My initial impressions of the Trailcross SLs were not great. Too flexible. Not very stable for HAB in technical terrain. Didn't work well with my usual after-market insoles. So I put them back in their box for the winter. Over that time I ended up wearing a number of really flexible shoes for other non-bikey activities. A month ago I hauled the TC SL's out again to give them another shot and liked them a lot more. I skipped the after-market insoles \[made the soles more stable/fit better\] and my feet had adapted a lot better to shoes without much structure/support. So the TC SL's are back in rotation as my non-technical riding shoes and they'll get bikepacked a bunch this summer.
While my opinion has improved the fact they are very flexible hasn't changed. I wouldn't want to wear them for pounding downhill on my MTB all day. I'd want something with a stiffer sole for that, but for less demanding riding that includes wet feet/creek crossings and more all around riding they are looking promising.....assuming you don't need after-market insoles and can adapt to the lack of support.
To prevent getting debris in your shoes you can use mini-gaiters like these ones. They work well with pretty much any shoe and you can ditch them when you don't need them which is nice.
June 9, 2021, 7:27 a.m. - Vik Banerjee
My initial impressions of the Trailcross SLs were not great. Too flexible. Not very stable for HAB in technical terrain. Didn't work well with my usual after-market insoles. So I put them back in their box for the winter. Over that time I ended up wearing a number of really flexible shoes for other non-bikey activities. A month ago I hauled the TC SL's out again to give them another shot and liked them a lot more. I skipped the after-market insoles \[made the soles more stable/fit better\] and my feet had adapted a lot better to shoes without much structure/support. So the TC SL's are back in rotation as my non-technical riding shoes and they'll get bikepacked a bunch this summer. While my opinion has improved the fact they are very flexible hasn't changed. I wouldn't want to wear them for pounding downhill on my MTB all day. I'd want something with a stiffer sole for that, but for less demanding riding that includes wet feet/creek crossings and more all around riding they are looking promising.....assuming you don't need after-market insoles and can adapt to the lack of support. To prevent getting debris in your shoes you can use mini-gaiters like these ones. They work well with pretty much any shoe and you can ditch them when you don't need them which is nice. 