Shoes

I've waited for this a long time. My old shoes where getting really old and worn out. And I'd found new shoes I wanted. It started back in August when I wore the old pair to a wedding. Jon suggested Dromartis. Those look 'normal', better said luxurious, and are good for riding. I kept searching and asked on Facebook what other others liked. Mike suggested Bont. Yes, he's somewhat biased, he doesn't pay for his Bont shoes. He did point me in the direction of shoes that appeared to be made for me.

I promised myself that I would buy a pair when I'd found more work/income. In the meantime, I performed more research on the web, and kept coming back to MTB 2's from the Australian brand Bont. However, when the time came that I allowed myself to buy them, I found a pair of MTB 1's on E-Bay. In my size and never worn for a good price. My size 43 weigh 740gr a pair.

It took a few weeks for the shoes to arrive. I immediately tried them on and was glad to learn they fitted. Not exactly, but length and width wise, they where fine. Now came to clever part, you can heat mold Bonts. I placed them in the oven for 20 minutes at 70 degrees Celcius. The resin now became soft so that the carbon nicely curved around my slender feet. In these shoes, your feet are completely supported by carbon. That makes them very stiff and comfortable. They even prevent my ankles from leaning inwards, like a also do with ice skates. The heat mold was so effective, that after that procedure, I could strap the Velcro 2cm further than before.

On my first rides, something was poking in my heels, but that's sorted now. I did had to cut away a millimetre or so from the sole, just around the cleat area. That rubbed on the pedal and completely blocked any sideways movement. Now, 400km later, it's all dialled in. They pedal real nicely and support my feet and ankles really well. I recommend this product!

Their stiffness has the side effect that walking should be limited to short distances. There's enough of rubber (replaceable, just like the clicky thing) to stand on, but they make you walk like a duck. So when I ride to something like the Easter meeting, I'll carry a pair of sandals for the walking at the campsite.

There's no Dutch brick store retailer for these shoes, but it's possible to buy them online. It's up to you if you want to do that.