Ride Concepts Women’s Hellion Mtb-Shoes in review
Californian brand Ride Concepts is a new player in the industry. With their stylish gravity-oriented mountain bike shoes, they want to bring a breath of fresh air into the market and offer an alternative to the most popular brands. We put their Women’s Hellion to test.
The brand produces only mountain biking shoes and introduced itself to the world this year with a huge portfolio of clipless and flat pedal shoes. Our test rider Sarah swears by flats and has therefore picked the Ride Concepts Women’s Hellion to test. There’s something very special about this shoe: compared to many other brands, Ride Concepts doesn’t just dip their women’s specific models in pink glitter, but also adapts the fit to the foot shape of female riders. With her long and narrow feet, Sarah had no problems and the shoe still fits well without pinching or pressing on her feet. The high quality insole definitely helps too supporting the arch of the foot incredibly well compared to many other insoles. The heel and the ball of the foot are reinforced with shock absorbing D3O foam, a material most of you will know from knee pads. This is supposed to reduce vibrations on rough trails and hard landings.
Thin D3O pads are attached to the insole in the heel and ball of the foot. We didn’t notice any drastic vibration and shock absorption though.
With its tidy seams, the toe box offer great protection
The overall performance of a flat-pedal shoe heavily depends on the grip on the pedal. The sole needed a few rides to soften u, but then offered outstanding grip.
Besides comfort, a flat pedal shoe should also provide good grip on the pedals. While it took Sarah some time to break in the new sole developed by Rubber Kinetics, the grip improved dramatically after a few days. With very little wear after 10 months of hard riding, the shoe still provides excellent grip. Unfortunately, the heel cup only provides marginal hold even with the shoe laced tightly, which means the heel tends to slip around inside the shoe, especially when pushing up on steep slopes.
The Ride Concepts Women’s Hellion convinced Sarah on the trail, ahem, on the pedal, with good grip and long durability. Small details like the lace holder and the gusseted tongue, which prevents debris from entering your shoe, are proof of exceptional attention to detail. However, the heel cup doesn’t provide sufficient heel hold for hike-a-bikers and freeriders. But if you prefer pedalling instead of pushing your bike up the hill, the Ride Concepts Women’s Hellion is a robust, stylish and comfortable flat pedal shoe.
A good shoe works even better with a proper pair of pedals. In our current flat pedal group test, we tested the leading mtb pedals.
Tops
- robust and durable
- good toecap
- high-quality, preformed insole
Flops
- poor heel support
- the sole need breaking in
Tester Sarah
Duration 10 months
Price € 139.99
Weight: 801 g (Women, size 41)
More info rideconcepts.com