Review: Teva Pivot SPD Shoes

4 weeks ago Robin Eveleigh of www.wild-rides.co.uk got in contact with us with the awesome news he'd taken delivery of the new Pivot SPD shoes from Teva... 180kms later his review has landed on the MoreDirt desk! Check it out!

There's no getting away from it - some of us just like our mountain biking footwear to look like, well, trainers. Moulded plastic disco slippers might sit well with lycra, but loose-fit styling cries out for something a bit more street, a bit more skate.

The flatty brigade are spoilt for choice, and - until recently - Five Ten and Vans have ruled the roost for mashing skate styling with SPD efficiency, but now US-based Teva is crashing the party with its brand new clipless-compatible Pivot shoe.

Designed for all-mountain antics, and building on their flat-pedal Links shoe, the Pivot's looks see it squaring up with Five Ten's Maltese Falcon and Hellcat SPDs, while innovative design features claim to make it as assured off the bike as it is on.

I've put a pair of Pivots through their paces over four weeks and a good 180km, including up and down some testing terrain on Wales three highest mountains. Here's how I got on:

Out of the box

The first thing you notice about the Pivots is how light they are 400g less, in fact, than the Shimano AM45 killer whales I usually wear. It's almost disconcerting... Has such a light shoe got the cojones to cut it in the mountains?

The Pivot's sole features Spider Rubber. The star on the upper is a port hole giving access to the cleat attachment system inside the shoe.

Laces are reliably grippy and retained with a Velcro strap that also tightens the shoe over the bridge of the foot. A stiff plastic brace supports the heelcounter for added rear-end stability and protection, and theres a good inch of soft and squishy midsole - with an added "shocpad" shock absorber in the heel to protect the foot when hiking down hard sections of trail.

So far,  fairly usual.

Teva's big USP could just be a pivotal moment in mountain bike shoe design - It lies in its cleat attachment system, a concept developed in tandem with pedal maestros Crank Brothers. Together they've come up with one of those forehead slapping no-brainers that makes you wonder: why has no one done this before?

Cleats usually attach with allen bolts from outside the shoe to a plate tucked away in a recess below the insole. You may be familiar with the pain of changing worn cleats, digging concrete-like chunks of trail out of the bolt-heads so you can slot an allen key in them, or maybe finding them so battered that only a power drill will do the job.

Teva have neatly banished this headache by creating a system that attaches from the inside.

A port hole in the Pivot's mesh upper gives access to the plate beneath the insole. Cleats are attached to it using Torx screws, whose heads stay safely inside the shoe. (The Pivot ships with the necessary long-handled Torx screwdriver.)

The feature is compatible only with Shimano and Crankbrothers setups - for all others (and traditionalists!) its still possible to attach cleats from the outside-in.

The benefit of the new system isn't confined to swapping out cleats it also a boon when you're trying to fine-tune shoe position on your pedal. Instead of unclipping and removing the Pivot to make adjustments, you can do the job while it's still clipped in.

The cleat recess is roomy so there's no need to start hacking off lumps of sole with a modelling knife to get the shoes to fit your pedals. They're good to go straight out of the box. The recess is also deep enough to avoid gouging chunks out of your hardwood flooring, but not so deep that unclipping becomes a hit and miss affair. Nice.

On the foot

The sample shoes I had from Teva didn't come with the proprietary, long-handled Torx driver, so I had to make do with a fiddlesome little multi-tool.

Cleat fitting is accessed through this port hole in the upper. Note that the shoe ships with a proprietary long handled torx driver, not this multitool.

In practice, this meant flipping the tongue out of the way rather than making use of the dedicated port hole, and I spent a frustrating few minutes getting tangled in laces as I tried to nip up the Torx screws good and tight.

This might sound petty, but it's worth bearing in mind if you're on a long trip away, or a multi-day ride, and need to swap or adjust cleats you really need the proper tool for the job, which makes you wonder why Teva didn't stick to the more standard allen bolts.

The fit feels a little snug over the bridge and through the arch of the foot. This is something I've experienced before with technical outdoor footwear designed to hold your foot tight. All the same, it's something to consider if you have broad feet but being gentle with the laces and Velcro strap helps prevent discomfort.

The shoes are also stiff on the first wear, and the marked upward sweep in the toe can make you feel like you're rocking in a pair of clogs. They do soften over time though. You won't want to hit the dancefloor in them, but I now routinely drive to and from trails wearing the Pivots.

Torx screws are fitted from inside out to this threaded plate in the cleat.

On the trail

The pedalling platform feels stiff and efficient, and clipping in and out is a cinch - assuming you've done the cleats up tight enough. Early on, during one long ride, I was struggling to disengage from the pedals, with the result of some painful offs in unexpected stalls.

Afterwards I discovered the cleats had worked themselves loose. Every time I'd tried to unclip, I'd been twisting the shoe against the cleats, eroding the sole in the process. I made a redoubled effort to tighten the cleats bolts, and haven't had a repeat yet - but I still think the job would have been easier with standard allens.

Padding around the heel tab and collar is minimal but, as it turns out, just about sufficient, though at times I have felt the stiff collar irritating the inside of my ankle. On the plus side, this sparse padding is great on wet rides. The shoe is in no way waterproof, but it is designed to shed water fast, and this it does very well, far better than my Shimano AM45s, which can feel like lead boots after a dousing.

The toe box also feels a little under-protected, compared with the braced and stiffened heelcounter, but it's roominess gives plenty of waggle room if you need to coax the blood back to your toes on a cold ride.

The only other improvement I'd like to see is a wider Velcro strap, preferably covering the laces entirely, to keep out trail crud and help prevent water ingress.

Off the bike, the Pivots Spider Rubber outsole provides fantastic grip even on wet rock, and that upswept toe comes into its own as you hike-a-bike steep sections of trail. I faced down some appalling weather on my Welsh Three Peaks ride, and even in fearsome gusts with the bike across my shoulders blown out horizontally, my feet felt assuredly planted on terra firma.

After 180km, though, the relatively thin outsole is starting to fray a little around the cleat recess. Time will tell whether this develops into a bigger problem that spells early retirement for the shoe.

Overall

The Pivot isn't cheap, retailing at over £100 in the UK. At that money you want to be sure the shoes fit suits your feet.

But don't be fooled by its lightness: this is a tough and very well-designed shoe whose fantastic water shedding abilities make it a very attractive option for big mountain days, with style and comfort to spare when you're out of the saddle.

Thanks to Robin... Check out www.wild-rides.co.uk to find out more!

Check out a full gallery of photos here..