I\u2019ve been riding for my entire life. Started with BMX, freestyle, and then mountain\nbikes. I\u2019ve always considered shoes to be an important part of the connection\nto the bike, just as important as gloves, grips or pedals. Van\u2019s or Airwalk\nwhen I was riding flats on BMX\/freestyle, and SPDs when I started mountain biking. My brother got me into clipless (still a stupid\nterm for them) pedals and shoes when I started mountain biking in \u201993 and had\nbeen riding them ever since. That was up\nuntil I got my new bike. I noticed I was\npicking up some bad habits with clipless and I wanted to make a change and\nstart fresh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My first set of shoes was a throwback to my BMX days,\nVans. It turned out to be a good\nbenchmark for anything else. They still\nfelt good on flat pedals and never lost that familiar feeling. The pedals I\u2019m running are Race Face Atlas.\nThe pegs are aggressive. After about 500 miles, the Vans needed replacing. So,\nthe hunt for new shoes was on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everywhere I went I kept hearing about this 510 brand. People love them. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about so purchased a pair of the Freerider shoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first thing I noticed about the 510 Freerider, right out of the box, they look pretty sharp. The pair I purchased were all black with some very subtle bronze or gold-ish eyelets. Very nice, indeed. The very next thing I noticed was the hardness of the sole. It was very close to my clipless shoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Initial build quality: The craftmanship ranks high. I don\u2019t see the usual loose or stray stitch\nend, or missed seam. No sloppy glue lines either. Placement of material panels was symmetrical between\nleft and right shoes. Everything looked well put together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Durability: I now\nhave just as many miles on these shoes as I had on the Vans. Aside from the dirt, the 510\u2019s look and feel\nlike they were purchased yesterday. The thick hard sole of the shoe shows almost\nno wear at all. Above all else, I find\nthe lack of wear on the sole to be most interesting. Where the soles of my Vans had been shredded,\nthe 510s didn\u2019t even have so much as a tear or cut. No broken laces. No missing\nor damaged eyelets. No pulled seams. Nothing loose or flapping around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Comfort: The 510s have a healthy amount of padding around\nthe ankle and the tongue. In fact, the\nmain side panels seemed soft. I\u2019m not saying\nthese were slipper-like\u2026 but they are very\ncomfortable. The stiffness of the sole does make walking feel like you\u2019re at\nthe office, but it\u2019s not bad. That being said, my feet are WAY LESS fatigued at\nthe end of each ride. They can get a little hot, but I can\u2019t say my feet are\ngetting extra sweaty. So\u2026?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Functionality: These things stick to the pedal! There\u2019s no micro-adjusting on the upstroke,\nyou\u2019re gonna have to pull up completely to disengage the grip on these bad boys.\nI did have one small issue, and this is probably just particular to myself and\nnot others. It was difficult for me to\nget a good feel of the bike under me with these stiff soles. That may not make any sense to anyone but me,\nbut I felt\u2026 disconnected. As though I\nneeded to feel every little movement and adjustment under me, but couldn\u2019t. Would I trade this off for the fatigue? NO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overall: The 510 Freerider is a FANTASTIC shoe. All those people you hear talk about how good the shoes are, they\u2019re not kidding. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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