Hi - Just seen your post. Hopefully my comments / inputs not too late. I shopped around for affordable MTB shoes almost a year ago and ended up buying pair of Mr Price Maxed MTB shoes which I have been using for the best part of a year now and have no complaints about them. I searched the internet and found exactly the same shoes under a different brand name (cant remember the name now) but it seems they are made / branded for Mr Price by that manufacturer so I figured they couldnt be that bad? The only problem I had with them was that they were really tight in the cleats. This I figured was because the cleats were too deep set in the shoe and I overcame this by simply putting washers underneath the pedals to push them further out. Now they clip in nicely and release like they should (before they were a very tight fit and battled to clip in the cleat and release properly). I must admit that I have not owned many MTB shoes (only a pair of casual Exus before the Mr Price ones) but I have no complaints with them. Also happy with the grip when you off the bike - thought this would be a problem but it wasnt. Think I would like to upgrade to something more stylish pair for my next pair - so thanks for all the feedback re Olympics / First Ascent. So - In my opinion, if you dont want to fork out R800 (think the next closely priced shoes - Olympics?) and you looking for entry level shoes - I would say - good value for money so go for it.
