Ride Concepts Tallac Mid Clip Boa Review

There are now three versions of the well-received Ride Concepts Tallac shoe. A low-top lace-up that earned top honors with our test crew, a Boa version of that same shoe, and now this. A mid-rise, 3/4-high version with three straps pulled by a single Boa closure, featuring more padding and protection.

Comfort

We loved the original Tallac for its skate-shoe-like comfort and ample padding, and its malleable lace-up fit. While the Tallac Mid shares the same DNA and outsole, its height and single Boa closure give it a very different feel. The shoe feels massive compared to most bike shoes; the additional height protects your ankle, wrapping further up your Achilles tendon than anything we've worn in the past few years.

The additional protection gives your feet a fearless, almost indestructible feel. They don't feel like overkill, especially when ripping dh runs or shuttle laps, but they're certainly substantial. The reliance on a single Boa to close three straps doesn't allow for a very fine-tuned fit. You can simply make the shoe looser or tighter, and our testers would have appreciated a more nuanced closure system that allows for zonal tightening. In particular, getting the forefoot as snug as we wanted it resulted in the shoe's throat feeling too tight. Despite having a padded tongue, the upper strap sometimes felt like it was digging in to a spot much higher than most shoes reach.

Our fit issues were mostly apparent when we were doing some pedaling or had a climb to conquer. On days that we were riding lifts or cheating gravity, the shoes were near ideal, but their bulk, weight, and fit had us questioning our choices when we were left to do the work. A thicker pair of socks helped to tailor the fit, but those were less welcome on warm summer days and made our ankles feel exceptionally wide. The medial and lateral sides of the ankle feature D30 armor that offers protection with a side of bulk. You should expect this shoe to at least occasionally be contacting your crank arms.

The midsole uses EVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate), a synthetic polymer that excels at shock absorption. It's lighter than PU (polyurethane), but unlike PU, it compresses over time, which is less of a concern for a shoe that spends most of its life off the ground. This cushy material is covered with a D30-lined footbed and a robust rubber outsole. This all comes together to provide an exceptionally comfortable sole that isolates you from some of the chatter coming through your pedals.

A fully gusseted tongue and bonded Cordura upper give the shoe an encapsulated feel, almost like a miniature mountaineering boot. Cordura is used to help keep the shoe breathable, but the amount of padding and coverage make that less apparent, especially on warm days. The fit accommodates wide feet pretty well, with a roomy toe box and fairly low arch. Riders with narrower or lower volume feet may have a harder time dialing in the fit.

Traction and Walkability

Ride Concepts uses a ClipGrip outsole with hexagonal rubber and a scooped-out hexagon pattern on the toe and heel to give you more bite while hiking around a feature or running up a hillside. The outsole is burly, rugged, and perfectly suited for those times when you need more traction trailside.

While the sole itself feels fairly stiff, there is a bit of flex at the cleat mount. This allows you to have some toe flexion so you don't feel like you're walking in a wooden clog. Since there is so much support and padding around the heel cup and ankle, we never experienced any heel lift, as you often do with a stiff cycling shoe. The downside of all this heel and ankle padding was the pressure put on the medial side of the ankle while walking. A quick few steps here and there didn't cause any issues, but if we spent more than a few minutes off the bike, the D30 padding on the inside of the shoe started to dig into our ankle.

A 40 mm-long cleat box sits deep enough in the outsole that you don't really feel the cleat contact the ground. There is a fairly long tapered relief on either side of the cleat that is void of traction, but unless you're walking on gravel, you don't really notice it. That relief channel helps line the cleat up and facilitate easy engagement with your pedals. Overall, the shoe feels heavy-duty, durable, and up for most anything.

Power Transfer

Despite the hiking boot feel at times, the shoes convey an athletic feel on the pedals. Using a PowerDrive nylon shank through the sole, the shoe resists flexing over the top of your pedal and feels like it efficiently directs your weight and power to the pedal spindles. Since the shoe feels so robust and easy to walk in, we were somewhat surprised by its performance on the bike. There is very little discernible flex on the pedal, but it doesn't feel rigid or uncomfortable the way a carbon XC shoe can. This is likely due to the cushy midsole and insole with inlaid D30 padding. D30 has non-Newtonian properties, meaning it's soft to the touch, like a piece of foam, but a hard impact makes it quickly (and temporarily) harden. Using this material in the insole keeps the footbed soft and comfortable until you take that jump or experience a pedal strike.

The Tallac feels stiff enough to break out on race day; jumping into a sprint or all-out hustle for the next jump puts the power right where you want it. When we compared the shoes back-to-back with a few others, you could feel more cushion from the footbed and EVA midsole, but in no way did it feel like it was robbing power.

A stiff sole makes this shoe incredibly efficient and cramp-free for epic, all-day rides. While there's a little bit of mushiness when you're stamping on the pedals to sprint, that's completely normal for a trail-focused shoe.

The Tallac Mid Clip Boa is a really substantial shoe, and we didn't expect it to feel so efficient. Efforts to accelerate were rewarded, but we were less impressed with the shoe's climbing performance. We loved the feel of the low-top, lace-up Tallac, but the extra height felt unwelcome in pursuits that involved a bit more athleticism. In particular, the way the upper strap put pressure on the tongue, and thus the tops of our feet. Since the shoe uses a single Boa, we couldn't really alleviate the discomfort, but it wasn't hard to reach down with one hand to loosen it.

Weight

While every shoe comes with some compromises, the Tallac Mid leans heavily into protection and durability over weight savings. At 586 grams per shoe (without cleats), these are the heaviest shoes we've ever tested. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it may scare off riders looking for a more well-rounded shoe. The low-top version of this shoe saves almost 50 grams per foot, but more importantly, we found it more comfortable and versatile,

If you're charging the big lines and need protection for your feet, the extra weight of these shoes isn't likely a consideration at all. The safety additions to this shoe do, however, make it less versatile. These are the shoes we want to wear for A-line laps, but they have far less appeal as an everyday trail shoe.

Durability

Throughout our testing of mountain bike shoes over the years, Ride Concepts kicks have always stood out for their durability. The bonded uppers and TPU mud guards give this shoe a “best of the best” durability rating. The nature of our testing doesn't involve going easy on the gear, and these shoes were positively abused during several months of testing. We rode them in mud, rain, and snow, hiked stream beds, forded rivers, ping ponged them down rocky chutes, and tossed them in the back of the pickup for days on end.

We did experience some deformity around the “3D molded ankle” as the wet shoes dried in the sun. This doesn't feel so much like a Ride Concepts problem as it does a care-and-handling issue. Anyone who has ever had a shoe get wet and dry will find the fit has changed a bit when you put them back on. To prevent deformation, it's a good idea to pack the wet shoe with something dry like newspaper or cloth to help it maintain its shape and form.

Should You Buy the Ride Concepts Tallac Mid Clip Boa?

The Tallac Mid is an excellent gravity shoe, but the tradeoff of comfort and weight for protection should be a real consideration. Due to the fit and pressure we felt around the throat of this shoe, it isn't one we'd recommend buying without trying it on or from somewhere that doesn't offer free returns. The weight may be a non-issue for some riders, but you should still consider the bulk and coverage. We really liked the low version of the shoe, and unless the ankle protection is just what you're looking for, that may be a more versatile option.

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