JayC
12-13-2007, 09:11 PM
Taken from my review on BikeForums.Net
About a year ago I posted a picture of the upcoming cycling shoes from Bont. For those of you that don't know who Bont is, they are one of the largest inline skate boot manufacturers in the world. The company is located in Australia and they have been one of the leaders in heat moldable technology for inline boots.
Ive been waiting impatiently for their shoes to hit the market. When I finally got an email from them stating they were available, I fired off an email to their North American rep and got a set on the way. I wanted to post some photos of them as well as my impressions on the shoes.
Here's some photos of the shoes. I ordered mine with the standard Look cleat configuration but you can order them blank and drill them for other cleat configurations. This would be really appealing to Speedplay users as it would let you get rid of the adapter and bolt the cleat right to the shoe and get you a much lower stack height.
http://www.trianglecycling.com/gallery/files/1/008.JPG
http://www.trianglecycling.com/gallery/files/1/009.JPG
http://www.trianglecycling.com/gallery/files/1/010.JPG
http://www.trianglecycling.com/gallery/files/1/011.JPG
For starters, the shoes are incredibly light. Mine are a size 9 which is about the equivalent of a Sidi size 46. My Sidis are 46s and seem to have about the same amount of toe box room. The Bont shoes weigh in at 250 grams each on the nose. My Sidi Ergo2s without cleats are 342 grams so there is about a 100 gram difference.
The shoes have an advertised stack height of 3.2mm which is less than the Sidis. I looked on Sidi's website looking for their stack height and the only thing I could find mentioned a 6mm stack height. I don't know if that is accurate or not for the Ergo2s. Either way, the Bont shoes get your foot really close to the pedal.
The shoes also have anti stretch tape sewn into them to keep the shoes from ever stretching. According to the diagrams I saw, there are two pieces of this tape in the upper part of the shoe. Apparently the stuff is similar to what seat belts are made from so it's pretty beefy from an anti-stretch standpoint. I guess that's a good and bad thing depending on if you need the shoe to stretch out a little. I know there's been some debate about Sidi's stretching and I personally think they do some but others don't.
The inside of the shoes are the same microfiber liner that Bont uses in their inline boots.
One of the first things I noticed when I took the shoes out of the box is that there is no pads for walking. I fired off an email to Alexander Bont about that and he told me that what they have done is embed a rubber pad underneath the final carbon layer when they do the layup on the base. After you walk in the shoes a couple of times on pavement, this layer of carbon wears away and the pads become exposed. I questioned him about the longevity of the pads and he said guys had been using the shoes for over a year in testing with no signs of the pads wearing out or even coming close to needing to be replaced. They're not replaceable, BTW but longevity doesnt seem to be an issue.
The last thing I wanted to touch on is the heat moldability. That is, by far, the most amazing aspect of these shoes. When I took these shoes out of the box, I couldn't even get my feet in them. I was really disappointed because I had sent Bont measurements of my feet for them to choose the last they were going to use to make them. I thought "No way they missed it by this far" so I decided I'd do a heat molding cycle on them and see if that made any difference. Heat molding is easy and mostly idiot proof. Heat the oven to 185 degrees, remove the insole from the shoe, stick the shoe in the oven. Wait 20 minutes, remove shoe. What I did was put on my thickest cycling socks (Woolie Bullies) and jam my foot into the shoe straight out of the oven. It was warm but not hot enough to burn me. I could feel the resin of the shoe stretch out when I put my foot in the shoe and I tightened the straps and buckle down and I could feel the shoe pull back to the shape of my foot. I stood up, waited a few minutes for the shoe to cool off and took it off. The shoes fit great after that. It was a painless procedure.
From a riding perspective, there isn't much to say. They're really stiff and give good support. The ventilation is better than I thought it was going to be but there are plenty of air holes (About 55) in the upper section of the shoe.
The shoes retail for $350.00 a pair. They can be had in full customs for another $150 where you do molding socks and send them in and they make casts from the socks and build your shoes around that. They also can make them off of tracings of your feet and I think that's an extra $50.00 but Im not 100% sure about that. They're available in red, blue, pink and yellow and black and white are forthcoming.
Anyways, if anyone is interested in the shoes, drop me a PM and Ill give you an overview on how to figure out what size you need. It's not quite as easy as buying a pair of regular shoes because Bont doesnt use a standard sizing scheme like all the other companies do.
