Twice in the past year and a half, my road shoes with a single Boa disconnected from the shoe itself. The Boa remained functional but shoes were ultimately unusable. This was from different manufacturers, Lake and Fizik, on their mid-range models.
I am now looking for replacement road shoes and find most available remain with single Boa, even on the higher-level, higher-priced shoes. Is this a common thing? Should I try to find a suitable shoe with Boa/Strap combo, 2 Boas to spread out the pressure areas, or even laces? Or have I just been unlucky and single Boas are a viable option on better higher-priced models?
I hear ya. My very first pair of boa shoes year ago (Mavik I think) had the boa come unraveled in a ride and I was miles from anywhere feeling completely screwed. āWho would use this instead of laces or velcro?ā I asked the store as I returned them grumpily. The sales rep thought I was crazy for distrusting this new fangled technology, and I thought people would be crazy to ever risk a long ride on them.
Been using Shimano road shoes for years without any issue with the BOA dials - the S-Phyreās are top notch. And their TR9 is also excellent with the BOA dial for the front of the foot and velcro for top.
If youāre looking for a road (not tri) cycling shoe and transition times arenāt important, you could go with laces and do away with BOAs entirely. I noticed that Pogacar has laces, and figure he/team may know a thing or two about gear.
This shoe fits my foot better than just about any other shoe I have tried, but I had to give up on them. I snapped the wires too many times though the owner (I forget his handle on here) graciously sent new ones at no charge every time. The biggest issue is that sweat corrosion eventually made the system unusable as I could not turn the tighten/loosen mechanism at all. Now I have a useless pair of these just laying around with broken straps that I canāt fix.
I think you were really unlucky. Iāve got 40,000km + on boa shoes now, some original S-works and S-phyre 901s. In both cases after many years then I did get some wear on the cables and so went through the very easy process to get the free maintenence/replacement kit sent and was an easy swap. First time they sent me double repair kit for the S-works as post to NZ isnāt the fastest so they wanted me to have a backup, noting the request was pre-emptive as it was just the cable that showed wear. By chance then at the weekend I noticed that the little plastic guide that sticks out on the LI2 base was broken on one of the 4 dials. But it turns out thatās replaceable and so is sitting in customs now and should have by the weekend.
Easier and way less frequent than swapping the cleats and about the same as laces in my everyday boots I wear for work. And I use the tension āadjustā whilst out on rides a lot - love being able to change the tension as my feet warm up in long rides/races. Makes the last hour of the IM slightly less horrible.
Iāve had a ratchet fail on a pair of MTB shoes that rendered the whole shoe useless and not reparable/covered by warranty.
Can you elaborate how you snapped the wires? Too tight? Shoe scraping the ground on dismount getting damaged?
I have a pair of these and basically only use them in races, and Iāve got 2 races under my belt with no issues. Donāt want any surprises. That would suck.
Please help me understand how this is happening. I have had three pairs of cycling shoes with BOAs that I have ridden thousands of times. I have never had any issue whatsoever. On my current shoes which are probably approaching 10 years old the BOAs are getting a little tight (like they needed oiled or something) but they still work just fine. I have never had any of the problems expressed in this thread. Iām trying to understand how these problems are happening.
I think I might have a tall foot. I have absolutely no idea how Iād go about determining if I do or not, but thatās my assumption. The wires always snap when Iām trying to slide my foot in while the back clasp is in the down/loose position. Iād give that back locking mechanism a good rinse after races. If that wasnāt totally ruined Iād be fine swapping the wires every few months.
In my situation, the BOA itself remained fully functional but it tore away from the shoe itself. Hereās a photo of my Fizik shoe where this happened and similar thing happened on my previous Lake shoes.This was under normal use - no accident or mishandling of the shoe whatsoever. Fizik did reimburse the purchase price under warranty so great customer service and kudos to them. Lake had 1-year warranty and this happened after 14 months so they only offered a 10 percent discount off a replacement.
I was looking at Shimano S-Phyre 903ās but looks like the newer models are now 2 Boas. The other one I checked was a Sidi but they use a different type of dial system called Dyneema Dial. So yeah, probably go with 2 Boas to hopefully avoid this going forward.
I purchased my first pair of boa shoes a few weeks ago. Frustrated with trying to find the right ratchet position after each ride, I started slipping shoes off/on to keep the position consistent. Never would have guessed that the boa might just be glued on.
It takes a little while to get used to them (and for them to stretch/mold to your feet).
But then you get used to getting the tension fairly consistent when you put them on, and of course the ease to adjust the tension as you are riding. Only time thatās tricky is of course if you have shoe covers over them, but I can even do the top boa on the Sworks or S-Phyre through the cover - after about 10mins a couple extra clicks and itās sorted for most of the ride.
Yikes! Iāve never had that problem. I did have my first BOA failure (frayed cable) the other day on my Silca seat bag, but never the attachment point. Iāve had Pearl Izumi and Fizik dual BOAās and they were only replaced because there was a sale, fabric and sole all seemed good as new.
For dedicated road use* - Iāve been a laces convert since the original Giro Empires came out a number of years ago. Iāve now moved over to the Specialized Lace 7ās (2 years and still in great shape). I moved to the Specialized from the Giros as I felt I needed a wider shoe - and they have been awesome in this regard!
*But with some mods, I know there are some Triathletes who will use the lace up shoes - the simplest hack is just putting elastic laces in them!
Hereās a review of the TR9 vs Fizik Aeroweave Tri. The Shimano actually has a single BOA but a velcro strap as well. Interesting combination. The Fizik turned out to be the better of the two after lots of riding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDElmgG3dQg
