The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Pinkbike Editors' Favorite Clipless Shoes

Finding the right mountain bike equipment can sometimes be a long process since there are so many factors that go into choosing a product. That becomes even more personal when you narrow it down to the touchpoints on the bike due to physiological differences between riders.

There's a sea of clipless footwear out there and choosing the right pair is undoubtedly overwhelming. Not only are fit and function critical, but they’ll need to mesh well with your preferred pedal too. Is the shoe too narrow? Can the cleats move back far enough for my ideal foot position? How do the pedal pins interact with the sole of the shoe? These are all common questions you can’t always figure out at first glance.

I'm no shoe fashionista - more of an advocate for a product's functionality above all else - but if I counted up the pairs of bike shoes I've used in the past year, the number would be alarming. Thankfully, I’m not alone. Myself and the other tech editors here at Pinkbike get to sample excellent MTB footwear, and some we'd rather never step foot in again, so here’s a sample of what we’ve been loving so far.

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Over the past six months, I’ve used these with both Crankbrother Mallet DH pedals, as well as the Time Special 12. For the Mallets, I added the cleat spacer and wound the pins up with 3mm exposed. As for the positioning, there’s plenty of real estate to move the cleat well behind the ball of the foot - more than any clipless shoe I’ve tried in the past.

They’ve held up impeccably thanks to the one-piece TPU upper construction - even the lamination between the rubber sole and shank has remained fully attached. On my left forward foot, I’ve noticed that my left shoe tends to rub on the crank arm which usually wears the seam at the top of the cuff. Here, the inside of the Union shoe is slightly higher than the outside edge to avoid that problem but still allows for full dexterity. Another bonus is that the toe cap provides great protection against impacts. I’ve experienced times when the smooth finish glanced off rocks and roots, rather than hanging up. Impressively, the breathability isn’t compromised by the protection or durability either.

I want to clarify that these are performance shoes with a stiff sole and a deep heel cup that locks your foot in. That makes them supreme for control but that doesn't make them the best option for rides that involve hike-a-bikes. With that said, they’re not plastic disco slippers and the rubber sole grips well when you need them to, even in cold weather on slimy rocks.

I'd also love to see a light, knit gaiter around the opening to keep debris out, similar to what Five Ten and Fizik offer to take their performance up to a 10/10.

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The pair shown here is coming up on three years old, and the hard miles are starting to show. The toe box is scuffed up and peeling a little from countless rock encounters, and the stitching has come undone near the ankle on my right foot from rubbing against the crank (I ride left foot forward). Still, they've held up very well considering just how many hours I've worn them. At $200 they're not the cheapest, but I'd say the performance lives up to the price in this case.

Lately, I've been spending more time with the Fox Union shoes that Matt chose as his pick, but in a toe-to-toe battle I still prefer the Mallets. The Unions are stiffer, but the cuff at the front of the ankle is a little short, and I seem to always end up with pebbles in my shoes with them.

As for cleat positioning, my cleats are usually set in the middle / rear position, and on these shoes they ended up a little forward of what Crankbrothers indicates as the 'DH race zone'. The cleats shown are for Hope's Union TC pedals, which have also earned their place on my list of favorites.

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Admittedly, a big part of why I like these so much is how easy they are to get on and off. While I'm proud to say that I know how to tie my shoes, I try to avoid doing so when it comes to bike shoes. Laces are nice for dialing in fit, but speed laces like the ones featured on the ME7 feel like an evolution of the technology. Underneath that lace flap is a simple drawcord, which I adjusted once and have left closed ever since, partly due to the velcro wearing out on that flap with prior pairs I'd owned.

The plastic ratchet mechanism is the best fit-adjuster I've used on a shoe yet, and is far more durable than Boa dials. The Michelin lugged sole is grippy on roots, rocks, and pedals in the event of a mid-move dab. The soccer cleat-like lugs are excellent in steep hikes, which is pretty much the only time I find myself on a long walk in clipless shoes.

Cleat-wise, I adhere to the slam-slam method, which is where you slide them all the way to the bottom of the cleat channel, and all the way outboard, giving the narrowest q-factor (width between feet, essentially), and the most mid-foot pedal placement. This also makes setting up new cleats quite easy. I've recently switched over to Crank Brothers pedals, and find that the ME7 meshes perfectly with the Mallet E platform, with zero cleat spacers needed.

As these glorious shoes have been phased out of the Shimano master plan, I've acquired a new pair of the GE9 shoes, which are meant to be the closest replacement in the gravity shoe lineup. Stay tuned on my long-term thoughts on those.

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I did need to install another cleat spacer under the pre-installed cleats to get them to engage the Mallet DH pedals easily. This could be fixed by winding in the pedal pins, but since I run multiple sets of pedals, it was much easier to add the extra spacer. This approach also offers more grip when riding out a section clipped out. In these situations, the combination of the Mallet DH pedal and shoe allows me to crack on regardless, patiently waiting for a smooth section to calmly clip back in.

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After a while, though, it grew somewhat tedious, and I found out that cycling was indeed meant to be enjoyed. I got some very cool Five Ten Red Barons and called it day, forgetting about clipping in for a few years.


I came and went, but largely I could never really get a setup that I really enjoyed for clipless. That was until I found the sweet spot of the Crankbrothers interface, pointing my slammed-rearward cleats to my big toe and running the pins all the way in. It's a kind of coward's-clipless, because for me it's basically like riding flat pedals with a bit more security. I often think being clipped in is a bit like using Grammarly before sending an email. It doesn't make you a better rider, but actually smooths out your rough edges to make your actions at least barely comprehensible, and that's what I like about this current setup. It lets me move and feel free, and getting in and out is on par with placing my foot on a flat.

The Mallets aren't particularly stiff - and I love them for it. Also, the laces hide the fact that my feet are very narrow. Normally with straps or dials, it can mean I have a massive leftover velcro strap or a distorted twisted shoe. The Mallet Lace's look good, even with my Sideshow-Bob-shaped feet.

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Reviews and Tech Editors Choice