By Stan Portus

Published: Monday, 31 January 2022 at 12:00 am


As gravel bikes and gravel riding grow in popularity, so too has the amount of gravel-specific kit for those who want to get off the beaten track, from gravel jerseys to gravel bike tyres.

Over the past year, we’ve seen many big manufacturers turn their attention to producing gravel-specific footwear. These are the best gravel bike shoes of 2022, as rated by our expert testers.

The natural crossover between the riding conditions and pedal systems used in cross-country mountain biking and gravel riding means that a lot of mountain bike footwear is already well suited to gravel

For that reason, you’ll find some of the shoes in this list were originally designed for mountain biking.

However, the likes of Specialized, Shimano and Fizik are all now producing gravel-specific footwear.

This new generation of discipline-specific footwear tends to go without the considerable sole, heel and toe protection more commonplace on cross-country shoes, naturally making them lighter. The styling is often – but not always – more casual, too.

Keep reading to the end for our full gravel shoe buyer’s guide.

The best gravel bike shoes 2022, in order of score

Fizik Terra X5

4.5 out of 5 star rating
"Best
Even though Fizik cites a mountain bike heritage for the X5, it still feels like a road shoe that has come to the rugged side.
David Caudery / Immediate Media
  • £150 as tested
  • Efficient pedalling
  • Good fit
  • Comfortable on the bike

The Fizik Terra X5 shoes are rugged enough for off-road exploits and have a balanced and secure fit thanks to a wide tongue and an asymmetric Boa dial.

The shoes have carbon soles with deep treads and TPU-injected studs. This makes for a pair of stiff shoes that shed mud well, but when walking they lack flex and do feel like beefy road shoes.

On the other hand, this does mean that when it comes to climbing the Terra X5s put more power through the pedals than some other gravel shoes. So if your riding doesn’t require you to hike-a-bike that often, these will likely be a good choice.