I’ve got a wiggle voucher burning a hole in my pocket and a need for some better fitting XC/gravel-ish shoes.

I’m looking at stuff in the sub £100 range, decided I don’t want laces in these shoes, stiffer soles would be nice but might be a bit of an ask…

The thing I’m noticing is that if tha manufacturers pop a dial and some fishing line on the same shoe they can near enough double the asking price Vs the same thing with Velcro straps.

I’ve always gotten on well with straps, never tried a Bia shoe before, but can appreciate it might be a benefit. So is it worth the extra or not?

My current shoes are Boa, and I like it, but not enough to justify double the price – just turned out that the nicest and best fitting shoes I tried on were Boa.

Nope.

I’ve ended up with 3 pairs of boa shoes one with laces and one with Velcro.

It makes no difference to the ride at all. Not better or worse. The shoes stay shut. The laced shoes are 5 years old. The velcro shoes are Shimano winter boots, they are over 12 years old.

I don’t race or have my shoes mega tight, you might have a different experience

Yes. I don’t wear my velcro shoes and bought another pair of boa.

Free replacements for life too.

The thing I’m noticing is that if tha manufacturers pop a dial and some fishing line on the same shoe they can near enough double the asking price Vs the same thing with Velcro straps.

Normally it’s not *just* boa, you get stiffer soles / better materials too.

For me, boa works better. Easier to get shoes as tight as I want them, and easier to adjust whilst riding. Much easier to deal with than laces or velcro if you’re constantly riding through slop, too.

For me it’s all about the sole but no one seems to do the best sole with cheaper uppers anymore so my more recent shoes have been boa ones.

This is the thing, the shoes I’ve had with Velcro have all been fine, the ones with laces a bit hit and miss but that’s more to do with the shoes than the closure method.

I just find myself wondering if it’s worth a wee bit more for a Boa if the shoes themselves aren’t that much different from the velcro equivalents, i.e. made on the same last, similar uppers, same soles…

Normally it’s not *just* boa, you get stiffer soles / better materials too.

Dunno about that, as an example Giro currently do the ‘Ranger’ and the ‘Rincon’ looks to be the same shoe, one with straps the other with a Boa…

Ive got the Shimano am5 ones with a boa, they are a bit of a ballache to get on. Then they often need a tighten mid ride. Look nice but I would prob not rush back to boa.

I won a pair of CrankBro Stamps with BOAs. If, like me, you hate tying and untying laces, then they are very nice bonus. They also stop you stamping (intended) your shoes off, potentially making them last longer. If 5.10 made a Freerider Pro with BOA I would pay more for them, but probably not the extra £100 they would no doubt be!

My experience is that boas are good for getting the shoes just the right tightness for not feeling loose on the foot and not cutting off circulation.

I find occasionally you may have to nip the shoes back up join a ride with BOA but it’s no hardship to do.

Well I’ve taken a flier on some Gaerne Lasers because they had the stiffest claimed sole and half sizes available under £100. I reckon I’ll give them a whirl as they’ll only going to cost me a tenner with the voucher… Stiffness wins over a Boa it seems..

You’ll never know….

My Shimano Me5 have a single Boa and they’re a pain to get on, feels like it doesn’t open enough. My Shimano road shoes have twin Boa and they are excellent. Once on both shoes are comfy

You’ll never know….

Well not for now at least.

It’s worth noting that there are different Boa, the ones on my XC7 shoes = twist to tighten & pop to full release and then retighten to slacken off. The higher end one is twist turn to tighten or slacken off.

All other thing being equal*, I’d rather have laces I think. Boas are fine but not groundbreaking and my Northwave boas can get jammed with Peak District grit.

My Shimanos with wire pull laces but no boa (not sure what the technical name is for this system) seem like the best overall solution.

*as above, they rarely are.

Boa are very nice for ease of use. Ie you can adjust as you ride without getting off the bike

At sun £100 I would be more concerned about the fit/weight construction of the shoe rather than BOA

For me BOA is something that finished off a pair of nice good quality shoes, not something that makes nice quality shoes

I’m pretty certain I’ve seen more Boas fail from crashes etc. than any other system, delicate and prominent on the outside upper of the shoe. My buddy lost a shoe in a first lap CX melee and didn’t WvA lose his in a crash in a recent race?

