Held Shack £169.99
The Held Shacks feature twin zips for access and are finished in shiny black leather. They have hard armour on the shin and ankle and feature a separate gusset liner. We found that they were large, rigid and chunky — they felt heavy and cumbersome in a way that many of the others didn’t. The double-zip entry was good and made it easy to get them on but it felt as though the heel didn’t sit quite low enough to be held securely. In use, they were stiff and difficult to get underneath the gear lever and the ribbed sole helps with grip off the bike but it does make moving the foot around on the bike harder. Comfort was reasonable, though their breathability on longer rides was not as good as we’d hoped — they just didn’t feel breathable at all. They held up perfectly to the spray test with no water ingress at all. However, in the dunk test, the left heel allowed some in, losing a couple of marks.