but my toes were still toasty.  The shoes are brilliantly waterproof, and water can’t access from the cleat bolt holes which is a great feature.  Having tested, you can walk in puddles and stay dry.  The waterproofing works.  

The downside of this waterproofing system is that if your feet do get wet, then they will not get dry.  On one of my rides in heavy rain (which I would like to forget) the rain seeped from my bib tights, into my socks and into the shoes.  Once there, even after the rain passed there was no way for the water to escape.  But that’s not the shoes fault, you just can’t solve the issue of water entering via the socks. 

The shoes are, as expected, heavier than a standard set but not by that much.  When my winter bike weighs 13kg an extra 100g in shoe mass is insignificant. 

In summary the shoes are brilliantly warm, completely waterproof, and comfy but if water gets in, it won’t get out.  In terms of cost they aren’t cheap and you are paying a little for the name, but as I knew the winter was going to be harsh, for me, they were worth the investment and I have zero regrets about having warm feet.