Tech
Price: £54.99
From Where:
Chain Reaction Cycles (chainreactioncycles.com)
Tech Spec:
size EU 45 (about a UK 10, give or take)
Duration of Test: since
mid June 2011
For
those of you who don’t know, Shimano’s DX range is their BMX style race
products. Despite having ridden BMX for a number of years, I’ve never raced, so
I’m not really using these shoes for their specific purpose, but I have been
using them on my commuter bike now for a number of years, roughly 40 miles a
week pretty much every week since I bought them. I like to think this has put
them through their paces significantly. I have ridden clipless shoes before
(confusingly so named because the pedals don’t require “clips” or toe straps,
but we still refer to being “clipped in”), but rather than the ultra-masculine carbon
fibre silver race shoes I had before, I fancied something that looked a little
bit more like a shoe rather than something designed for a pixie dancing competition.
As you can probably tell from the above picture, these
have been through the ringer good and proper. My opening comment would be that white
was not a good choice when it comes to colour. Previous versions have been a
much more sensible dark grey, but at the time or release, the fashion was to
make race gear in white. Whilst this
looks great on dusty race tracks in Southern California, after their third
British winter, they’re looking a little tired to say the least.
Out
of the box the fit was great and the shoes required minimal breaking in. My
size 45’s were a perfect fit (I’m normally a size UK 10 in trainers). The shoes
come with a big Velcro flap over the front, securing the laces so they don’t
get sucked into the chain ring. The laces supplied with the shoes are waaay too
long, but that was easily solved by chopping them down and burning the ends
with a lighter. They lasted a pretty decent length of time as well; I only had
to replace them about a month ago. The cleats are decently recessed, making it
actually fairly straight forward to walk in them, handy if you’re just popping
out to the shop.
The edges
are significantly raised on the inside of the foot, providing coverage for your
ankle bone. The reason for this will not seem immediately obvious to all you
road types, but it’s to prevent you smashing your ankles on the edges of the
cranks when jumping etc. and for me it’s a welcome touch. The soles have lasted
extremely well, still showing most of their tread pattern, and the construction
is first rate, showing no signs of stitching or material failing at this moment
in time.
There
are a few well-placed vents on each shoe, and whilst I appreciate that for
racing this may come in handy, this has translated into having pretty wet feet
when the weather turns poor. That’s the only thing really letting the side down
here. Aside from that, for the money they’re pretty spot on.
Score: 8/10
To Sum Up: good
general purpose shoes, well thought out. Waterproofing would be nice as would a
colour other than white, but for fifty quid, you can’t have everything…
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