Quoc Mono II cycling shoes

The Quoc Mono II shoes are light, comfortable and minimalist go-faster slippers with extremely stiff soles. If you're looking for high performance, super-modern kicks, they've got to be on your shortlist.

After a few hundred kilometres in the Mono IIs, they've become my go-to shoes for everything from quick leg-looseners to long days out on the bike. I like their simplicity, comfort and ease of adjustment on the fly, but the sole's stiffness is their best feature; they just don't budge, however hard you stomp on them.

If a very stiff sole isn't well-shaped to your foot it can be quite uncomfortable, but that's not the case here.

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The Mono IIs provide consistent support from heel to toe with no voids or pressure points, while the synthetic upper wraps snugly round your foot to keep things in place. The adjustment dials provide fine control over the fit and are very easy to use.

Construction

The Mono II shoes are admirably simple. The upper is made from two pieces of microfibre synthetic leather, with hundreds of tiny perforations for ventilation. It's held closed by a pair of ratchet dials, which look like Boa dials, but aren't.

Quoc's Holly Winstone says the company's test riders find 'the adjustment is even easier/more precise than the Boa dials.' They certainly have a very nice light feel (the dials, not the test riders) with a bit less resistance than Boa dials.

Where some shoes have lots of padding and a fabric lining, the Mono IIs put your socks right against the microfibre for most of the shoe. There's padding around the back to help cushion and locate your heel, but that's about it.

Initially this feels a bit odd, but the microfibre Quoc uses is malleable enough that, after a few minutes, it snugs to your feet and you stop noticing.

The sole is uni-directional carbon fibre, so if you're a fan of carbon weave, I'm afraid you're out of luck; it looks like classy matt-black plastic. It's extremely stiff and quite thin (Quoc says it's just 4mm thick); you might have to move your saddle down a couple of millimetres if you're very sensitive to bike position, and you're replacing cheaper shoes with thicker soles.

A small mesh panel under the toes provides a bit of ventilation and acts as a drain if it rains.

The soles have rubber bumpers under the heels and toes to protect them on the walk from bike to cafe counter. The bumpers at the toes are bonded in place, so you won't be able to easily fit new ones when they wear out, but that keeps the weight down.

The rear bumper is held by a cross-head screw accessed from inside the shoe, and you'll be able to get replacements through Quoc's website.

The sole is drilled and threaded for three-bolt cleats. Offering a four-bolt option for Speedplays has been discussed, according to Quoc, but it looks like they're waiting to see how well that platform does in the marketplace now that Wahoo has reintroduced it.

Inside we find Quoc's Natural Fit insole, which is shaped and stiffened to provide support for the arch, with a dimple to put the ball of your foot close to the sole. Like the upper it's extensively perforated and it's all I can do not to make a silly gag about letting the flavour flood out. There aren't quite 2,000 perforations here, though.

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The dials are handed. You turn them forwards to tighten, and backwards to release, regardless of which foot you're handling. That's different from Boa dials, which tighten clockwise, and which I've always found slightly confusing.

The adjustment per click is very small, so the twin dials provide very fine control of the tension. However, opening the dial releases the tension completely; there's no way to open it one click at a time.

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That wasn't a problem for me, but I know some people like to be able to release the tension slightly when their feet warm up and swell. In fact I generally have the opposite problem of never tightening shoes down enough to start with and having to snug them later. The Mono IIs' dials make this trivially easy.

One situation where Quoc's minimalist approach really pays off is in the wet. There's not much padding and the synthetic leather absorbs very little water, so when it rains they don't end up soaked and squishy, just a bit damp, and they dry out quickly too.

The dense insole also doesn't take up much water, so after a downpour you can pull out the insole, put the shoes somewhere warm and they'll be ready to wear again the next day.

Looks

Pulling the Quoc Mono II shoes out of the box, my first thought was 'my eyes!' They're very white, which requires a certain panache to carry off – or a serious case of Don't Care. Fortunately, you can get them in black too, if you'd rather not draw attention to yourself.

They're definitely good-looking shoes, though, with unfussy styling and a lack of panels and frippery that you'd describe as 'understated' if they weren't quite so white.

Fortunately the surface cleans up easily, though mine have sustained a tiny scuff on one toe.

Overall

The Quoc Mono II shoes are really nicely thought-out, with all the details you need, and very few that you don't.

Verdict

Very good stiff, light, comfortable shoes; also in black for non-exhibitionists