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I'm 2 rides into wearing my Shimano MW5 winter boots, first ride was dry , but a ride a few days ago was slightly damp in places , few puddles here and there and some wheel spray , it wasn't raining , ground was dry the most part , but I had that feeling on more than 1 occasion that my feet felt wet after a few puddles etc , not soaked but damp and when I took my shoes off you could see my socks were wet in places ?
They have a dry shield liner membrane inside to keep feet dry and warm supposedly
I've since contacted the shop and too be honest they weren't interested , just saying they aren't waterproof , just water resistant ! .... Id understand if it was lashing down etc and non stop rivers across the roads and trails but a bit of spray and my feet are wet ?
Anyone else had issues with them ?
Looking at the Shimano website the MW5s are (surprisingly to me!) not described as waterproof or water resistant, whereas the MW7s are, so that’ll be your issue.
The reason that I’m surprised is because when I read a review of the MW7s a few years ago, one of the conclusions was that the MW5s were cheaper, and just as good but without the cost of the gore-tex.
Trousers or tights? <br />I’ve had these three winters and they work best when wearing trousers covering the top part. Cuff part is neoprene and not waterproof and if you don’t line the tongue up properly the bellowed part can gap allowing water in quicker. Not great wading depth either for the same reason but not alone in this. All in all I’ve be pretty happy with mine.
Mine are not fully waterproof. They keep water out well - bit eventually you get wet (still warm). I can stand in a deep puddle a few seconds and I'm ok.
I've had properly waterproof shoes before and found water just comes down legs and in anyway...
was wearing tights at the time , cuffs at top all dry etc , it just felt wet around the toe box , which showed on my socks ! ... didn't realise id have to wear waterproof socks under my winter boots ! ... seems a total waste of money now
Got two pairs of MW7's and road RW5 (same other than no tread and drilled for 3 hole cleats).
Water can get in the big hole at the top where your leg goes. If its going to be pretty wet, I use some cheap dry suit arm cuffs (arm are narrower) cut down to fit over the shoe cuff. Works really well.
You'll still get a little damp but feet are warm.
Water shouldn't be getting in anywhere else though. May have forced under the tongue/flap at the front of shoe. Make sure its pressed down.
I spend half the year and more in my MW7's hence the second pair.
I've only managed to really defeat my MW5 by standing near enough ankle deep for 10+ seconds once, I won't be doing that again.
They deal well enough with spray, accumulated mud and the odd sploosh through a puddle, but the ankle bit is basically just neoprene and water could get round the front flap if submerged. Cleat slots are probably a potential weak point too but I've not noticed a leak there yet.
That said I have had slightly sweaty feet after rides above maybe 12 Deg+, just cos they're quite well insulated/not so breathable, you sure it's not just sweaty feet?
They're still much better than overshoes IME/IMO.
My old MW5's were pretty waterproof until about 2 years in, then they leaked a little at the toe flex point around wheer the ball of the foot is. they'd done their time OK, and I didn't notice it unless I was stood in water, for general riding they didn't leak.
I managed to replace them with an ebay set of MW7's for about £20, which I was well chuffed with and I have to say, they are so much better than the MW5. The closure flap is more secure and the boa system is miles and miles better than the shockcord laces of the MW5.
The MW7's are not as warm as the MW5's but I'm putting that down to breathability of the drysheild vs goretex as they seem to have simialr (not much) fluffy bits inside. I just noticed I need to wear my thermal socks moreso than with the MW5's.
MW5's are a great boot, but not a patch on the MW7's.
Also - GripGrab gaiters are a good addition to MW5/7s to further waterproof the ankle area.
Anything with a neoprene collar leaks eventually. They hold water just fine, but as you flex the boot, you squeeze small amounts of water into the shoe. A waterproof gator or overshoe solves this, but at the cost of breathability.
That's odd, because I bought the MW7s to replace my old MW81s and they're actually a bit on the large side.
MW5 are narrower fit than MW81, but....
MW5 are "normal" shoe sized in terms of length unlike Shimano of old. I am wearing size 43 MW5 vs needing size 44 MW81 to get the length.
My Mrs has size 43 MW81 and in one of the other MW5 threads I stuck a photo of the old vs new size 43 insoles for comparison - there is a sizeable (like 10mm) length difference.
I bought a couple of pairs of Scott heater gortex boots years ago on a PSA on here. They've been brilliant.
The sole has come off one now and I was going to replace it with the shimano mw5 or 7 but the reviews are very mixed.
So I took it to the local cobblers and he's currently trying to glue it all back together. No idea if it will be waterproof but can't be much worse than the mw5.
Reading this thread makes me think I made the right choice.
Just for this thread I decided to 'challenge' the water tightness of my MW5s and finished up my ride last night by pedalling through a couple of hundred yards of flood water:
So I'd say my foot got 'damp' not saturated and you can sort of tell how the water gets in. The tongue flap bottom edge has let a bit past to soak through the tongue (it is only velcro'd in position), and the vent holes on the toe box have probably been defeated a bit too. The wrap around neoprene 'collar' has gotten saturated and finally leaked through to my sock, but you could see the difference between the amount of water that had gotten in above and below that collar.
Where that water has gotten past by my heel you can see the insoles were a bit damp, but forward of that they were still dry, if I'd pedalled on for another couple of miles I'm sure more water would have soaked through though.
The instep area was surprisingly dry, and there was even a little dry patch on my sock just behind the top of the tongue (where the flap/collar overlap).
So yeah, not waterproof, and I wouldn't normally seek out a flood to ride through like that, especially if it had been colder or further from home, but for science I did and my feet didn't get as wet as I was expecting.
They've spent some time being blown on by a fan heater and are dry again now...