fizik Tempo Beat Gravel Shoe Review: An Instant Hit – Hailey Moore | The Radavist | A group of individuals who share a love of cycling and the outdoors.

With their posh look, lace-up construction, and SPD-outsole design, the new fizik Tempo Beat shoes offers a relaxed approach to road, or a refined approach to gravel—depending on how you want to look at it. Hailey Moore has been riding the Tempo Beat on mixed terrain and shares her thoughts on these mod crossover kicks below.

fizik Tempo Beat: Quick Hits

Crossover design: Built to blur the lines between road and all-road for riders who push boundaries
Beat outsole: An innovative new outsole that houses a hidden two-bolt cleat track
Lace-Up closure: Reliable closure system for foot-cradling comfort and a pressure-free fit, a casual look, and infinite adjustability.
Engineered mesh upper: soft and breathable upper for long-lasting comfort
Outsole: TPU tread with a nylon shank, stiffness index 4
Weight: 355 g
Sizes: 36-48 (37 to 47 also in half sizes)
Three colors: White/Orange, Black, and Sage Green/Desert
Price: $179.99

At First Sight

I’ll be honest, I was first keen to try the Tempo Beat from fizik almost purely based on how these shoes look. Subjectively speaking, they’re a clean looking shoe, especially the White/Orange version seen here. And, given the way that fizik has positioned the Tempo Beat—as a casual shoe for riding roads, polite gravel, or buff dirt—there’s room in this intended use-case to bias one’s preferences towards aesthetics. Still, as my first glance turned to closer inspection, I thought the Tempo Beat might offer a nice middle-ground riding experience with features that impress beyond their surface-level appeal.

Design

The fact that the fizik Tempo Beat are not traditional road shoes becomes obvious as soon as you flip them over. Built around a TPU-tread and a recessed two-bolt cleat track, the Beat’s platform lacks a carbon insert and offers significantly more traction than the characteristically slick and duck-walk-inducing sole of its strict three-bolt road counterparts. The TPU lower gives way to a soft and porous mesh upper, accented by a rubberized, protective toe bumper, and secured by a simple lace-up closure. Other features include the integrated tongue (i.e., sewn into the upper) and no-heel-lift detailing that dots the inside of the heel cup.

On Foot

Historically, I’ve had kind of a hard time finding bike shoes that I love. I take partial responsibility for this as my feet have a wider, more squared-off toe profile, rather than the narrow, rounded shape that looks so elegant in shoe design. But, I have also noticed that the industry tends to bias narrower silhouettes. And then there’s the issue of which brands offer half sizes—or half-sizes in just some sizes, and which sizes—versus brands that stick with whole numbers.

If I can offer a slightly tangential case in point example: I’ve long wanted and tried to love the Rapha Explore shoes, but I’ve been kept from doing so by a half-size, which (according to Google) translates to less than a centimeter difference. Rapha is one of the several brands that offers half-sizes, but only for a window within their entire size range: Rapha half sizes start at EU 40.5 and end at 45.5. My Rapha Explore shoes are size 39—size 40 is unequivocally too big—and I’ve convinced myself they are not too small.

I have a select few pairs of socks that are thin enough to wear with them, and I am now resigned to only wearing them for rides two-hours or less. What could have been with size 39.5. (So it doesn’t seem like I’m throwing targeted shade, Quoc and Giro are two other brands that immediately come to mind that offer no half sizes.)

Given my struggles with sizing and fit, I was steeling myself that the Tempo Beat might be too narrow for my feet, though I was pleasantly surprised to find that fizik offers expansive half-size steps in their shoes, starting at EU 37.5 and going up to 46.5. The moment of truth came when I first laced up the Tempo beat and—huzzah!—my review size 39 was, in fact, a near-perfect fit.

I say near perfect because, interestingly, the Tempo Beat seem to run a hair large. I don’t think I’d want to size down a half size, but there are just a few more millimeters in the forefoot than I would have expected. To be clear, no complaints here (!) and I’m happy to have the extra space for thick socks in cold weather and winter toe-wiggling, or comfort on long summer rides. I find the higher-volume fit welcome in the toe, but I was also glad to find that the mid-foot of the shoe tapers in significantly and hugs the arch securely. As for the heel cup, I have no real notes: it hits my heel and achilles in a comfortable spot, feels snug without feeling tight, and I haven’t noticed those no-lift dots mentioned earlier.

I did notice a couple of things in walking in the Tempo Beat. The stack, or height of that rubberized sole, feels a little tall and I could see some slight ankle-roll potential if you’re not careful. I also felt like—for an, I guess I’m going to call it this, all-road shoe—the rocker felt a little lacking, meaning the heel-to-toe rock of taking a step felt kind of clunky and flat-footed. As for hike-a-bike potential, I would hope that a glance at the nearly smooth sole would rule that idea out; I’m sure you could get away with a few yards here-and-there of walking, but HAB ability isn’t a quality that I considered measuring the Beat on.

On Bike

My satisfaction with the fit of the Tempo Beat translated to satisfaction on the bike as well. The mesh upper feels breathable, yet protective enough for the kind of terrain the Beat are designed to travel, though I haven’t had an opportunity to see how this material fares in the rain. The overall design of the shoe feels comfortable without feeling sloppy on the bike: the combination of the heel cup shape and the hug of the midsole kept my foot in place while riding and I noticed absolutely zero break-in period needed.

In my experience, a lace-up design always offers the best on-bike experience. Dial closures might look fancy and promise fine-tune precision, but I usually get frustrated by the lack of tension adjustability across the lacing (or cable) harness and, in some cases (like dual dials), have gotten some pretty gnarly hotspots under the dial mech. If the shoe fits, I’ll pick laces over dials any day. The Tempo Beat offer a great fit for me and the lace-up design has just reinforced my positive experience with these shoes.

The Tempo Beat are ranked as only moderately stiff (with a stiffness index of 4) and felt like it, especially as compared to my earlier example, the Rapha Explore shoe, which features a carbon plate. For me, this isn’t a drawback at this stage: I could tell that the shoes are a little more forgiving on the pedals, but for everyday riding this seems like a perk. With a couple hundred miles on the shoes as of the time of this review, I’ll be curious to see how these shoes wear in more in the long term and if they start to feel too forgiving (i.e. inefficient). Right now, the Tempo Beat certainly seem to be a likely candidate for inclusion on my list of year-end favorite products, so stay tuned there for a follow-up on how they continue to wear.

The last observation I’ll mention about my on-bike experience has to do with that pesky stack again, which is really half of why these shoes look so good. The recessed cleat track is a benefit for walking around, but I did notice that it took a little extra finding to clip in. This is already becoming muscle memory, but seeing how the outsole wears in, or wears down, is another area I’ll put a pin in for a true long-term revisiting.

TL;DR

The Tempo Beat offer a “look-good, ride-good” experience in a well-designed, reasonably-priced package. Built for all-road riding terrain, the fizik Tempo Beat are the best-fitting shoes I’ve worn. The lace-up closure provides a reliable, fail-safe design and I found other details like the reinforced toe bumper and heel cup dots to be thoughtful features. For me, the aesthetic lift of the higher stack is worth the trade-off of its slight ding to the walking experience and required learning period for clipping in.

Pros

Hot looking shoes
Great fit in a wide range of sizes, including many half sizes
Better walking experience than a traditional road shoe (even though the Beat have a two-bolt cleat design)
Reasonably priced based on comparable models