FiveTen have entered the clipless shoe arena with their Minnaar and stealthy Hellcat shoes, which use a similar sticky rubber sole to their famous flat pedal footwear. Grip off the bike is pretty good, and on platform-style clipless pedals it’s noticeably better than it is with other shoes.
The sole feels quite deep though, and does suffer from some lateral flex. This works well on platform pedals because it enables you to move around, but on smaller, trail-style pedals such as Shimano XTRs, the shoes lack support and the flex can make the outside of your foot ache on longer rides.
The upper looks great and features a huge Velcro strap for adjustment and lace retention. Both the toe and heel box offer plenty of protection. We did have to trim a little material from the cleat recess for optimum use with cleats in a rearward position.
Due to a fairly wide fit we found that we had to tie the laces extremely tightly to avoid heel slippage off the bike. That ended up pinching our feet a bit, so we recommend you try the shoes on for size first. That said, the overall feel is great and they take a knock well. We’ve been living in ours and like them a lot.