Jeff on Bikes

Full disclosure: I don’t ride dirt. Wish I did, but I don’t have the funds or time to do it now. Come ‘cross season though expect to see some mud on these puppies. I see a budget single speed MTB in my near future as well, if I can somehow convince Ashley that having a road, commuter, track, cross, and mountain bike, along with her bikes, is realistic in our one bedroom apartment. Maybe when I graduate and get salary we can get a two-bedroom place and have a bike room.

I use MTB shoes for commuting on my trackmuter IRO, but not for racing it when it is in track mode (I swap pedals, track racing on SPDs, phbbbbpptt! Wackos!). So my MTB shoes see minimal, but daily use (on average 5-10 hours a week). Any brand-name shoe should be able to stand up to that for at least a year in any conditions. My Shimanos are still running strong, though they show some signs of potential failure at the Velcro straps and some coming undone at the seams – they got good use for well over a year of daily use including being crashed, dragged along curbsides and the street while sneaking past MUNI on Market, rain, lightning strikes, blending, etc…MTB shoes are pretty damn tough.

Upon receiving my pair of MX230s I didn’t expect anything less than a sturdy shoe. Even before riding them my modest expectations were well exceeded. These are tanks, yet light, comfortable, and red. Very red. I thought my silver Sidis were flashy, but these win by a few bike lengths.

The top and sides are a super supple (even more so than my Sidi road shoes) yet substantial layer of full-grain leather – these things are comfortable. Read: no break-in period. Two hook-and-loop closures and one micro-buckle. The same as my Shimanos and Sidis, so a plus, but not out of the ordinary. Paule said that one of his minor complaints was that the short tongue could dig into your ankle – the leather is soft enough not to bother me yet though, but then again I don’t do eight hour mountain bike races.

The full carbon fiber sole, visible through some spots of the beefy rubber tread and the Mud Stud ports, is very stiff. Not stiff like your new bike that climbs like a rocket and descends on rails. These are stiff like trying to break two-by-fours with a wiffle-ball bat. My Shimano shoes were stiffer than your average walking shoe, but these are almost hard to walk in. They make my pedaling more efficient, I feel a little more powerful on the road, but jogging up and down stairs at school and BART has taken some getting used to.

Lakes are somewhat notorious for needing sole repair after some use. Time will tell, but mine will receive light use compared to what these were designed for so I don’t anticipate any quality issues anytime soon.

Verdict: wow. And they are red. Red!