# Northwave MTB Shoes - do any of you wear these?



## dgangi (Jan 19, 2004)

Do any of you ride with Northwave MTB shoes? If so, how do you like them? Do they fit narrow or wide feet? Do they run big or small?

I'm in desparate need of new MTB shoes and I'm having a fit with the lack of selection at my local bike shops. The ONLY shoes the shops around here carry are SIDI, Specialized, and Shimano. I don't like the fit of any of the Shimano shoes. Specialized shoes are built like CRAP and I'll never buy another pair again. The SIDI Dominators fit really well but the sole is just a little too hard for the rocky conditions here in AZ. There's nothing like slipping on your ass when doing a little hike-a-bike.

So now I am turning to the mail order shops, which is a little scary when buying shoes. But I have no other choice it seems...

Supergo has some great deals on Northwave shoes on their website, but their stores carry NONE of them. Bastadges. I'm particularly interested in the Hydrogen and Mojave shoes.

Thx..Doug


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## jl (Feb 23, 2004)

I've owned 3 pairs of Northwaves, and not one single pair lasted a year. One pair was their team race MTB shoe. I have a pair of specialized rockhoppers going on 2 years, and a pair of diadora geckos going on 3 years.

I will never buy a pair of northwaves again. But that is my personal experience, your mileage may vary. BTW, the shoes fit great, and felt great


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## ebxtreme (Jan 6, 2004)

*I've owned a pair for a long time....about 5 years on the nose.*

But, I've heard others haven't had the same success as I've had. My pair that I'm wearing right now are from June of '98....no sh!t.

Granted, they are totally falling apart now so I'm also in the market for new shoes, but I ride 2 days a week (almost the entire year) and they've seen serious abuse. FWIW, I have a friend that owns a pair that are almost as old as mine. I wonder if they changed their manufacturing or something over the past few years?? Maybe I just got really lucky. Who knows.

I also own Northwave Snowboard boots and I can tell you they're the shizzle for snowboarding, but maybe their quality had dropped off in the bike shoes?

EB


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## Trajan (Feb 9, 2004)

I have a pair of Northwave road and mountain bike shoes. I have extremely wide feet and the northwave shoes fit great. Shimano and Specialized shoes are too narrow for me. So far (1 year) everything seems to be OK with the shoes. They are holding up and the soles are in perfect shape. The only negative thing about Northwave shoes is that they are UGLY.


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## uribt (Apr 11, 2004)

I agree. Northwave shoes are ugly.
Anyway, my pair is in use for almost 2 years now and in good shape - It's a funny-looking hard sole pair of shoes and it's practically useless if you plan to do any walking, especially on rocky terrain. Other than that i'm very satisfied with these, durability is definitely not an issue.


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## 1speed_Mike (Jan 27, 2004)

I've worn lots of shoes over the years: Answer, Shimano, Sidi, Northwave, etc. By far, the worst were my Northwave Team MTBs. You can read my reviews here: http://www.mtbr.com/reviews/Shoes/product_22940.shtml

They pretty much fell apart (sole separated from the shoe on both shoes) after very little use. The CDN distributor for NW was a real pain-in-the-ass and I had to fight tooth-n-nail to get a new pair of shoes. Also, my Northwave Carbon road shoes are having a similar sole separation issue. I will never, ever wear NWs again. Ya, they look nice, but that's about all.

Personally, I love the fit-n-feel of Shimano shoes. I've got 320s, 220s and a new pair of 221s (coming this week). They last a long time and fit well.

I had really bad problems with my Sidi Action SRS', too. Essentially, 4 of the 6 buckles siezed and/or failed. If you get mud inside the tiny ratchets, have fun trying to get them open and off. I had to blast my buckles with a hose in order to remove my shoes...that was fun. Also, a racing buddy had to recently cut his straps off in order to get his shoes off.


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## WolverineGator (Feb 26, 2004)

*sizing*

I have 2003 northwave's. just be careful with sizing. they run about 1/2 to 1 size small. do a seach and you'll see what I mean.


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## Polk (Jan 19, 2004)

I tried some Northwave shoes about three years ago and they felt like they were designed by Satan himself! After less than an hour my feet hurt so badly I could barely pay attention to where I was riding. In fact I took a shortcut on the trail just to end the pain sooner. I asked a couple other people with Northwaves how they liked them, and their experience was not much better than mine. I returned them and bought some Specialized, which are as comfortable as bedroom slippers and are holding up very well after three years and many miles. I had Sidi Dominators before that, and they lasted about eight years. Also very good shoes.


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## litespeedchick (Jan 13, 2004)

Sure was interesting reading the replies so far. Apparently there is zero concensus of opinion. 

For what it's worth... I really like mine. Fit's well (I'm a girl w/ wide feet, so maybe neutral width), the bottom has some traction, unlike Sidis' tread, which my husband refers to as "slick as owl s**t". I've had them about 1 year, they arent' showing any wear at all EXCEPT for the stupid disk closure system which is about to break. Don't get any Northwaves that have closeure that looks like a dime encased in plastic. Otherwise, I will buy NW again when the damn closure breaks. (husband has broken many a Sidi closure as well...built-in obsolescence?)


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## GRFSR (Jan 23, 2004)

*Good Luck...*

I had a pair for 4 years that I really liked, they fit my fairly wide feet well, but could have had a stiffer sole. When the uppers ripped off, I tried some NW's at a local dealer, they fit complettely different ! (but these models had a different sole design than mine) so I ordered some close-outs off the web that used the same outer sole as mine, but they didn't fit either ! So I ended up trying on many brands before settling on a new pair that I hated for the first month, but after they broke in, my feet love them.


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## AZ Steelhead (Jan 12, 2004)

They don't last, I have a pair of Mohave's, they fit great but the bottoms are shot after 6 months, to bad because they are comfortable.


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