As one of the most important impacts you can influence on your bike, your choice of riding shoes isn’t one to take lightly, but the crowded market doesn’t make it easy for you. Alongside their well-known flat-pedal shoes, Five Ten also offer a mass of clipless riding shoes. We’ve well and truly ridden in the latest version of the Five Ten Maltese Falcon over the last few months, so let’s see how they’re fared on long-term test.
Famed for the grippiness of their soles, Five Ten have basically set the benchmark within the flat-pedal riding shoe industry over the past years. And while there are still a ton of enduro and trail riders kicking around on flat pedals, more and more are making the transition over to clipless. The Maltese Falcon are surely contributing to this, having set themselves apart from the once standard XC-style footwear with a cooler look. The Five Ten Maltese Falcon have been leveled at clipless trail riders that value style, comfort and robustness, and now they’ve even been back through development and emerged with certain updates that render them even smarter than the most recent model. The addition of mesh inserts on the side and upper works to improve ventilation, and there’s a new, subtle and stylish colourway.
The comfort hasn’t been altered, and Five Ten have retained their brilliantly grippy sole with the Stealth S1 rubber compound. A real crowd pleaser, the Maltese Falcon veers on the softer and more comfortable side of the brand’s spectrum, making it a decent all-rounder, and less stringently race-orientated as the Kestral.
Forget fiddly ratchet closure systems for the shoes, Five Ten rely on the long-valued combo of laces and a Velcro strap: easy to repair and fairly bulletproof.
Paired with regular Shimano SPD pedals, there’s a satisfyingly sticky union between the sole and the surface area around the cleat, and we’d say that Five Ten have made the best of the surface available – in fact, when it comes to Crankbrothers pedals though, some might even argue that the soles have an overly leech-like grippiness.
The Maltese Falcon riding shoes proved immune to filthy wet, muddy conditions. Once wet, they even managed to dry quicker than we have come to expect from Five Ten’s other models – but they still take longer than most other brands. The new design is also reputed to feature improved ventilation, although we still overheated on those rare clammy days of heat. In short, these shoes definitely feel more apt on days when there’s a slight chill in the air.
With comfort and a hint of welcome flex on the pedals, the Five Ten Maltese Falcon have come out of the past few months unscathed, and we consider them a really decent all-rounder with a long lifespan.
Price: 130 €
More info: fiveten.com
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Words: Photos: Noah Haxel
