Evening

I’m slowly joining the 21st century with my cycling clobber. Has anyone had problems with the ratchets on mtb shoes? My ideal ride is 8 hours around the middle of nowhere so if they’re prone to seizing/clogging/falling apart please tell me now and I’ll stick with good old velcro.

Cheers!
TS

Recently I’ve been colecting the occasional plant stalk in the ratchet. The first time it was a problem as I didn’t know why it wouldn’t release. Now I know, it’s not a problem. SIDIs BTW. Road shoes going strong 10yrs+, mountain 3yrs+.

Ratchets are ace.

Always used just Velcro here. Hard to smash

plastic ratchet teeth starting to slip ware out, pain to release when cacked up, going back to velcro for the next pair 😉

Interesting, my specialized ones which I use for road and mountain are still going very strong after 1.5 – 2 years, but the velcro no longer sticks. So the ratchet seems more reliable then velcro.

Got some on a pair of spesh shoes. They can be difficult to get to engage, and mud can bung up the release cam.

I prefer laces and velcro.

Cheers folks, I’ll stick with velcro. My current shoes are 6 years old. The velcro is still going strong but the soles are now falling off. Still, I think I’ve had fair use out of them 🙂

My rachet ones are specialized, best shoes I have used for comfort mind, but the rachets started to slip just after a years use & the replacments rachets are now on the way out too.

My old velcro specialized must have lasted 6 years before they broke apart.

Comfort is more important for me.

not has a single problem with shimano ratchet.

got 5 or 6 year old shimano m101s , the only blue and silver ones below the carbon soled ones …. the ratchet is the least of my worriess.

no problems with ratchets on any of my shimano shoes !

Just about everything on Sidi shoes are replaceable, but I’ve had no problems so far, so I’ve yet to need replacements.

My ratchets have been good so far. I think you can buy replacements if you are worried about breaking in the wilderness.

i was sceptical whe i bought a pair of nike shoes 5 years ago but not had a bean of trouble with them, i’d definitely have another pair of rachet shoes, wish my shimano winter boots were rachet too to be honest rather than velcro. my experience of Velcro isn’t great after mud has been ground into it.

Best pair of biking shoes I’ve owned are some Nike cross-pull ratchet things. Pure dead brilliant man.