Endura MT500 Burner Clipless Shoes
Test Locations: Washington, Oregon
Test Duration: 4 months
Reviewer: 6’, 170 lb / 183 cm, 77.1 kg
Size Tested: EU 43
Blister’s Measured Weight per shoe: 476 and 476 g
Upper: Microfiber
Closure: Lace + velcro strap
Stated Features:
- Highly durable upper fabrics with perforated panels for enhanced ventilation
- Low absorbency, quick dry lining
EGM footbed maximises comfort and power transfer - StickyFoot™ Grip pedal contact areas provide great connection with caged and clipless pedals
- Toe and heel sections deploy StickyFoot™ Dura in an aggressive tread pattern to provide superb walking grip and durability.
- Offset cleat box with increased longitudinal adjustment provides a wide range of stance option for caged or traditional clipless pedals
- Flex profile balances stiffness and flex for power transfer and control
- Traditional laces and additional Velcro® strap lock your feet in place
- Sharkskin fabric lined heel cup helps hold foot in place
- Reinforced toe and heel box offer protection from flying trail debris
Pedals used: Shimano Saint, Shimano XTR Trail, HT X2
MSRP: $159.99
Intro
Endura launched a new line of bike footwear this spring, headlined by the MT500 Burner Clipless shoe (a flat pedal version is also available), and at first glance, they look like a fairly conventional all-around MTB shoe that slots in somewhere between lightweight, minimalist XC options and big, skate-style gravity shoes. But Endura is talking a big game about their collaboration with ergonomist, Phil Burt, on the design of the MT500 Burner, and the fit and feel of the shoe are genuinely different from most other options out there.
Features and Construction
For the most part, the high-level design of the MT500 Burner shoes is fairly conventional. They’re a lace-up shoe with an extra velcro strap over the instep to help lock the heel down and secure the laces, constructed with a synthetic leather upper, and so on. The cuff is asymmetric to place some extra padding on the inside of the ankle bones without compromising mobility too much, and the rubber outsole features a smoother tread in the middle (for a cleaner interface with pedal platforms) with a more aggressive tread at the heel and toe for off-bike traction. So far, so normal.
But despite looking like a more protective, bulkier skate-style shoe, the MT500 Burners feel surprisingly snug fitting and contoured. They’re lightly padded and do offer solid protection (more on that below), but unlike a lot of other shoes that also fit that description, the MT500 Burners don’t feel like a big squishy shoe that relies on a ton of padding to smush around and conform to your foot shape. Their upper is stout and feels tailored towards offering a snug, secure fit all around the foot to a much greater extent than a lot of similar shoes, and in that respect is much more reminiscent of more minimalist XC shoes than burlier, more gravity-oriented options.
The stock footbeds in the MT500 Burner are also much more substantial than most flimsy stock options, with a metatarsal pad built in, and notably more arch support than most basic stock options. The MT500 Burner’s footbeds also feature a bunch of small raised dots through much of the midfoot, which Endura calls “Sole Stimulant.” Their claim is that the dots “improve foot proprioception, greatly improving its ability to soften and stiffen through coordinated muscular contractions.” I mostly noticed that they tickled slightly as I was sliding my feet into the shoes, but couldn’t really notice them (for better or worse) after that.
The cleat slot on the MT500 Burners is moderately long, but more notably is placed especially far back on the shoe, in what I’d consider being a far more sensible spot than many more traditional shoes that put it farther forward, in a spot that feels more road / XC derived, but less practical for a more gravity-focused option. If you’re someone who prefers to run your cleats very far forward the MT500 Burners might be slightly limiting, but I think most folks will be fine with where they can place the cleats — and some will definitely be glad to make use of the extra rearward range that the MT500 Burners offer.
Fit
I tested the MT500 Burner shoes in the EU 43 size that Endura recommends for my US 10 feet, and that seems like the right call, but if anything the MT500 Burners run very slightly small; if you’re truly on the fence, I’d probably size up. The overall fit of the MT500 Burners is slightly on the narrower, lower-volume side of average, but not wildly so. Personally, I could use a little more room in the lateral side of the toe box, but my forefeet are also fairly wide. The MT500 Burners are snug through my (also wide) midfoot but not uncomfortably so, and the heel pocket makes for an excellent, secure fit for my more average-volume heel and ankle.
The asymmetric cuff offers some good protection against banging my ankles on the frame or crank arms while still being unobtrusive and comfortable for me to pedal in. And the combination of a standard lace closure with a velcro strap over the instep secures the shoes evenly and comfortably, without notable hot spots or other issues. I don’t tend to seek out a super snug fit in bike shoes in the same way that I do in, say, ski boots, but the MT500 Burner does feel like a shoe where an especially high degree of attention has been paid to the fit and making a notably snug-fitting, ergonomic shoe that doesn’t leave excess volume anywhere. They’d fit my feet better if the forefoot and toe box were slightly wider, but that’s the case in a whole lot of shoes, and if you’re interested in a shoe that feels more secure and form-fitting than many more protective, gravity-oriented bike shoes tend to be, the MT500 Burners are definitely worth checking out.
