Five Ten Impact VXi Review
The Five Ten Impact shoe has been a huge success for aggressive free ride and downhill mountain bikers. It’s base is a super sticky Stealth Mi6 dotted Stealth sole. For riding flat pedals with a almost magnetic feeling to a clipless pedal. The shoe is a bit chunkier than other mountain biking shoes, but the foot protection is about as good as you can get, while still maintaining some flexibility.
The XVi is now even lighter weight, with the MI6 rubber (specifically designed for use in Mission Impossible 4, maybe they should have called it MI4???) the rubber is super sticky, and wears fairly well. If you are a regular rider you should expect to get a couple years out of the shoes wearing long sharp pedal pins.
The mid-sole of the is a soft foam that is wrapped with the sticky Stealth rubber. It offers a bit more comfort to the stiff shoe. Out of the box, you notice the weight difference in the Impact VXi. It’s rather stiff as well, you will notice if you are not use to riding Five Ten shoes. The shoe does have a break in period, expect 3+ days of solid rides
The toe is very well protected, wrapped in rubber from all angles. The toe box is very roomy and has a classic Five Ten mountain bike shoe feel to it. While I’m not a personal fan of all the room in the toe box, it’s prevented me from stubbing a toe when kicking rocks a few times.
The tough weather resistant outters not only look cool, but stand up to a beating. We mentioned kicking rocks in them (not recommended) but just the wear that occurs from peddle pins, and creases in the shoes that hold onto the dirt and slowly grind away at the shoe.
I’m pretty lazy when it comes to tying shoes, I usually leave them tied and cram my foot into them wiggling back and forth until they pop-in. This is pretty hard with the Impact shoe. They are stiff, and meant to stay on the foot. The heel of the shoe offers a contour that wraps up the ankle keeping your foot in the shoe. It’s also very stiff back there in the rear end of the shoe. Again offering very good protection when slipping pedals or foot planting a drifting berm.
The inside of the shoe marked with the Mi6 call out and a reminder that there is stealth rubber underneath is a softer feel to it. It makes it nicer on the arch and when walking around in the shoes.
The full dotty pattern is a little different from other Five ten shoes like the Freerider Contact that has a flat section under the ball of your foot. I think the full dotty holds even a little more than the complete flat peddle section of the Contact. It gives a little better traction when playing hike a bike.
The insoles of the Impact VXi leave something to be desired. Considering the new Hellcat shoe have a much nicer insole. And, many of the other Five Ten shoes now come with an Ortholite insole.
The shoe is light, 400 grams for a size 10.5. For the amount of protection you get with these shoes it’s a perfect trade off.
On the trail
Overall
After riding these shoes for a couple months they have held up really well. Honestly they are probably a bit more of a shoe than I need. I spend most my time on a 160mm bike, love bombing technical fast sections, but I am pretty happy riding a pair of Five Ten Freeriders. However, for a day at the bike park or shuttling, these are the shoes I grab when I’m not peddaling. They are the fastest drying shoes, or the most breathable, but they are light weight and offer a ton of foot protection.
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