Ride Concepts Tallac Clip
Test Location: Washington
Test Duration: 3 months
Reviewer: 6’, 170 lb / 183 cm, 77.1 kg
Size Tested: US men’s 10
Blister’s Measured Weight per shoe: 538 and 539 g
Upper: Cordura nylon
Closure: Lace + velcro strap
Pedals used: HT X2 SX, Shimano Saint, Shimano XTR Trail
MSRP: $180
- CLIP GRIP rubber outsole
- Hexagon outsole featuring reverse hex traction pattern on toe and heel for hike-able climbs and descents
- 42mm wide cleat box with index markings for cleat placement and extended cleat pocket runway
- RC PowerDrive nylon shank drives power and maintains lateral stiffness
- EVA midsole provides support and shock absorption
- D3O® High Impact Zone Technology insole absorbs impact and reduces fatigue
- Lightweight bonded upper featuring Cordura® mesh for durability and breathability
- Anti-bacterial mesh lining controls odor
- Fully gusseted tongue prohibits intake of dirt and debris
- Hook and loop strap for additional foot retention
- Elastic lace tuck to keep laces secure
- TPU mud guard to protect against dirt, debris and rubbing
- TPU toe and heel protection with reinforced anti-abrasion film
- Heel pull tab for easy entry
Intro
Ride Concepts launched the new Tallac and Flume (the women’s version of the Tallac) earlier this spring, and having now spent a lot of time in the clipless lace-up version, it’s a shoe with a ton of compelling features, but also a few minor quirks.
Ride Concepts also offers the Tallac and Flume in versions for flat pedals and with an option for a Boa closure in place of the laces found here (for a total of four versions of both the Tallac and Flume), and some of our other reviewers have started spending time in some of those other variants, so we’ll have reviews of those coming soon, too. But for now, let’s check out the Tallac Clip Lace.
Features and Construction
The lace version of the Tallac that I’ve been reviewing uses a standard lace closure, with a velcro strap over the instep to help snug things down and keep the laces secured. There’s also an elastic lace loop sewn onto the tongue. It’s a tried and true layout with nothing particularly weird or noteworthy going on — it’s a classic for a reason.
The upper of the Tallac uses a one-piece Cordura-branded construction with fully welded seams. There’s a bit of padding throughout, and a solidly reinforced toe box with a molded-on overlay for abrasion resistance, but Ride Concepts has clearly made an effort to keep the Tallac reasonably breathable, instead of going all out on making it padded and protective. The Tallac still features Ride Concepts’ typical D3O insoles, which they say help make the shoes more cushioned and supportive. The Tallac doesn’t feel quite as cushy as a few other Ride Concepts shoes I’ve tried to date — especially the Powerline and Transition — but it’s still pretty good on that front.
The outsole of the Tallac gets a notably aggressive tread pattern and unusually soft, sticky rubber for a clip shoe. The middle section of the shoe gets a large hexagonal tread pattern, but the toe and heel areas get a much finer set of scalloped hex blocks, which do a really good job of digging into softer dirt, in particular — see the “Off The Bike” section, below for more on that. The tread on the toe and heel wraps fairly high up the sides of the shoe, for a bit of extra grip on weird, off-camber bits of hike-a-biking.
The Tallac Clip also features a notably long and rearward-biased cleat slot, which I’m very, very happy about. I tend to run my cleats at or near the very back of the slot on a lot of shoes, but I’ve got a ton of room to go farther back on the Tallac. To be clear, the slot is also notably long, and I think very few people are going to have any trouble getting their cleats far enough forward. Unless you’re used to running your cleats slammed forward on XC shoes, the Tallac should still be fine, and if you want to get them farther back than most shoes permit, the Tallac and the new Endura MT500 Burner (review coming in a bit) are the two best options I’m aware of, by a mile.
Weight
Ride Concepts calls the Tallac a Trail shoe, but it’s not an especially light one. That shouldn’t be a big deal for most folks, but serious gram counters will be better off elsewhere. Below are our measured weights for a bunch of shoes across the Trail to DH spectrum (and to reiterate, the Tallac kind of spans the gap there). And as always, pay attention to differences in sizing when comparing the various options here.
- Pearl Izumi X-Alp Launch: 406 g (size 43.5)
- Shimano ME7: 423 g (size 44)
- Specialized 2FO DH Clip: 428 and 434 g (size 44)
- Shimano AM9: 464 and 466 g (size 44)
- Endura MT500 Burner: 476 and 476 g (size 43)
- Five Ten Kestrel Pro Boa: 456 g (size 9.5)
- Ion Rascal Amp: 493 and 508 g (size 44)
- Ride Concepts Tallac: 538 and 539 g (size 10)
- Leatt 5.0: 535 and 542 g (size 10)
- Five Ten Hellcat Pro: 546 g (Size 9.5)
- Ride Concepts Transition: 556 and 558 g (size 10)
Fit
Ride Concepts calls the Tallac a low-volume fit with a wider toe box, and that sums it up pretty well, though I wouldn’t say they’re that low volume — only moderately so. The heel pocket feels comfortably snug, and the shoe very gradually tapers wider, culminating in a fairly generous toe box.
