Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
Fat-bike
QUOC Gran Tourer XC Lace Review
Today, British footwear brand QUOC announced its new Grand Tourer XC Lace off-road shoe, featuring a carbon midsole and a new grippier TPU tread material. Joe has been testing a pair for the last month. Read on to find out if the QUOC Gran Tourer XC Lace is worth its premium price…
Additional photos by Lucas Winzenburg
QUOC’s latest iteration of the Grand Tourer XC Lace has reaffirmed a few things for me: Firstly, QUOC’s fit, quality, and materials on their premium shoes are exemplary. Secondly, no matter how many times I test BOA dial closure type shoes, I ultimately prefer laces. And, thirdly, QUOC is out front in terms of combining excellent function with an aesthetic that I appreciate. These new GTs are superb, and to my mind, the best footwear QUOC has ever come out with.
The Grand Tourer XC Lace’s are already my absolute go-to shoes for mixed-terrain rides, and I don’t see them being knocked off of that status in the foreseeable future. The obvious con is that these shoes are silly expensive, so one would want to be sure that they meet a real use-case in one’s cycling agenda.
This is not my first pedal-round with QUOCs. Far from it. Some time ago, I retail-purchased the original Grand Tourer laced shoes and wore them on adventures local and far until the soles wore out. I loved those shoes and judged that I got good value out of them. More recently, I extensively tested QUOCs dial-closure offerings in both the fancy high-end GTII version and the more affordable Escape Off-Road offering. I also frequently still wear their Chelsea boot style slip-on shoes that I tested along the way. Throughout, I’ve been a fan of what QUOC is trying to do: namely, create a high-tech performance riding shoe out of durable and cleanable material with distinctive, low-key, elegant looks. They attend to detail in venting, heel cup shape, toe protection, and walkability.
On the other hand, not all of QUOC’s catalog has been a win in my book. For instance, I found the GT IIs too stiff and race-oriented for comfort in more laid-back gravel touring contexts. They also gave me hot spots at the cord eyelets. Last year, I thought the Escape XC shoes were decent enough, but the fit was notably less refined than on QUOC’s higher-end shoes, especially around the heel cup area. My foot would pull out even when the dials were cranked down, plus the tongue of the shoe would float around, leading to discomfort in my instep. I can decisively say that these new Grand Tourer XC Lace far exceed both of those.
When I received this new pair, I was just about to leave on a two-week roadie-style tour in Taiwan. The idea was to travel with ultralight kit in soft bikepacking bags, do high mileage, usually on tarmac, and sleep indoors every night. The GT XC Lace seemed ideal for the itinerary. I no longer ride in road shoes—shoes without tread—but I do like performance footwear when I’m going to be clipped in and trying to keep up with my youthful fast friends. My baseline demand, though, is that the shoes be comfortable enough to really walk around in. I don’t mean just getting off the bike here and there, but, say, walking around a big market area or the like.
Before leaving, I confirmed that the GTs fit, mounted cleats, and packed them into my duffel. Yup, I set off on a trip with brand-new shoes without ever pedaling in them. I don’t advise this, but I was pretty confident I’d get along with the new QUOCs. I was right, and they were perfect. I did a bunch of group rides with the cycling crew in Taipei and then pedaled long, hilly days on the mixed-terrain tour. The GT XC Lace didn’t require any breaking in at all and otherwise disappeared on my feet.
They are notably lighter than earlier versions of the shoe, and I’m sure I appreciated that. And the laces, while not adjustable on the fly while rolling, provided all the range of adjustability one could hope for: toward the end of the day, I could loosen the shoes yet still achieve a confident overall interface. In the morning, I’d cinch them back up to put in fast, before-lunch mileage. This very possibility of working around changes in different parts of my feet over various parts of the day is what I miss most in dial-closure shoes. Laces just seem to me flat-out superior.
I’m a big fan of the off-white color with the purple accents. Then again, I grew up in an era of road cycling when Italian pros with white shoes were pretty common, so my aesthetic sensibility doesn’t protest against these.
As far as off-the-bike, the GT XC Laces are quite good. I’m not sure I’d want to do frequent big hike-a-bikes in them, but that’s not off the table, either. They are absolutely walkable in a gravel tour context, and that is a significant achievement in a shoe that is also very credible for racing. The carbon midsole seems very effective at transferring power with minimal flex. Don’t mistake these for casual riding shoes, as they have a greater family resemblance to pure racing shoes than they do to commuting shoes, for example. If I still raced cross-country or cyclocross, I wouldn’t hesitate to do so in these, but, holy cow, surely they’d get dirty (though they actually clean up surprisingly well with soapy water). They even have mounts for toe spikes.
All of these kudos come with a very significant caveat, namely that the fit of the QUOCs works for you. One of the discomfiting things about reviewing shoes is that one has to come to grips with how unusual one’s foot is and in what ways. Let me try to be as dispassionate about this as I can be. My feet are blocky and square; they’re flat and fat. If you’re the right age for this to resonate, think of Fred Flintstone. My feet fall on the high-volume side, though not radically so. When a shoe brand offers a wide version, I am often happy and comfortable in that option. But I don’t ordinarily decisively need an extra-wide shoe and can fit in most standard widths.
I don’t think that QUOC is specifically designing their lasts for feet like mine, but, to my surprise, they’re a very good fit for me. These new GTs also come with a set of differently thick arch support wedges. I’m using the medium ones, and they’re remarkably comfortable. More importantly, they align my foot with the pedal. Without some arch support, my flat sole tends to collapse my foot inward, so there is not a straight line from my ankle to the bottom of the shoe. I’m glad QUOC has made it so I don’t have to put an aftermarket arch-supporting sole in the shoe.
Well, there’s another caveat: Cycling shoes just seem stupid expensive these days. QUOC is marketing a premium product, and nothing about my experience with these shoes is out of line with that. I truly do love these shoes, but $290 USD is a staggering amount of money.
- Sizes Available : 38-47
- Colors Available: Chalk (limited edition Chestnut coming soon)
- Actual weight : 695 grams/pair (size 42 with cleats mounted)
- Place of Manufacture: Vietnam
- Price: $290 USD
- Manufacturer’s Details: QUOC
Pros
- Comfortable, refined fit
- Excellent execution of laces
- Good compromise of stiffness and walkability for a fast-ride biased shoe
- Effective arch wedges for customizable insole
Cons
- Price
- Will require work to keep clean
Wrap Up
My feet and my sense of style get on with QUOC’s mandate for the Grand Tourer XC Lace shoes. They were a superlative choice for a ride like the Taiwan trip. That is, they excelled for spirited gravel and road riding, for some walking around, and for adjustability and comfort in various conditions. For anyone looking for shoes that tend toward the racing side of pedaling but aren’t so stiff and technical that they’re only suitable for actual races, these are a terrific choice. They inherit everything that was great about the original GT laced version and offer improvements in fit and weight. Those are all wins, as long as you can justify the price.
Further Reading
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