With its red and green walking boot laces and overly chunky heel and toe tread, the Ride Concepts Tallac shoe looks nothing like any riding shoe I’ve ever seen. Does it work though, can it cut it alongside the best mountain bike shoes you can lace to your feet?

Actually yes. I’m not an adventurer as such; I like the odd big mountain epic but I’m no Sim Mainey. I did get out there there and push my bike up a few loose climbs though, and there’s considerably more grip from the heel and toe area when compared with Ride Concepts’ excellent Hellion Elite shoe.

Dig them in like a crampon and the half-hex lugs at the extremes are angled inwards towards the middle of your foot, catching the ground. There’s no problem in rock of course, the Ride Concepts MAX GRIP rubber is very tacky and compliant and the midsole flexy enough to walk comfortably in.

Ride Concepts Tallac mountain bike shoe performance

You’re probably more interested in what happens on the bike though, and here you get the same great connection to the pedal we first saw on the Hellion Elite. It’s a slightly different feel to a Five Ten compound, you don’t sink in quite as much but I never slipped a pedal. In fact, I had a few moments taking my foot off to dab in these dusty conditions, where I almost couldn’t get clear, so proud are the lugs. It took a few rides to adjust.

Ride Concepts uses a D3O insole in the Tallac, and combined with the chunky sole, reinforced TPU heel and toe sections, and EVA midsole, it definitely gives it the edge in terms of cushioning. I can ride all day in these without getting sore feet. I back-to-backed them with both the Hellion Elite and the Specialized 2FO Roost shoe, the latter has a stonkingly grippy sole, but less in the way of impact protection.

The adventure theme continues with a Cordura upper that proved really durable and highly breathable too, and an antibacterial mesh lining to keep things sweet smelling. I tested the simple lace up version of the shoe, but come August you’ll also be able to get a BOA closure version for £179.95. There’s also a women’s version called the Flume, which is identical in all but name and sizing, which runs from sizes 5-10.

I’m not a huge fan of the way the Tallac looks, but that’s obviously a personal choice. And at £150 it’s an expensive upgrade over the Hellion Elite, so make sure you really need those extra features. It also pinches slightly if you have wide, flat feet, and some testers reported the extra chunk of the sole rubbed their chainstays.

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