That being said, I’ve ended up with them on my Northwave winter boots. No complaints so far and probably a much better idea for a winter boot where velcro and laces would inevitably end up underneath an overshoe.

Velcro works well when new but started to slip after time. Laces are a pain to adjust unless you get off the bike.
Just bought some shoes with dual boa. Not worn on the bike yet but they seem to work well.

I thought it was a decent idea but found out that in the years since Puma Disk nothing new has been brought to the party.

We were using it a lot at work when the Seivi Boa boots became FOTM but they failed with amazing consistency (a few months at best) leaving you with a boot that couldn’t be used at all. I certainly wouldn’t be rushing out to buy them and certainly not at a premium, free replacement or not (I’d be interested to see their accidental damage policy).

Had them on my Lake MZ303’s since 2014, never had a failure, I really like the system. So would buy a pair of boa equipped shoes over another non-boa set, but how much would I pay extra…
IME velco stops working, so I don’t count it as reliable long term, laces would be better.

I like them, have on my MTB and road shoes but only as they happened to come with the model that was on sale.

Thought they would gum up in winter but never missed a beat, maybe 5 years old on the MTB shoes.

Have ripped one off after a crash, was easy to replace.

I’d go for them again if similar price but likely not pay over the velcro version.

For road/gravel, I’ve not used all velcro for well over 10 years. Just not secure enough over any distance, and only cheap shoes run this system these days.

So the question is BOA vs ratchet, and for me both work fine. Ratchet are slightly easier to use so better for day-to-day shoes, whereas BOA are slightly more aero/sleek/don’t stick out as much, and maybe hold the foot a bit more evenly…

Reliability is no different for me. I’ve not had either fail in normal use.

Giro Cylinder are pretty good sub-£100 gravel/road shoes

If 5.10 made a Freerider Pro with BOA I would pay more for them

me too

An interesting spread of opinions, I’m sure I’ll end up owning some Boa shoes at some point, but nobody’s really sold it to me over and above any other closure method.

I will say I’ve also never experienced the failure of velcro straps that some of you apparently have. Perhaps I’m unusual in that(?)

Fundamentally though this sums up as my thought process:

At sub £100 I would be more concerned about the fit/weight construction of the shoe rather than BOA

For me a BOA is something that finished off a pair of nice good quality shoes, not something that makes nice quality shoes

I think ultimately I will need to spend a bit more in the longer term, but for some basic XC/Gravelish shoes to get me through this coming summer (I do have other pairs) ten quid is pretty reasonable and I don’t think I’d be getting much more of value if I spent another £50, I think I’d really have to be throwing another ~£80-150 at footwear to get a genuinely “good” shoe…

I still wish Altra would make an XC SPD shoe. Even better with BOA.

I’ve had them split on 3 different pairs of road shoes, the plastic base plate cracked just where it’s stictched into the shoe upper.

It’s possibly me just doing them up gorilla tight, I’ve ordered my 4th pair of Fizik this morning and promise to treat them nicer or I’m switching over to laces.

https://www.boafit.com/en-gb/support/warranty

BOA offer free warranty repair kits if (like me) you ever mangle a dial on a rock

I have some shoes with Boa and some with NorthWaves own variant, which I actually prefer.

I’ve got two pairs of Gaerne Lasers and love them – I have issues with hard points created by ratchet systems which just isn’t a problem with simple comfy velcro.

Eldest lad gets on OK with boas. Youngest had some very fancy (but thankfully cheap in PX sale) carbon Lake shoes with boa dial on the back of the heel. They were awful and broke / frayed / jammed up really quickly due to the stupidly long and convoluted cable routing.

Lake mx180 here for about 7 years, they usually need a new lace once a year – they send you a full kit out though. This shoe is hard to get on unless you make the laces really long which means they get tangled in the mechanism.

I’d agree that twin boa is better than a single.

Always been happy with lace up but broke the worn heel cup on very well used shimano and lbs has bontrager shoes with a boa ok could live with or without dislike the roadie look like that can pop boa and flip shoe straight off…though believe boas aren’t all equal as pointed out earlier in thread