Many mountain bike and road shoes come with the Boa fastening system that works really well in the way that it incrementally tightens (and loosens) your shoes so that you can achieve optimal comfort in any weather conditions. But the Boa system isn’t bulletproof and a breakdown or failure is a possibility. We were blown away by the efficiency of Boa’s free warranty process, which we experienced first-hand, as described here.
By Sean Badenhorst
I currently have four pairs of mountain bike shoes, all of them 3-4 years old, two of them use Boa’s fastening system. They all probably need replacing, but the Bontrager Cambions are in fairly good condition compared to the others, reason being the Boa dial on the left shoe broke, so I stopped using those shoes for about a year.
I decided to find out if it’s possible to replace the Boa dial with a post on my Facebook page. Within minutes I had a few responses, one being that Boa will replace any broken dials under what seems to be a Boa warranty.
On the boafit.com website page I answered a few questions to help narrow down which Boa model I needed. I also included my physical address as requested. Three days later a pair of brand-new Boa dials arrived – a left and a right – at no charge. Each side comes in its own sealed pack with the new Boa dial, the lace, a small disposable screwdriver and an instruction sheet.
I followed the instructions and had my new left Boa dial and lace fitted within about 25 minutes. It wasn’t a smooth process as I encountered many moments of doubt. But in hindsight, I realise I was just being overcautious and was double and triple checking everything. The most tricky part is ‘knotting’ the lace into the dial correctly. But the instructions really are well illustrated and easy to follow. I reckon I could do the right-hand shoe replacement in about 15 minutes now that I’ve got some experience.
One thing this does do is make you appreciate just how clever the Boa system is. And how much the company cares about its customers, which are essentially the shoe brands and us, the riders.
I was nearing a point when I felt I may have to buy at least one new pair of mountain bike shoes, but with the Bontrager Cambions now fastening and loosening as they were designed to, I have a good few months left on these. Thank goodness, they cost R4599 now! If you have any mountain bike shoes that you can’t use because the Boa dial or lace is broken or damaged, then click on this link https://store.boafit.com/en-us/warranty and claim your warranty replacement.
