Mavic Drift Shoes: Final Review- by Guitar Ted
With Winter deepening here beyond what these shoes are capable of protecting me from, I think it is high time to give you my final thoughts on these shoes from Mavic for cold weather riding. The First Impressions are found by clicking here.
Mavic Drift shoes in the snow
Since my last update the Drift shoes have seen plenty of damp, cool weather riding and now even some snowy rides on mountain biking trails here. Overall, my initial impressions remain intact. The Drift shoes do a decent job of keeping your feet dry and warm until you start to get into heavy mist, light rain, or if you get into having to traverse wet grounds or submerged bits of trail. Then the leakage issues raise their head and, well, cold feet result.
Otherwise these shoes do a great job of mountain biking. They do offer you a lot of free movement at the ankle. The transition from the harder, stiffer uppers to the neoprene-like “sock” that wraps around your ankle allows for this freedom of movement. It also seems strange to me since it almost doesn’t feel as if that “sock” part is even doing anything, but it does keep the wind and cooler air at bay.
The soles are not totally able to ward off cold though. I found that out during a ride in the mid-20’s F when there was a bit of snow on the ground. After about an hour, the bottoms of my feet were feeling chilled. However; I was using a thinner wool sock only, and perhaps with a more insulated sock I would have been fine here. Everyone’s feet are going to be different in this regard, so plan accordingly. 🙂
A “sore point” with the Drift
One thing that never really set well with me was that bit of the upper right at the base of the upper strap where it passes through the loop to double back on itself. Here the uppers terminate in something akin to a point, which if you draw that upper strap tight causes that “point” to dig under the bony protrusion of the inside of the ankle joint. During warmer rides, I could leave this looser, and it wasn’t an issue, but I could not ever tighten it down enough to totally clamp off that part of the shoe from cold and wet intrusions.
Conclusions: The Mavic Drift shoe is a very nicely made, simple to use shoe that does a decent job of keeping wind and cold at bay above 30°F. Get below this and then you might start wanting to thicken up the stockings, or to use more than one layer. In my opinion the toe box and central parts of the foot will be well accommodated with a roomy fit, but the heel cup is snug.
I was not totally blown away by the shoes ability to ward off moisture in terms of rain and snow. There is some amount of leakage at a certain point where the upper soft “sock” wraps around and where the harder materials of the upper terminate and meet the sock part. Warmth is subjective, but I was not surprised to find out that by the time the temperatures sunk into the lower 20’s F I was getting colder feet.
Finally, I would be apt to give this shoe higher marks if it were not for the painful issue with the “pointed’ bit on the upper. It may be that it is an issue with the way it fit my feet, but it might be prudent for folks looking at getting these to try them on first to see if that may also be an issue for them.
These are a decent late season alternative for mountain biking if the fit agrees with you. . If your weather stays relatively temperate and doesn’t dip into the frigid realm, these might prove to be an all Winter solution.
Note: Mavic sent the Drift mtb shoes over to Twenty Nine Inches for test/review at no charge. We are not being bribed nor paid for this review and we will strive to give you our honest thoughts and opinions throughout.
