Are Mountain Bike Shoes Worth The Money?

When it comes to mountain biking, there should really only be about three points of contact between you and your bike, your hands, your butt, and your feet, of course. It's the latter that I want to focus on today. Mountain bike footwear can be an absolute minefield. What kind of shoe do I need? What's the right discipline? Of course, are they worth it? Well, today, we're going to find out. Before we crack on then, I want to say that you can ride your bike in pretty much any footwear, almost. As long as you're getting out there, having some fun, enjoying riding, it doesn't really matter. Let's just say some footwear is going to be a bit safer, last a bit longer, and give you better grip and be more fit for purpose than others. Let's start off with something inappropriate, to the back cave. Welcome to the secret lair. We're going to kick things off with an entirely inappropriate riding footwear. It is, of course, Crocs. We all know I'm a bit of a fan of Crocs. I even made a clip-less Croc look. Yes, it didn't exactly go to plan. Let's just face it, an entirely rubber made shoe with holes in it and no real straps is going to be not very good at riding. I even learned that the hard way. Check out my double foot blowout. Oh, my feet blew off the pedals. Yes, it didn't exactly go to plan. I would say that this is not ideal. As much as I hate to say that, it's not. Where do we go from there? If you're new to mountain biking then, well, you're probably not going to splash the cash straight away. You're going to ride in whatever shoes you like until you know you love mountain biking. Spoiler alert, you are going to love it because it's amazing, but it does mean that you might start along the lines of something like this, just some trainers you've got knocking around. If you are going to ride in whatever trainers you've got or you're going to go down the old middle aisle, get some specials like these little beauties. These were $11.99. Do you know what? They will do the job. You can, like I said, ride in any shoes you've got, but there are going to be some pitfalls to cheaper trainers that aren't mountain bike specific like these. On a cheap shoe like this, you're going to find that they've got a very flimsy sole. The upper material is going to have minimal or no padding whatsoever and be made of something very thin. There'll be no heel or toe protection or reinforcement from stubbing and there's going to be a sole that's not all that grippy and won't handle the metal pins very well. On from a very non-specific mountain bike shoe like this, we're going to move on to something that we probably have all ridden in at some point. It's a skate-style shoe like these. These are a definite upgrade. They're still not a mountain bike-specific shoe, but they are going to definitely give some performance enhancements over the previous things we looked at. With a shoe like this, you'll still find that there'll be a lot of flex in the sole. However, improved grip here. You'll notice these rather famous waffle sole pattern, if you know on that. This is going to help the sole lock in with the pins, but with that flexibility, it's going to give you less support for your foot. On longer rides, you might get a bit more discomfort. With a skate-style shoe like that costing around $44.99, we can actually start looking at mountain bike-specific shoes here. Shoes that are going to be in men's and women's specific designs. They'll be higher on the inside of the cuff designed to protect your ankle, sturdier around the toes, and mountain bike-orientated insoles to give you more comfort on the longer rides. For this kind of price point then, you are now starting to look at mountain bike-specific shoes. That does mean you might be starting to venture into the world of clipless, clippy, SPD, whatever you want to call them, but what exactly are they? What is clipless, clipped, clippy, clips, SPD? It all means the same thing. It's essentially attaching your pedals and your shoes via a metal mechanism. Sounds ropey, but it's not too bad. Obviously, there are some drawbacks and some advantages over flats, where essentially it's just the flat of your shoe against the flat of a pedal, and it's the rubber sticking to the pins, if you like. Why is clipless potentially better and or worse? A clippy pedal system is going to give you slightly more security. When the ground and the riding gets really rough, that sort of security of being attached to the pedal, if you like, means that your feet aren't going to bounce and jiggle about as much. However, on the flip side of that, it can be a bit ropey. If you do get wild, you've got to remember to unclip. That, in fact, is a thing in itself. You've got to learn how to clip into clippy pedals, how to get in and back out just with twist of an ankle. The sole on a clippy shoe is going to be a lot stiffer. Imagine