REVIEW – LUCK REVELATOR SPD SHOE

Luck are a Spanish brand who seem to offer a mind boggling selection of shoes that cover every occasion from road racing to enduro. With shoes being manufactured 100% in Spain, Luck are able to offer many custom options for fit, customisation and styling. Are your feet different sizes? Do you have biomechanical / metatarsus correction requirements? Do you want to go full FRED and match your shoes to your bike or kit colour scheme? Luck can sort you out.

I chose the Revelator which is the top model in their professional range and are designed for the rigours of XC mountain biking. I have been riding the Revalator for the last four months on a variety of gravel and bikepacking trips in all sorts of weather. I found that the Revelator sizing is true to life so a 43 shoe fitted as expected. My shoes weighed in at 790g (claimed shoe weight is 588g) which puts them on par with other shoes in their price range.

The first thing you will notice is that mine are clearly very orange. This may not have been my first choice but I have grown to enjoy the brightness. If you want something less orange Luck offer many standard and custom options that are more subtle or flamboyant to suit your personal taste. The shoe has a sleek and minimal design that does not look too out of place on a road bike should you want a shoe that will cross over disciplines.

The fit is very comfortable and the shoe can be set up snug to assure minimal foot movement. This can be attributed to the anatomical insole that provides a gentle arch support as well as the enhanced ankle support that helps hold your foot in place. A micro fibre tongue sits comfortably over the top of the foot and has a couple of slits so that it rests gently against the front of your ankle. Stitching inside is either invisible or very neat so there are no issues with rubbing or irritation.

The outer finish is not as high quality and there are a number of small details around the vents that have not been cut cleanly. In reality these are small and don’t have any effect on the performance although a little disappointing for a shoe that RRP’s at £300. The uppers are made from a glossy material which looks great and should be easy to clean up after mucky rides.

Watch out if you are clambering about as the shiny finish is vulnerable to rocks and it is easy to mark them if you miss step, crash or suffer from heel rub. All my shoes inevitably die the same death but after 2000+ miles in the last four months the uppers are still firmly attached to the sole and are not showing any areas that might be of concern in the future.

You can tell that these shoes were designed in Spain as the thin uppers and side venting certainly assure that your feet are kept cool on warm days and cold on cool days.  They will need to be beefed up with an over shoe or subbed for something cosier come the harsh Scottish winter. The glossy finish shrugs off the odd puddle splash well but you will find that during wet conditions that water will quickly find a way to creep through the large amount of venting.

Your foot is held in place with two ATOP reel knobs and a velcro strap over the toes. Each cable crosses the foot once giving fiddle free and simple control of tightness over the foot unlike some systems that route the cable down the front of the shoe. The dials offer many clicks to fine tune the fit and by spinning anti clockwise you can quickly loosen and remove the shoe. I have experienced no issues so far of any grit or crud getting stuck inside the ratchet system and they are still spinning smoothly.

The SHD carbon sole is derived from tree resin and gives the shoe a superb stiff pedalling feel yet the Revelator was still comfortable if you begin racking up the distances. When clipping in it is easy to locate the cleat on the pedal and once coupled, the shoe sits well on my XT Trail pedals to give a stable pedalling platform.

The lugs are made from natural rubber attained from trees rather than oil. They are well positioned and for such a stiff shoe it has a surprisingly manageable walking profile. Wet rock situations can be frighteningly slippery however this is true for all SPD shoes without a trainer style sole and in most occasions the lugs do a fine job of gripping to a range of trail surfaces.

This shoe has threads to fit cyclocross studs for all those people who like riding in muddy circles around parks. The lugs are not replaceable, however, Luck do offer other shoes with this feature which could be worth considering if you are expecting to walk a bit as my lugs are already showing wear. I have never managed to make a shoe last long enough to require new lugs so I was not too concerned about wear.

Unfortunately my shoes developed a huge crack across the soles below the cleat. I am unable to determine exactly what has caused this but it began on the inside of the foot and then quickly worked its way across the width of the sole. I suspect this occurred during a significant hike a bike section while bikepacking over the Pennines. Obviously this shoe is not designed with extended periods of walking in mind but never the less this is still disappointing considering that they are meant to be a high end mountain biking or cyclocross shoe. This crack is especially concerning as I have not done any proper mountain biking in the four months that I have owned them. I have sent them away for a warranty replacement and hopefully this is an isolated case, I will report back in the future.

On paper the Luck Revelator could make a fantastic performance mountain biking, gravel or cyclocross shoe. Stiff enough for high intensity race situations yet still comfortable mile after mile. Luck have done a fantastic job at making a balanced shoe for multi disciplines. If you are a rider who has special biometric requirement from a shoe then Luck is certainly a brand to consider. However, durability concerns of the Revelator sole are worrying and until I have been able to cover some distance in my replacements I find it hard to recommend these shoes to anyone.

Check out the bamboozling custom options that Luck offer on their website here.

My shoes where purchased by myself from Planet X.