About a year ago I posted a picture of the upcoming cycling shoes from Bont. For those of you that don't know who Bont is, they are one of the largest inline skate boot manufacturers in the world. The company is located in Australia and they have been one of the leaders in heat moldable technology for inline boots.
Ive been waiting impatiently for their shoes to hit the market. When I finally got an email from them stating they were available, I fired off an email to their North American rep and got a set on the way. I wanted to post some photos of them as well as my impressions on the shoes.
Here's some photos of the shoes. I ordered mine with the standard Look cleat configuration but you can order them blank and drill them for other cleat configurations. This would be really appealing to Speedplay users as it would let you get rid of the adapter and bolt the cleat right to the shoe and get you a much lower stack height.
http://www.trianglecycling.com/gallery/files/1/008.JPG
http://www.trianglecycling.com/gallery/files/1/009.JPG
http://www.trianglecycling.com/gallery/files/1/010.JPG
http://www.trianglecycling.com/gallery/files/1/011.JPG
For starters, the shoes are incredibly light. Mine are a size 9 which is about the equivalent of a Sidi size 46. My Sidis are 46s and seem to have about the same amount of toe box room. The Bont shoes weigh in at 250 grams each on the nose. My Sidi Ergo2s without cleats are 342 grams so there is about a 100 gram difference.
The shoes have an advertised stack height of 3.2mm which is less than the Sidis. I looked on Sidi's website looking for their stack height and the only thing I could find mentioned a 6mm stack height. I don't know if that is accurate or not for the Ergo2s. Either way, the Bont shoes get your foot really close to the pedal.
The shoes also have anti stretch tape sewn into them to keep the shoes from ever stretching. According to the diagrams I saw, there are two pieces of this tape in the upper part of the shoe. Apparently the stuff is similar to what seat belts are made from so it's pretty beefy from an anti-stretch standpoint. I guess that's a good and bad thing depending on if you need the shoe to stretch out a little. I know there's been some debate about Sidi's stretching and I personally think they do some but others don't.
The inside of the shoes are the same microfiber liner that Bont uses in their inline boots.
One of the first things I noticed when I took the shoes out of the box is that there is no pads for walking. I fired off an email to Alexander Bont about that and he told me that what they have done is embed a rubber pad underneath the final carbon layer when they do the layup on the base. After you walk in the shoes a couple of times on pavement, this layer of carbon wears away and the pads become exposed. I questioned him about the longevity of the pads and he said guys had been using the shoes for over a year in testing with no signs of the pads wearing out or even coming close to needing to be replaced. They're not replaceable, BTW but longevity doesnt seem to be an issue.
The last thing I wanted to touch on is the heat moldability. That is, by far, the most amazing aspect of these shoes. When I took these shoes out of the box, I couldn't even get my feet in them. I was really disappointed because I had sent Bont measurements of my feet for them to choose the last they were going to use to make them. I thought "No way they missed it by this far" so I decided I'd do a heat molding cycle on them and see if that made any difference. Heat molding is easy and mostly idiot proof. Heat the oven to 185 degrees, remove the insole from the shoe, stick the shoe in the oven. Wait 20 minutes, remove shoe. What I did was put on my thickest cycling socks (Woolie Bullies) and jam my foot into the shoe straight out of the oven. It was warm but not hot enough to burn me. I could feel the resin of the shoe stretch out when I put my foot in the shoe and I tightened the straps and buckle down and I could feel the shoe pull back to the shape of my foot. I stood up, waited a few minutes for the shoe to cool off and took it off. The shoes fit great after that. It was a painless procedure.
From a riding perspective, there isn't much to say. They're really stiff and give good support. The ventilation is better than I thought it was going to be but there are plenty of air holes (About 55) in the upper section of the shoe.
The shoes retail for $350.00 a pair. They can be had in full customs for another $150 where you do molding socks and send them in and they make casts from the socks and build your shoes around that. They also can make them off of tracings of your feet and I think that's an extra $50.00 but Im not 100% sure about that. They're available in red, blue, pink and yellow and black and white are forthcoming.
Anyways, if anyone is interested in the shoes, drop me a PM and Ill give you an overview on how to figure out what size you need. It's not quite as easy as buying a pair of regular shoes because Bont doesnt use a standard sizing scheme like all the other companies do.