Review: O'Neal Stinger Shoes

A while back we took delivery of the O’Neal Stinger flat pedal shoes to cast our eyes over and put them to the test in the way only MoreDirt can.

I would love to write this whole review without making comparisons to the level of grip that you could achieve through that two digit named brand... I will attempt to use the “Five ten” word as infrequently as possible but lets face it, shoes like the Stinger from O’Neal have there work cut out taking on the market leading mountain bike shoe provider but theres more to what makes a good shoe than grip on the pedal…

First Impressions

In the looks department we were really impressed. They looked pretty cool and are available in Red (as tested) Green and Black. All three look pretty good if you ask me and would be at home paired with most riding kit these days!

The shape looked comfortable with plenty of room up front near the toe and plenty of padding. The stinger takes on a real old school skate shoe design with a rounded shape and van’s like honeycomb or waffle sole. This was great to see as this was personally what I was using to ride before I discovered the wonders of the sticky rubber sole.

Technically speaking.

The Honey rubber sole is the only real talking point on the shoes and a talking point it certainly is. It may sound obvious but the rubber the sole consists of is sticky, which is probably why it takes its name after everyone’s number one Bee produced foodstuff.

Ever since Jeff Steber of Intense cycles hooked up with stealth rubber to make some shoes with a blend of sticky rubber, flat pedal riders the world over have known it was the way to go. The soft rubber helps the pins on your pedals get rooted into the sole and will stop your feet from bouncing off and slipping a pedal.

The sole of the shoe is stiff that in theory gives good and efficient power transfer but you are more likely to feel the effects of the lack of cramping that sometimes occurs on really long descents stood up on the pedals.

The shoe features strong lace eyelets, leather upper and double stitching throughout so know matter how tight you pull your laces or abuse you put your shoes through they should be around for a good while!

The Ride.

We spent most of our time with the Stinger shoes paired up with Crank Brothers awesome 5050 3 pedals that we reviewed recently. (Pedal Update – The 5050’s are still working as perfectly as day one with zero maintenance for all the doubters…) The large platform of the pedal worked perfectly with the shape and size of the sole on the shoe and the honeycomb tread pattern gives real bite on the pins.

We found the shoes to be very supportive on and around the ankles with a thick elasticated tongue to keep the fit wide yet secure which is very similar to a skate shoe. Consequently this added thickness and comfort has made them quite warm during the recent summer heat wave but that wouldn’t be enough to put us off.

The sole is pretty thick as mountain bike shoes go. We’d say it’s probably about 0.5cm thicker than the other leading shoe that I swore to not mention. On the pedals you can definitely feel considerably less flex but you do lose out on the "feel on the pedal" but I’m not sure that is neccesarily 100% required anyway.

Last but not least to our eyes they look pretty great.  Both on the trails and then when you’ve finished slip on some jeans and wear them down the pub, Most won't even bat an eyelid. Best off all you will never slip over on spilt beer again with those sticky rubber soles! Now that’s a real winner!

Conclusion.

O’Neal have created something pretty special with their Stinger shoe. It’s the complete package of looks, comfort and performance all at a price below what we have become used to paying for mountain bike specific shoes!

The Stinger shoe from O’Neal is a good looking, high performance and incredibly comfortable shoe featuring there very own blend of stick “Honey Rubber” on the sole. Next time your in the market for some shoes don’t overlook the stingers!

You can check out a gallery of snaps of the Stingers here...

O'Neal are distributed in the UK by Fli Distribution! To find out this and loads more click the link...