Wolvhammers - Day 2

Ok, here we go, drum roll please..... These shoes rock.  Yes they are ridiculously priced; yes, if you did not get your order in already, your chances of finding them are dwindling by the day; and yes, if you can, but still haven't, definitely pull the trigger and get them.  I think they are going to be that good.

If you ride clipped and you ride in the winter, then you know that your choice of footwear has been severely limited.  For hardcore cold weather it has really been a one shoe show, the Lakes.  I rode the Lakes last year, and while they worked, I would not have used them in extremes.  For the really cold stuff, people were forced to be creative with home made outers to get those shoes working in really cold stuff. Top that off with the fact that they were narrow and really not comfortable to pedal in, and well, their was room for something new.

Enter 45Nrth and their Wolvhammer.  A winter boot designed for cyclists who want to ride in cold to extreme cold temps and conditions.  There are lots of detailed reviews on the shoes, so you can get all the specifics there.  I am hear to pass on my initial thoughts, along with some running dialogue as I get to know the shoes -- how they work as well as what they don't do well.  They are good, but they are not perfect.  Perhaps perfection will appear next year, but for now, these are the bomb.

Today's ride was cold; 24 miles of hard trail in temps that started at 10 degrees and worked their way up to about 18, a bit more than 3 hours in the saddle.  All in all I would call those cold conditions, albeit not extreme.  Their was no snow today, no wind or any of those other things that come into play when talking about extreme temps. 

For my personal setup I am still playing with different layering strategies.  With these boots, I bought up one size and I think that was perfect.  I have plenty of room to run a liner plus a thin VBL and then an over sock.  There is also plenty of room to go the RBH way, and use a simple liner sock paired with their Vapr-Therm insulated VBL sock.  This sock combines 200 wt Polargaurd with a VBL barrier and an inner wicking liner all in one sock.  That is the combination that I chose to test out today.

From the start my feet and toes were comfortable and only got warmer as the ride progressed.  Yes the temps increased, as did my workload, which coupled with the warmth of the boot and the layers, had me feeling extremely comfortable.  For those temperatures I would say that I had too much on, and instead would next time use a liner paired with the Reed Aquatherm (VBL) socks and a mid weight wool oversock. The RBH Vapr-Therm socks are warm!

The good news is that I have no doubt that these shoes are very capable of going down into the negative zone.  How far down I don't know, but I believe that it will easily be to the -10 or -15 range.  I think below that may be problematic with either of the layering approaches above.  This leads me to what I consider to be a weakness of the shoe. 

In an attempt to create a boot that could deal with snow, 45Nrth made the upper part of the shoe very snug fitting.  What this means is that with typical thick wool socks, the kind that come up to your calf, you are going to have some challenges layering everything up and getting the zipper to close. As an example, while I can get a liner, a thin VBL, and an exped weight wool sock in the boot itself, with room for my toes to wiggle, I can't zip up the boot.  Another example is with the setup I used today, where I could not get my Craft pants inside of the boot and still have them zip up.  This meant I had to put the Crafts on the outside, which then meant I could not close up the ankle...  So, with the Lakes it was the footbed that was the limiting factor in layering, while in the Wolvhammers it is the ankle portion and the zipper.

So, like with all gear, especially gear for sport specific applications, there are compromises to be had and choices to be made.  My expedition socks and Craft pants were chosen before I had the Wolvhammers.  Obviously I would have preferred that everything work together as planned, but now I will have to revisit layering options as well as shell choices. I may even look at cutting down and then sewing some of my socks to eliminate the issues up to the calf.  That is not a zone I am typically cold in, but unfortunately most cold weather socks are bulky there.  Anyone know of options, bulky on the foot but tapered on the ankle?

With all of that said, I am stoked about these shoes.  I worked hard today on the ride, and hammered the flats and stood on the hills.  The boots are incredibly comfortable to pedal.  As they break in, I think they will only get more comfortable.  The feeling of my foot in the boot is warm, soft and comfortable. With the pull laces, you have the ability to easily snug the shoes up with lighter layers, or loosen them up when going thick.  Everything has big pull tabs for gloved operation, which is something that all winter gear should have.

All in all I am incredibly excited about the boots.  More miles and conditions are needed, but for now I say get them if you can.  They are definitely worth the ching.

Testing the Wolvhammers

Just finished my first ride in the shoes.  About an hour and a half of effort. Temps were 18 degrees with a wind chill rating of 11, so definitely chilly.  To test things out, I wore only a sock liner and a very old compressed light weight wool trekking sock.  This is definitely not the combination of layers that I would normally wear for these conditions.

The shoes felt great, with good support at the pedal and very easy to walk in. With that setup, there was still a good bit of movement by my feet, but the internal boot and cinching mechanism certainly helps snug everything down.  The inner boot has a very comfortable feel to it against the foot. 

My feet and toes felt fine at the end of the ride, with only the smallest  sensation of cold in the toe box.  I took the shoes off, and stuck my hands in them and you could feel the trapped heat throughout the boot.  The exception was up at the end of the toe box where the the cold radiates in ever so slightly through the reinforced outer rand. I don't think this will be an issue at all once I have on the appropriate layers.

Obviously these are just initial impressions, and since my goal was to see if I could get my toes cold, which did NOT happen, I am very pleased.  Given the sizing of the shoes, and the bulk of the RBH VBL socks, I am going to concentrate on using the Reed Chillcheater socks as my VBL.  I have some more testing to do with them, but so far I am very pleased.  I had planned on the combination of: sock liner | RBH  VBL | Expedition Wool, but that is an extremely bulky combination.  I will now look at using: sock liner | Reed Chillcheater | Reed Transpire Fleece | Mid weight wool. 

The challenge with both approaches is not in the toe box of the shoes, where there is plenty of room, but instead from the ankle up. The boot is cut snug here, so these multiple layers up that portion of my leg make it difficult to zip the boots closed. Since it is this area that is at issue, sizing up one more size would most likely not help the situation at all.  I will have to experiment with a couple of different options and report back when I figure it out.  All in all, for the first day, I am pretty stoked about the shoes. 

There should be no issues with these shoes down into the negative temps.  How far down I I can comfortably go, I don't know.

The last major piece of kit

Today, finally, my 45Nrth Wolvhammer shoes arrived. This was that last piece of major kit that I was missing for the upcoming AK trip.   My initial thoughts are incredibly positive on fit and finish. I ended up going up a size and a half (normally 42.5 and I got 44), as this will be a deep winter shoe for me.  If I were not going to extreme conditions, I think I would not have to go up at all.  The overall fit and finish is extremely nice, with very well thought out features.

For my foot system, running a sock liner, a thin VBL (not RBH), and a heavyweight wool sock, they fit perfectly.  I had actually hoped to use an expedition wool sock, and while it fits in the foot portion of the boot, the ankle portion is to tight to zip up.  Because of this, I will rethink my layering approach down in the shoe box.  All in all, much more put together shoe than the Lake's I pedaled last year. The temps have dropped into the teens so I will get some riding time in them this weekend.  Hope this helps people on the fence...

I just finished installing my cleats on the shoes and am off for my first trial run.  Temps are in the mid 20's so not really challenging for a shoe like this, but getting out will allow me to begin the process of breaking them in.  The uppers are solid and I can tell that it will take some riding to get everything to 'soften up' a bit.  Look for a running set of entries on these shoes and how they work for cold weather riding.