My feet are somewhat on the wide-ish side, measuring about 114 mm wide (in a US 10 length) but the biggest fit hurdle they pose is that they stay wide pretty far into my midfoot before finally tapering down to a fairly average to slightly narrow heel. And I could personally use a little more room in the midfoot of the Tallac, but that’s definitely more of a “me problem” than a limitation of the Tallac. They wouldn’t be my first recommendation for folks with truly wide feet, but I think they offer a really nice, moderately narrow fit that should work for a lot of folks, while also having ample room in the toe box for all-day comfort.
And if you’ve got a truly low-volume heel and ankle, the Tallac features an extra set of lace eyelets above the velcro strap to really lock the upper part of the cuff down. They’re not necessary for my feet, and make the shoes harder to take on and off so I’ve been leaving them unused but there’s no real downside to bypassing the top eyelets if you don’t need them.
On the Bike
The Tallac does a really nice job of offering a bit of protection, especially around the toe cap, while still being a fair bit more breathable than most truly gravity-oriented shoes. The Tallac upper has a bit of padding and is by no means an ultra-minimalist, super breathable option, but it does breathe a lot better than many shoes with a synthetic leather upper, such as the Shimano AM9, Specialized 2FO DH, or Ride Concepts Transition. The tradeoff here is that the Tallac is not especially water-resistant. If you’re spending a lot of time riding in the wet, there are definitely better options (though the Tallac does a pretty good job of drying quickly), but I think that’s a tradeoff that most folks will be happy to make.
The Tallac’s sole is moderately stiff, but not nearly as stout as most truly XC-oriented shoes. The Tallac is a little stiffer than the Specialized 2FO DH, a bit more so than the Shimano AM9 and Endura MT500 Burner, but a little softer than the Ride Concepts Transition, for example. It’s a nice balance between offering enough stiffness for efficient pedaling and foot support when riding hard, while still being nicer to walk in than a super-stiff, XC-oriented shoe, and having just enough give to engage the platform of larger, more DH-oriented pedals if you’re running those.
The extended tread on the heel of the Tallac isn’t great for heel clearance against the chainstays / seatstays of the bike. It wasn’t too big a deal for me on most of the bikes I rode with the Tallac, apart from the YT Capra (which has fairly poor heel clearance itself), but I did notice more rubbing than average on a variety of bikes. It would probably be pretty easy to trim some of the offending tread with a razor blade if you’re so inclined, but folks who tend to get a lot of heel rub should take note.
The Tallac also takes a little fiddling to play nice with HT X2 SX pedals, due to the shoe’s slightly deeper than average cleat slot making for a bit of interference with the pedal body and the shoe sole, especially if you’re running the cleat fairly far back on the shoe. HT includes cleat shims to deal with such issues, and this isn’t the first shoe that I’ve had a little trouble dialing in with the X2 SX, but if you happen to be interested in running that combo, take note. Adding one of the black plastic shims under the cleat, plus removing the rear traction pins from the pedals, worked great, and the Tallac played nice with both Shimano XTR Trail and Saint pedals without any fuss.
Off the Bike
Simply put, the Tallac Clip is the best clipless shoe that I’ve tried to date when it comes to walking, especially for where I live in the Pacific Northwest, where hike-a-biking usually means something really steep with a ton of soft, loose dirt. Now, that’s still a very relative statement — clipless shoes are, as a general rule, pretty lousy to walk in, and I’m definitely not about to go for an all-day hike in the Tallac or anything like that.
But while the Tallac sole is moderately stiff — a good thing for on-bike performance, in my book — it’s just flexible enough to be reasonably comfortable to walk in, and its heel pocket is quite secure (on my feet, anyway) with no heel lift or chafing issues, and off-bike traction is well above average. It’s really nice for short hike-a-bikes without compromising riding performance to get there, apart from maybe the aforementioned lack of heel clearance on the frame.
Durability
The sole on the Tallac (Ride Concepts “Clip Grip” compound) is definitely on the softer side, especially for a clipless shoe, and I wouldn’t expect them to be the most durable if you’re doing a ton of scrambling around on rocks and so on. And while the soles are showing a bit of wear from pedal traction pins, it hasn’t caused any issues yet and everything else about them is holding up great. The upper feels quite tough, with a pretty burly fabric outer and extra laminated protection in high-wear areas, and the build quality seems quite nice throughout. I’ll report back if anything crops up as I spend more time in the Tallac, but they’re doing well so far.
Bottom Line
Ride Concepts has done a really nice job of taking a bunch of features typically found in gravity-oriented clipless shoes and rolling them into a cooler, more breathable package that also happens to walk notably well off the bike. And they’ve got one of the longest, most rearward cleat slots on the market, for folks (like me) who find most to be bafflingly far forward. There are a few little quirks, chiefly somewhat more limited heel clearance than average, but the Tallac is a very well thought out and nicely constructed shoe with a middle-of-the-road fit that should work well for a lot of people.
I like these shoes once they’re on, but putting them on without compressing the heel foam into a bad position is challenging. I ended up getting a shoe horn just for these sjoes