Where I live fire roads that lead to sublime hidden trail stashes can be punishingly, unrideably steep or rocky or both. There are also lots of little footpaths and game trails snaking up to incredible overlooks that I like to hike up for a lunchtime view. One of the most fun bike days round these parts is to ride my gravel bike with a small fly rod strapped on, park the bike at the base of a redwood, then hike down to cast flies to aggressive little smallmouth bass sheltering next to the trunks of long-sunken pines and oaks.
So I’m either off and on the bike a lot, or banging my feet and pedals into rocks on narrow trails, or simply hiking around. The best shoe would be something of a flat mtb shoe mixed with a hiking boot. That’s basically what the Five Ten Trail Cross Pro Mids (phew, shoes have the longest names) are. And they’ve become my go-to for any riding I deem remotely “adventurous.”
The neoprene cuff might look a little futureama to some, but I dig it. More importantly, I dig that it keeps dirt and pebbles out of the shoes, something that I can’t say about the low-cut shoes I rode with in the past. It also adds a nice layer of ankle protection when traipsing through sharp brush.
Five Ten’s Stealth rubber compound is still the best performing flat pedal sole I’ve used, and that doesn’t change here. These puppies grip and grip and grip. Bonus — they’re great on rock too. You could use these as dedicated scramble shoes and they’d go just fine. Though if you ride with agressive pins on your pedals, they will eat into the soft rubber circles. But that’s not new to these shoes, all Five Tens with the Stealth soles suffer from wear and tear from sharp pins.
The shoes are also super comfy and supportive. Usually, I kick my bike shoes off and transition right into something else to go for a post-ride beer or something, but these feel great on pavement too. They’d make really good bikepacking shoes and be something you could walk around in on forays into town if you’re doing a bike touring trip.
They also make a low-top version and a clipless low-top version. The clipless I’ve also tried and they have many of the same attributes in terms of comfort as the mids, but I’m fazing out clipless riding in general so I haven’t put the time in on those.
The mids are on sale in a few places, so they’re probably discontinued. Get ’em while you can.
