Thanks for tuning in, this is The Sweet
Cyclists and today we're gonna go over the
heat molding process for Bont cycling
shoes. Whether you have bunions, hammertoes, high
arches or even average feet heat molding
really allows you to customize the shoes
exactly to your feet. Today we'll be
doing overview the heat molding process
for Bont Cycling shoes but we recommend
you follow the manufacturer's
guidelines if you have a different shoe.
We've done the whole heat molding
process for two Bont Cycling models,
the Helix shown on the left and the Vaypor
S shown on the right. With these shoes
you can actually heat mold the carbon soles
in the comfort of your own home using a
standard oven and relatively low
temperatures. While this isn't equivalent
to a fully custom shoe it really allows
you to dial in the fit at a fraction of
the cost. With the Bont cycling shoes
there are a few basic steps: you prepare
the shoes, you heat them up and finally
you wear them to mold them in. Let's jump
right into it! The first step is to
prepare the shoes and that involves
removing the factory insoles and making
sure there's no cleats attached. With the
insoles it takes a little bit of force
to take them out but once you get enough
leverage they will come out. They're not
glued in and you definitely want to remove
these as they will become damaged and
will have to be replaced if you place
them in the high heat of the oven. You
want to take them out of the shoes and
again make sure any accessories are
removed. The second step is to turn up
the heat on your oven, now you don't need
a cool pink oven like we have you can
you can use countertop ovens as Bont
only recommends 160 degrees Fahrenheit
or 70 Celsius which is quite low. If
you don't trust the thermometer on your
oven you can even use a little meat
thermometer to make sure you reach
temperature. You don't want to do it too
high or too low as if you do it too high
you're damaged and too low you won't
actually start the process. Then you
place the shoes in there, Bont
recommends about 20 minutes for the
process and I recommend periodically
checking on it to make sure the
soles are actually soft to touch.
They'll be a little more malleable than
they were a cold. Once you're happy
with them
you come back and you remove it. The
shoes will be kind of hot and you will
actually smell some of the carbon as
well.
Carefully remove it and now we'll heat
mold it to our feet. Now for the most
awkward but important part of the heat
molding process, this is where you
actually get the soles to mold to your
feet and that requires having these
shoes warm enough that the sole is still
moldable but not so hot that you'll burn
your feet. Once they are they
comfortable enough temperature you want
to reinstall the insoles and then you
want to loosely tighten down the dials.
You don't want to overdo it as it'll
actually cause the insole to bend a
little bit, so once you have them loosely
in place you want to stand in a location
with your knees bent and just wait till
these shoes cool down a bit and mold.
Now for us this took about two
iterations to really get it down the
first time partially got us there while
the second time really relieved the
pressure points. You can repeat the
process as many times as needed though
so if you find out you have pressure
points later you can always come back
and repeat the process. Also if you have
pressure points you can attack them with
a blunt object like the back of a
screwdriver to really localize the
molding process. So if you have low
arches higher arches you can really
attack it individually without putting
these shoes on and off. Once the Vapor
S shoes were heat molded really felt
like a big difference, we did the process
twice and it really relieved a lot of
the pressure I felt around my toes and
arches and I really felt the soles
really contour around me so. Once they
heat molded you have a more custom fit I
felt like we had better power transfer
and less discomfort. It really allows you
to focus on riding instead of your feet.
Thanks for watching the cyclists guide
to heat molding. If you liked the content
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can see more content from us on our
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@TheSweetCyclists. This is The Sweet Cyclists
reminding you to enjoy the ride!
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