How stout are they, warm, dry? No budget for winter boots I am afraid and will be wearing merino sealskinz with them and shaman am31s

Been using them for a couple of years and I think they are good value for money, I had no budget for winter boots either and these did the trick…almost. Downsides, 2 spring to mind, it may seem obvious, but they are not meant for walking in, so if you jump off to walk a hill on hard ground particularly, the stitching will suffer underneath, second, as there are gaps for heels and cleats they were COLD when putting your foot down in snow, probably the cleat conducting cold though. That said, buy a pair, I’ll buy another pair when these finally fall apart.

Idea regarding Cleat is to fill gaps with silicon and cover Cleat plates with duct tape

Zip went on mine, replaced under warranty, no problem. As above, try not to walk anywhere in them or you’ll trash the bottom, also they’re quite wide and can rub annoyingly on the crank arm as you pedal. I’d be more impressed if the zip hadn’t bust. I’d assume that you’d get just one winter out of them in the Peak, but if you’re okay with that, they work fine and definitely a lot better than summer shoes or boots or those gawdawful Sealskinz things.

1. They’re not waterproof
2. I wore them with shorts (not a problem for winter only duties) and the badly finished zip rubbed a hole in the back of my leg. Ow.
3. The toe box not stretchy and is a bad fit on my shoes

I would recommend BBB Ultraflex
Clicky
I get 2 winters out of these before the rubber at the toe wears through. No heal material to stand on when walking, which might make them a bit more durable than mt500.

I love mine. Would make the same comments as rich but would add that mine are water resistant. No budget for waterproof boots but these ate a worthy substitute

Used ’em all last winter and they were toasty. Not totally waterproof buy goon enough for 95% of rides to end with dry feet. As it happens had them on this evening for first time this year, and if anything was a bit too warm…

Overshoes are warm (not waterproof) and work better than Shimano GTX Hiking boots / ‘original’ shimano winter boots (mw80 predecessors) and generally warmer than sealskinz.

The downsides are that the toes peel off after walking around and they can suffer after walking around, therefore cheaper is better (think neoprene)as they’ll only wear out.

I’d go for insulating material (i.e. Neoprene) as opposed to waterproof. I don’t think waterproof shoes really do that much riding through puddles and rain all the time

The ‘solid black’ neoprene jobbies do look odd, but then these things are all relative – to all normal people we look odd, but fashions in cycling mean the ‘trendy’ look just makes us look less odd than others. I imagine the MT 500’s probably look less like ‘Lego boots’ than neoprene ones.

I can’t afford new winter boots ATM, I’m going to try and get by on just ‘thermal’ sealskinz and overshoes.

In a nutshell – if you can live with the looks, I’d recommend bog standard neoprene. I may well get a set of those BBB’s though