Bont shoe fit - experiences?

doozerie

I'm considering getting a pair of bont shoes, the A-Two's to be precise, to see if the mouldable fit will handle my mis-matched feet better than regular shoes. The fit of Bont shoes is a widely debated online topic I know, and is one of the reasons I've been reluctant to take the plunge with Bont shoes to date, but I wondered if anyone here has found themselves in similar circumstances as me and can relate their experiences?

One of my feet is exactly at the upper limit of the size range of a Bont size 39 (according to this Bont sizing chart, and using the Vaypor table as a guide), in terms of both length and width. I've measured at various points in the day, though never immediately after exercise, and my foot always measures the same. In theory then I should buy a size 39, but that advice from Bont to consider allowing an extra 2 to 4mm in length makes me wonder whether a size 39 will be too tight rather than exactly right. Has anyone found themselves on the limit of a Bont size and actually tried that size for fit?

My other foot is almost exactly (1mm longer than) a size 38 by the same chart (yes, I'm like a child's drawing of a human, one foot is "near", the other foot is "far away"!) so while I'm happy that a size 39 would be okay for it, playing safe and going for a size 40 'cos of my other foot will potentially leave this foot swimming which is exactly the issue I have with regular un-mouldable shoes.

So another question is to what extent the moulding process can compensate for a shoe that is too big? In this case, if I go for a size 40 the shoe would be 11mm longer than my smaller foot. While I've read of people using moulding to make a short shoe marginally "longer" (by up to half a size is one claim that I've seen), can it also make a long shoe "shorter"?

So my current choices are: go with a size 40 and try to "shrink" one shoe to fit my smaller foot, or go with a size 39 and possibly(?) have to "expand" one shoe to fit my larger foot. I'd be grateful to hear of the experiences of anyone that has tried Bont's.

clog

I've two pairs of Bont's I went by the guide on the first pair (size45) and I originally found them a bit too tight. Put them in the oven for a bit and after a couple of try's I got them to fit perfectly. For the the next pair I bought the next size up and they have been perfect right out of the box.

doozerie

@clog, Were you close to the recommended upper size limit for the size 45's do you recall? Their recommended length range is 282mm to 285mm according to the Bont chart for all but the Riot shoes.

clog

doozerie wrote: »

@clog, Were you close to the recommended upper size limit for the size 45's do you recall? Their recommended length range is 282mm to 285mm according to the Bont chart for all but the Riot shoes.

I think I was close to the size limit and my reasoning was something similar to yours in that if they were slightly too small it wouldn't be too hard to re mould them.

The second pair I bought to be honest were on special offer for that size and they didn't have a 45. I had the intention of remoulding them as well if they were too big. I found that these were perfect right out of the box and have not needed to do anything with them.

The shoes were A2 and Vapour.

Beasty

Got a pair "made to measure" (involved a moulding process and sending it back to China, so not cheap and takes a while)

Gotta say - they fit like a (pair of) glove(s)!

doozerie

@Beasty, Do you know if they made a last to the exact length and width of each foot or did they add a few extra millimetres?

Beasty

The casts were made at home using special socks they provide.

Length-wise there's a little space. Width-wise they have leeway both ways because of the way the they tighten with a standard caliper buckle and strap

I do have very wide feet with a very deep instep and these are far better than anything else I have (I usually have to go a size up even with the Sidi mega sizing).

Here they are:

no1murray

Thousand bucks aint bad for comfort. Im lucky I can by off the peg. Bont zeros nicest pair of shoes I have ever owned. I egnored the sizing guide and got my normal size thank god I did, would never have fitted into the size bont recommend.

no1murray

Thousand bucks aint bad for comfort. Im lucky I can by off the peg. Bont zeros nicest pair of shoes I have ever owned. I egnored the sizing guide and got my normal size thank god I did, would never have fitted into the size bont recommend.

no1murray

Thousand bucks aint bad for comfort. Im lucky I can by off the peg. Bont zeros nicest pair of shoes I have ever owned. I egnored the sizing guide and got my normal size thank god I did, would never have fitted into the size bont recommend.

no1murray

Thousand bucks aint bad for comfort. Im lucky I can by off the peg. Bont zeros nicest pair of shoes I have ever owned. I egnored the sizing guide and got my normal size thank god I did, would never have fitted into the size bont recommend.

Juan More Time

From my experience the Bont size wizard is fairly accurate. It suggested I buy 42.5 regular but when they arrived they were a very tight fit, so. I immediately returned them and ordered size 43 regular. These are still a pretty snug fit, but just allow for a little toe wiggle room.

I wear the el cheapo bont a-three shoes..they only cost me €100 last year from merlin cycles in the uk. The minute you try on bont you will be be shocked by how rigid they are. They kinda make you wonder what kind of crappy carbon is in some of the high end €300+ cycling shoes, when a pair of fiberglass soled a-three's are the stiffest cycling shoes I've ever worn.

After wearing my bonts for less than a couple of weeks last year, I came to the conclusion that such such rigid cycling shoes really weren't necessary and put them back in their box and reverted to my normal cycling shoes. It's only lately I've decided to give them another try.

The velodrome shop sell the bont vapor in narrow, normal, and wide fittings and in half size increments. Merlin cycles also sell bont's in half size increments

doozerie

I opted for size 40 A-Two's. According to the size chart on the Bont website these should be 5mm longer than my larger foot, 11mm longer than my smaller foot, so I was playing safe. This was also the size suggested by their sizing tool, where you enter the length and width of each foot and it returns the recommended size.

They arrived a few days ago but I haven't done anything more than stuff my feet into them as yet. Initial impressions: the longest toe of my larger foot just (barely) touches the end of the shoe, my smaller foot has lots of room but because of the stiffness of the uppers it doesn't feel as loose as I'd feared. I'm not sure whether moulding the shoes will do much to reduce the empty space around the smaller foot, but after moulding hopefully the stiffness of the uppers alone will help avoid some of the issues I usually have with cycling shoes where I have to tighten the shoe on the smaller foot so much that the uppers dig into the top of my foot "unevenly".

It'll be at least a couple of weeks before I get to mould them, I'll recount my experiences here in case it is of use to anyone else. I suspect that if I'd bought size 39, the size that my larger foot matched exactly on the Bont sizing chart, that they would have felt too tight on my larger foot and much better than the size 40 on my smaller foot - that might have been a better choice, assuming the moulding would allow me to lengthen the shoe on my larger foot. I'm going to stick with the 40's though, and see how I fare.

Incidentally, the size chart on the Merlin website for A-Two's is different to that on the Bont website. The chart on Merlin, which appears to be an official Bont chart of some vintage or other, suggests a size 40 for me where the one on the Bont website suggests 39. I've no idea which one is "current", I've read that Bont changed their sizing some time back to bring it into line with other brands so perhaps one of these two charts is quite old, but which one? You'd assume the one on Merlin's website is less reliable than the one on Bont's own website, but there appears to be such confusion around Bont sizing generally that it's hard to be sure of anything. This kind of disparity adds further confusion, unfortunately.