Teva Links Mids and Five Ten Line King

Unicycles and Equipment
1

I thought I would post up a few pictures and my thoughts on these shoes. I’m still new to unicycling but in the past 3 months I have spent a good amount of time with my feet on the pedals.

Teva Links Mids

I originally hadn’t planned to buy myself any “unicycling shoes” but when I was looking at the Links on Amazon I noticed the Mids were cheaper than the low version…Great! I like the Mids better anyway, so I ordered them for $39 at the time! So, for the past couple months they have been my unicycling shoes and also pulled some casual time because they are as comfortable as any other shoes I have. The Mids are like they say, a mid top shoe which covers your ankle bone but not much higher. They didn’t have much of a break in period and seemed to really fit my foot (slightly narrow) well. First impressions on the unicycle - I noticed that I couldn’t as easily tell where the pedal was under my foot. While it seemed like a negative, it is actually a good thing. That’s the nature of the stiffer sole distributing the pressure across more of my foot. Once I get pedaling, I can tell where my feet need to be and they are relatively easy to re-position on the pedals. That’s a good and bad thing. There have been muni times where I wanted to stay on the pedals, but a small hop or a bump in the trail would make me lose my footing. I have got used to the Links and their predictablility and don’t discount them as a good muni shoe, especially for the price I got them for.

Five Ten Line King

Once I picked up a trials uni, then a 24" freestyle uni, I was spending more time in the basement and in parking lots. Well, my Links usually stay pretty dirty from the trails so I thought I may pick up a pair of Five Ten’s since I have read good things about the so called glue shoes. I was looking at the Freeride’s online which were running about $79 then I spotted some high tops that caught my eye! Well the Five Ten high tops, unlike my good luck with the Teva’s, are more expensive than the low tops, by a good bit…actually they costed $120. But, since it’s tax return season I thought I would splurge for them!

They came in a few days ago. I ordered the same size (11.5) as my Links and when I put them on and laced them up…oh no…they’re too big I thought. So I grab the Links and put one on the other foot and start pressing the tops of my toes. Same gap in front of toe… I roll them against each other from heel to toe… same length. Hmm…then I realize it’s just the toe box of the Five Tens are a good bit roomier. Happy again. So I keep them and start wearing them around.

To be continued… I didn’t realize it was going to take me this long to gather my thoughts about 2 pair of shoes. :smiley:

2

Five Ten Line King continued

First impressions - they are comfortable out of the box, but being a high top it feels like they are going to have a break in period. With them laced to the top I can feel the sides of the shoe and the tongue pushing against my leg…not in a nuisance way, just that I can tell they’re there. The laces in these are your typical, flat style lace that isn’t as stretchy. They’re also long enough to lace up through all the eyelets without being too long. I can ride the unicycle laces out without much fear of them catching in the pedals. If you want to tuck them in though, you may have to drop an eyelet otherwise they may not be long enough to stay tucked.

I couldn’t edit my original post since 30 minutes had past, so I will throw in a part about the Links laces here. The laces in the Links are kind of stretchy. You can really pull them tight if you want to, but even laced all the way up they are long laces. I always tuck the laces into the shoe when I’m riding because they’re so long, but they do seem to stay in the shoe well once tucked.

First impressions on the unicycle - hmm these do stick to the pedals! I can feel the pedal under my feet a little more with the Five Tens, but even when my feet are a little out of position I don’t feel an urgent need to move them. I think the grippier sole is allowing me to maintain better control when my feet aren’t in the perfect spot, as opposed to the Links I usually want them just right. BUT, when I do need to shift my feet on the pedals, it takes more of a conscious effort. They won’t easily slide up the pedal…I either have to lift them and reposition or kinda roll my foot up the pedal.

Comparison

Comfort - the broken in Links are more comfortable right now, but not a fair comparison until I’ve had more time with the Line Kings. Flexing each sole by hand they feel about the same. Walking with one on each foot I don’t think I would be able to tell one shoe from the other if it weren’t for feeling the height of the Line Kings against my leg.

Grip - the Line Kings do have more grip on the pedals…this results in better control, but harder to reposition. I think my riding will favor the grippier sole, again time will tell.

Feel - I can feel the pedals more through the Five Tens. I also layed out a few small pebbles and stepped on them wearing each shoe, and with the Links I could tell I was stepping on something, but with the Five Tens I could tell it was a small object. It was more of a single point of feeling under my foot.

Overall I think both are great pairs of shoes. As I wear them both, or begin to prefer one over the other I will update the thread with my thoughts!

Notice the toe is a little more round and wide on the Line Kings…

Line Kings are also a good bit taller than the Links

3

Thanks for posting this review! I was recently looking at the Line King’s online and have started to develop a liking to them…are they typically true to size? I’m usually a 9.5-10, but my feet are wide (have to go all the way to 11 for Adidas, or other narrow shoes, to fit, for example).

Also, sweet uni. I have the 20" version

4

The Line Kings so far have been a great shoe and show no wear yet. My wife actually took notice the other day and said something about how clean they still look.

For the size, if you are generally between 2 sizes I would get the smaller ones. An 11.5 is my most consistent size but the Line Kings are maybe .25" longer than I’d like. Since the review I bought some 5.10 Dirtbags on sale on amazon in size 11 and they fit perfect for me.

5

Don’t forget to have a look at the closeout section of the fiveten shop. There are still some sweet deals to be found.

http://shopfiveten.com/C-44/Bike

6

Five ten

Just bought my second pair of Five Ten Freerides. Love them! First pair still going strong with soles still hanging tough after over 1,000 miles riding on Addict pedals with pretty aggressive metal pins. Bought second pair so I could leave one pair in my car in my “impromptu ride kit”

Few things worth noting upon buying second pair:

  1. These shoes only get better as you wear down the soles in terms of responsiveness and feel. Wouldn’t have noticed, but buying a new pair I can tell the difference…old ones, which I wear eves and weekends while riding or not, definitely provide better pedal “feel” after you wear down the rubber some. They’re great when new, but get better with age!
  2. Soles will gradually lose some stickiness as dirt & grime permeate, but a quick wash in washer followed by a few minutes drying time in dryer seem to make them stickier even than when new! Bonus!!

Soles of Freerides are identical to ones shown above.
Anecdotally I will add this tale:
Upon first riding with them, I couldn’t believe how well they stuck to pedals…like glue! Initially took a bit of getting used to and a bit more thought to adjust footing on pedals, but I would never go back. Maybe a month in, I didn’t have my Freerides and hopped on a uni with my old “riding” shoes which were simply a pair of running shoes (soles of which were pretty destroyed from pedal pins)…
What I couldn’t believe was how my feet kept slipping off the pedals in my old running shoes! Almost got me in trouble a few times because I’d just grown so accustomed to the FiveTens which kept them ATTACHED and actually had taught me that I could ride while putting less pressure on pedals.
Again: I’d never go back!