Last September I headed down to the Gold Coast for some racing, and a bit of a break. I bumped into somebody that I had met in Vancouver the previous year that is from Adelaide - small world, right! I was introduced to the RBC custom shoes and Simon Heading, who is a great photographer too. At that time I was really interested in stepping into something more custom than the "custom" Shimano shoes that are readily available. Unfortunately, they do not have North American distribution and I wasn't willing to part with a lot of money for a pair of shoes when I still had a lot of work to do on the bike.
That leads me to today. I was down at Pro City Racing (The Trek Store Victoria) and saw that they had a couple of samples of Bont Cycling shoes. I went and did a little research on them, their history, and ended up getting a pair of Bont Sub-8's just the other day. They also started in Australia, much with the same roots as the RBC shoes I saw when I was down at the Gold Coast. Very similar roots in custom skating, very similar look to the shoes.
The nice thing about these shoes is that they are extremely stiff (great power transfer) and fully heat mouldable at home by using a regular oven on low heat (140-160 *F). I had them all setup in about 20 minutes. Price-wise, they are very comparable to the top-of-the-line shoes that one would find from other companies.
I have only had a couple of easy rides on them but they are very comfortable, even though they lack the extra padding that most other shoes have. There is a long grab-loop thing on the heel to get the shoes on while on the bike. When looking at the shoes I thought that the big piece of rubber would get in the way and rub my achilles and lower leg....turns out it doesn't even come close to my leg and there are no issues. Bont Cycling also does fully custom shoes but for an off-the-shelf shoe, these are great as they are still fully mouldable at less than half the price. Go check them out!
6 comments:
why the new shoes? Didn't you just get the new shimano shoes this past year and refer to them as the most comfortable shoe you had ever worn?
Sweet though, jealous!
You're right, I did at the time! They are comfortable, the Bont ones are just surprisingly comfortable considering how little extra padding there is.
cool, I've never heard of them. Enjoy!
Whats next on the schedule?
Me neither until earlier this year. I think I saw something about them on slowtwitch. I don't have attachments to any brand of shoe so I'm eager to see what's out there.
Wasa next weekend and then a couple of other races within the next month or so.
wow maybe this post is pretty transparent. a small piece about training so you could do a cliche gear review in hopes that the company will see your post and want to sponsor you.
what a kiss ass.
Mike,
I was going to do a completely separate post about both training and the shoes, but being lazy in that sense, and having no obligation to do such a post, I put them together. I don't put up posts to please other people. Others actually might read my blog to get something out of it. I'm sorry that my excitement for having something new offends you so much that you feel the urge to be such an ignorant fool and post a snarky comment. Are people not allowed to be excited about things without people like you ruining it for them with asshole remarks?!?! Maybe go do something productive with your time!
I am not going to remove or otherwise modify my post and your comment is published so that others can see it. In the future please refrain from posting anything at all or just don't read my blog.
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