when you're clipped in here, you don't want your foot to be flexing loads. Unlike a flat shoe where you want it to mold around the pedal as such, you do want a certain degree of stiffness on a clippy shoe. Because of this, you're going to find it in a lot more racing scenarios. XC riders, roadie riders, they love to use them, and do you know what? Downhillers and enduro racers will as well. If you're wondering why I've suddenly started talking about what a clipless system is and why, well, it's because a clippy shoe generally tends to be a little bit more expensive than a flat shoe. Obviously, it is properly mountain bike-specific. With that then, it's back to the pain cave. That's what a clippy, clipless, SPD shoe, call it what you will, is. Now, we're moving into the price point where we are at thoroughly mountain bike-specific performance shoes. What do you actually get for your money? What's involved in those shoes? What kind of shoes should you go for? Are they worth the investment, more importantly? Here to my left, then, I've got three very different shoes for very different disciplines. Of course, at the channel, we're sponsored by Shimano, so I've got three great examples from them. We've got the XC7s, we've got the GE9, and we've, of course, got the GF8 GTXs, cross-country, enduro, call it what you will, and a flat pedal winter shoe there as well. What sets them apart and what do you get for your money? The cross-country shoe, lightweight, minimalistic, and packed full of features for efficiency and speed. An XC-style shoe, don't worry, is available in a wide range of prices. For example, Shimano make the XC3, the 5, the 7, and their top-end 9. As much stiffening soles as you go through the range, a low stack height midsole helps stabilize your foot whilst maximizing power transfer and efficiency. Lower models will have Velcro fastening systems, while more top-end models might have what you can see here, this BOA system, which is essentially these wires that run across the shoe and are tightened up via this winder. Two BOAs on here show that you can tighten up each part of the shoe independently. There'll also be a rubber XC racing pattern outsole which promotes stable pedal engagement and secure walking grip. Third on our list then is a flat pedal shoe, and it's this one here as modeled by my cat perfectly. Milo, what do we think? This is the Shimano GF8 GTX, and this is a top-flight flat shoe for the winter, but what sets it apart and why? Now, this shoe, Milo, is pretty special. It's got the BOA system. What do we think? A shoe like this is optimized for flat pedal winter riding. You can see here again the BOA style system tightening that wire up across the top of the shoe, also protected by an additional flap. These shoes also have a Gore-Tex style sock liner with a tighter cuff to keep the elements out and keep your feet nice and warm. The rubber compound is actually designed so it's nice and soft in the winter rather than just the summer. Imagine how grippy these could be if you were to wear them in hotter weather. Something like this, this is the Shimano GF6. This is a very much summer-orientated sort of normal-looking flat shoe. In fact, you'd be thinking that could be just a normal skate style shoe or a shoe you could wear around normally, but it is exceedingly mountain bike-specific with features such as Shimano's Ultrad GF rubber compound, giving you great pedal grip and control when flat pedal riding, Torval 2.0 torsional plate, again, improving that outer edge flexibility, a spongy layer of EVA foam to help absorb impacts but still maintain that sort of downhill stability and flexibility, a robust toe cap for additional toe protection, and of course, look, it's much simpler, just good old-fashioned laces. No BOA system here, just keep things nice and simple. Are mountain bike-specific shoes worth the money? Well, I think the short answer here is yes. Whilst I said at the beginning of the video, you can ride in virtually any shoe. A mountain bike-specific shoe is going to last longer, it's going to have more specific features to it which are going to aid your riding, things like proper rubber compounds for better grip, BOA systems so that your shoe encloses nicely, Velcro laces on certain types, an XC shoe is going to be nice and stiff for power transfer, all of these things can add up. Don't forget, people like Cade Edwards and Chaos Seagrave, well, they'll shred in just a pair of skate shoes, so it can be done. However, the middle aisle shoes, the Crocs, I'd probably leave them at home if you can, but let me know what you think in the comments down below. Are mountain bike-specific shoes worth the money? Do you own mountain bike-specific shoes or do you ride in something a bit different altogether? Should I make a Clipless Croc part two? You know where to let me know. Thanks for watching, everyone, and I'll catch you next time.