On the Bike
Endura talks a lot about the flex of the MT500 Burner being carefully tailored to balance support and control on the pedals, and they do feel substantially different from most other shoes I’ve tried in recent memory, for better or worse depending on your preferences and needs. The MT500 Burners strike a nice balance between protection and bulkiness, with a solid toe cap and extra reinforcement in high-wear areas (the outside of the forefoot, in particular) and do a good job of being moderately protective without being huge or all that heavy.
Instead of having the cleat slots housed in a full shank that runs through most of the midsole, the MT500 Burner puts them in a smaller plate that can flex a little bit within the midsole, relative to the outsole. The upside of this is that the MT500 Burner shoes do an especially good job of interfacing with a variety of clipless pedals that feature a bit of a platform, and provide an especially stable connection to the pedal. If you’ve ever felt like your clipless shoe and pedal combination feels a bit “tippy” or prone to rocking on the pedals, the combination of the MT500 Burner plus a bigger DH-oriented pedal (I tried both Shimano Saints and HT X2s) can feel really solid and stable. My hunch is that the cleat plate can move around just enough to bring the rubber outsole into contact with the pedal platform to take out any slop in the clipless mechanism, without having a tall rubber outsole that interferes with the pedal and makes clipping in and out difficult in some circumstances.
The downside, at least for me, is that the MT500 Burner’s sole is, overall, not very stiff, and that can contribute to foot fatigue and cramping, particularly when hammering through longer, rougher sections of trail. It’s something that I’ve struggled with in the past with a variety of shoe and pedal combinations, and I tend to prefer comparatively stiff shoes and pedals with larger platforms to combat those issues. And so I struggled a bit with foot fatigue and soreness in the MT500 Burners, which I’d attribute to the softer, more flexible sole just not being as supportive as I’d like. To be clear, I think this is at least as much of a “me problem” as it is one with the shoes, and I think that folks who don’t tend to have those sorts of problems in less-stiff shoes are likely to have no complaints about the MT500 Burner, either. It’s not as if the MT500 Burner is especially flexible, but it is on the softer side of average, and my preferences tend to run the opposite direction.
I wondered if the unique insole in the MT500 Burner was giving me trouble when it came to the foot fatigue that I was experiencing, but I tried the shoes with a different set of footbeds and had similar results. I do think that the snug fit on my (wide) forefeet is also not helping the situation and that people with more average to narrow feet are likely to have an easier time with the MT500 Burners.
The other details of the MT500 Burner are really nice. The long, rearward cleat slot feels nicely laid out for a shoe that’s meant to cover everything from Trail to DH use, leaving me a ton of room to move in either direction (and I’m often slamming cleats all the way back on many shoes, even gravity-oriented ones). The MT500 Burners aren’t the most heavily ventilated shoe, but they still breathe passably well and do a surprisingly good job of drying once they’re wet. The relatively water-resistant synthetic leather upper also does a nice job of keeping light spray and puddle splashes out, though the MT500 Burners are well short of being truly waterproof.
Off the Bike
Put simply, the MT500 Burner is one of the better walking clipless shoes I’ve ever tried. Its combination of a not-super-stiff midsole with a relatively deep tread and soft rubber at the toe and heel makes for a shoe that flexes with your foot as you walk, better than most (often stiffer) shoes, and has notably good traction in a variety of situations, from wet roots and rocks to softer dirt and the like.
The especially secure heel pocket of the MT500 Burners is also welcome off the bike. I can live with a little heel lift, especially if I’m not walking too far, but the MT500 Burners do an especially good job of keeping things locked down and avoiding any movement. Clipless shoes tend to be pretty lousy to walk in, and while the MT500 Burners can’t magically circumvent all the reasons for that shortcoming, they do a much better job than average at mitigating them.
Durability
Not much to report here — the MT500 Burners are holding up great after ~4 months of use. The fabrics in the upper all seem high-quality and tough, all of the seams and stitching are holding together, and the rubber outsole shows little wear apart from a few spots where it’s in direct contact with pedal traction pins. Endura has a well-earned reputation for making tough apparel, and the MT500 Burners seem to be no exception.
Bottom Line
The Endura MT500 Burner is a well-built clipless shoe that’s a promising option for folks looking for an average to narrow fit, and a less-stiff, more pliable midsole. I personally would prefer a stiffer shoe, overall, but my preferences run that direction in general, and the softer midsole does have its benefits when it comes to off-bike walkability and in providing a more stable interface between the shoe and pedals with a larger platform.
While they’re not the best fit for my feet and my preferences, I think Endura has done some interesting things with fit and ergonomics that could work really well for certain folks, and the MT500 Burners feel like very well-constructed shoes that are especially secure fitting for this sort of Trail/Enduro/DH shoe. If your feet aren’t as wide as mine, and you’re okay with (or would prefer) a not super-stiff sole, they’re worth a look.
How do these compare to Ride Concepts Transitions shoe you reviewed a while back? I am especially interested in the cleat location comparison. I use the RC shoes with Hustle Labs magnetic pedals (coming from flats) and wish I could move the metal plate farther back.