Cycling shoes for monofin use...

[Apneaddict]

I think that they won't hurt... But the pointed feet of a Freediver are far from being as important hydrodynamically as actual frontal area.

I can barely stay upright on a bike WITH training wheels, but I think the feet of a cyclist are moving MUCH faster than their average distance travelled / time and this drag would increase the load on the leg muscles to overcome this resistance. I'm guessing that this is where the wattage savings is coming from, more than the static coefficient of drag.

 

[Philip Fennell]

...I think the feet of a cyclist are moving MUCH faster than their average distance travelled / time and this drag would increase the load on the leg muscles to overcome this resistance. I'm guessing that this is where the wattage savings is coming from, more than the static coefficient of drag.

That's a good point.

 

[Philip Fennell]

Bolts: I had LAKE shoes with BOA fastening - didn't match, only 2 / 3 holes at the time. Tried Shimano and XLC shoes, an they fitted perfectly. Verdict: Poor manufacturing tolerance in some shoes, not in Luno

Having researched this myself along with some other people and @REVAN it turns out that it is nigh-on impossible to find a definitive spec for the positioning of the Look shoe bolts. There is quite literally nothing on the internet, not even the patent defines the distances between them although, to be fair, I've never tried contacting Look myself. Comparing three makes showed that the two rear bolts were the most similar distance between but the third, front, whole varied noticeably. Another point to take into account is the width of the shoes. Some manufacturers make wide fitting models that can put the inside edges closer together that you might be expecting. Bont are an example of this, their anatomically design foot beds are wider than your fancy Italian Sidi shoes, for example, which is great for comfort and sizing of the shoe to accommodate a 5mm fin sock but also worth checking both shoes on a fin for side-by-side alignment.

 

[Philip Fennell]

One of the subjects we've talked about before is the type of closure system for the shoes, Velcro, Ratchet or Boa. One observation I have from my Bont Riot road shoes (ratchet) is that I've experienced the ratchet 'popping', dropping may be a notch or two, on my right foot during finning. I've looked closely at the ladder, as they like to call it, and I can see some wear on the teeth that may be contributing to this problem. The result of this popping is you get one shoe looser than the other which can throw the consistency of you stroke. Your effort becomes unbalanced and I think this may have contributed to a 'wonky' stroke.

I've ordered a spare buckle set so we'll see what we see.

In the mean time I'm going to pack-out the footbed some more to take out some of the space because I think I've oversized them a bit too much in trying to account for the 5mm fin sock that I'm using. This packing should put the ratchet at a longer position that'll hopefully miss the worn notches.

If you find yourself in a similar position then I suggest slacken off your other shoe to match where your 'popped' ratchet now rests and then you'll at least get a balanced stroke back.

I hope that proves useful.

Next time around I'll try Velcro I think.

How are people getting on with their ratchets and has anyone used a boa system successfully?

 

[Philip Fennell]

One of the subjects we've talked about before is the type of closure system for the shoes, Velcro, Ratchet or Boa. One observation I have from my Bont Riot road shoes (ratchet) is that I've experienced the ratchet 'popping', dropping may be a notch or two, on my right foot during finning. I've looked closely at the ladder, as they like to call it, and I can see some wear on the teeth that may be contributing to this problem. The result of this popping is you get one shoe looser than the other which can throw the consistency of you stroke. Your effort becomes unbalanced and I think this may have contributed to a 'wonky' stroke.

I've ordered a spare buckle set so we'll see what we see.

In the mean time I'm going to pack-out the footbed some more to take out some of the space because I think I've oversized them a bit too much in trying to account for the 5mm fin sock that I'm using. This packing should put the ratchet at a longer position that'll hopefully miss the worn notches.

If you find yourself in a similar position then I suggest slacken off your other shoe to match where your 'popped' ratchet now rests and then you'll at least get a balanced stroke back.

I hope that proves useful.

Next time around I'll try Velcro I think.

How are people getting on with their ratchets and has anyone used a boa system successfully?

As a follow-up to my previous post...

When I received my replacement buckles and ladders for my Bont Riots I first replaced the ladders and this is where I discovered two things:

Firstly, the replacement ladders were a different thickness (thinner) than the originals which made the closure 'pop' more easily, even by arching my foot in the shoe.
Secondly, the problem was much worse on my right foot, the one that'd always had this tendency.

Fortunately, having bought a buckle/ladder set I set about changing the buckle on pool-side and was off and running again in 5 minutes.

My conclusions are this:

1. Double check replacement parts for compatibility.
2. There was a manufacturing fault in the buckle on my right shoe that was exaggerated by the change of ladder.
3. Don't use ratchet fastenings for monofin shoes.

Why so negative about the ratchet system? Well, despite the simplicity of tightening the shoe at depth, I think their major drawback is a single point of failure as the one main load baring retention point. Whilst I've been interested in trying the Boa system too, I'm beginning to think that that'll have the same 'single point of failure' problem. It might be too simplistic to say, "Compare them to Velcro with its thousands of retention points and therefore massive built-in redundancy ", but you have to admit that, for the sake of simplicity, Velcro has it nailed. After all, that's what you need, for safe, reliable and therefore fun freediving.