William E.

To begin: I'm 6'0" and right at 200 pounds and wear a L-XL II in this Assos shirt. I also ride in South Florida, so the conditions are pretty extreme.

I wear the long sleeve version, and for me I feel noticeably cooler when I wear it. When I open my jersey a little, it makes an even bigger difference (I've since this purchase bought an Assos Millie jersey that I also love).

The sleeves are a little long, but because they're so tight you don't notice it. This is probably a function of me being a larger rider relative to my height.

Cool shirts and undershirts are a tricky thing. Your mileage may vary, and you might not like the idea of wearing the shirt under your jersey. For me, riding in 80-90 degree temps every day, I love it. I've actually bought a second one so I don't have to wash them every day and I can rotate them.

I was caught between sizes on this shoe. I wear an 11.5 in a sneaker, and I ordered both a 45.5 and 46 in this shoe.

First off, the heat molding is definitely not a gimmick (I was skeptical). After molding the shoe, it holds my heel much better and that helps when I'm picking up the pedals.

I think the shoe fits a little narrow, but as it turns out that's as much a product of Lake's insole as anything with the design of the shoe. I found that with the Lake insole, I felt a little compression along the outside of my foot, which seemed to result from the insole's design. It places your foot in a tub in the insole INSIDE the carbon fiber tub-- and it's that tub that makes the shoe so great. You're foot is as much IN the insole as it's ON the insole in the shoe. It's fat and curves up on the outside of the insole, taking up a lot of real estate inside the shoe. I removed the insoles from my old pair of Specialized shoes and put them in there and it's fantastic (I think anything with a flat outside perimeter would be similarly effective). Now my foot can use the entirety of the width of the shoe.

I have read some criticism that it's hard to adjust the tightness of the BOA knobs on the bike, but I didn't have much problem. I just pull the knob and that pops it loose, and then pushing it in gives me a lot more room to tighten it back down.

These shoes are a big lick. No doubt they're expensive and I was extremely nervous about settling on a size with these. If you nail the size, everything you've read about them is true: spectacular kicks.