FIRST LOOK: Shimano's ME7 all-mountain and enduro shoe
Shimano have been progressively revamping their shoe range, and gone are the football boots of old. The ME line follows the AM line with some exceptional trail and enduro footwear.
Shimano are synonymous with cycling footwear. Just last year they celebrated 25 years of SPD (Shimano Pedalling Dynamics), so that is 25 years (now 26) of tying our feet to our pedals in a system way ahead of toeclips and straps.
Shimano's early shoes (and that of just about the whole bike industry) resembled football boots. This really wasn't too bad, as they dried quickly, and had great traction under the toes for running up mud. They really were the domain of performance riding, save for their clipless sandals.
But in the past two years Shimano's shoes have been changing. The XC90 and XC70 brought in some fantastic new fits and upper security, making the shoes fit better than they had before. Shimano then launched the M200, which was a really new shift. This shoe dropped the weight of their previous gravity shoes, adding exceptional stiffness plus movement on the bike with their Torbal mid sole. Essentially it is stiff under load, but allows some twist so you don't clip out when moving around on the bike.
The new ME7 is a continuation of that. It has the Torbal mid sole, but also introduces deep tread lugs made from Michelin rubber. It's almost like they have taken the tread patterns from a prototype tyre Nico Voullioz would use in the EWS and stuck it to the sole. The tread is deep, but spaced pretty well for wet mud too.
The cleat pocket is long, and the new cleat plates allow some great rearward placement. On the foot, the speed lacing is secure, and the cover and cuff should keep crap out of the shoe. The reversed buckle does take a bit of getting use to, but it keeps the business end out of harms way, and it's still all replacebale too.
The proof will be in more ride time, so keep an eye out for a full review in a coming issue.
RRP: $229
From: Shimano Australia
