Sunday, July 22, 2012

Darlene's Foot Gear Challenge

Darlene, bless her heart, is encouraging bloggers to post pictures of their riding footwear, and favourite street shoes (on the assumption that for most folks that will be more than one pair of flip flops, and less than 75 pairs of pumps).

I'm not really that into shoes, but I like what I like, and then I tend to wear those until the miles poke holes in the soles.
 
When I'm riding (actually when I'm commuting), I opt for protection first and foremost.  I add "when I'm commuting" because that's what racks up all the miles (13K so far), so that's where the risk is most acute.

My current choice for riding foot gear is a pair of Icon Patrol boots.  They cover the ankle, they have really nice sturdy ankle support from a pair of ski-boot-like buckles, I rapid-lacing system, and good thick stiff protection all around.

A well-known, and well-loved Modern Vespa member came off his MP3 not long ago and posted a picture of the damage, including a pair of very similar, actually almost identical boots.  His were Joe Rockets, I think.

Anyway, when I saw that the twin buckles took the bulk of the pavement's abuse, and kept his ankle far from the punishment the buckles took, I was instantly sold on that design.

They are made in, where else, China.  They have a serious-ish design flaw in that the laces are threaded through fabric loops instead of eyelets or D-rings, with the result that the shoelace sawed through a few of those fabric loops in short order.

I solved the problem with some tiny McGizmo double carabiner clips that I installed on the fabric loops (if you look carefully, you'll see one in the photo.  Now the biners take all the abuse from the shoelace instead of the loops.  I had to do a little sewing for the couple of loops that were goners.  With that fix done, I love these boots. (Try to ignore all the papers on the office floor, my life is currently out of control nuts).


My current favourite pair of weekend street shoes are pale blue, washed-out looking, Timberland deck shoes.

I used to wear traditional Timberland deck shoes back in the 80's and loved the casual looks and the fact that they were indestructible.

They fell out of fashion favour (not that I'm a slave to fashion by any means).  Now they seem to making a comeback, allbeit in colours other than brown.

Hey, like or hate'em, as you please.  At least they're not pink Krocs!

3 comments:

Dar said...

Thanks for taking up the challenge! It is always good to see what other riders are wearing boot wise. I like the deck shoes & think they are pretty snazzy.

SonjaM said...

You know, there are other colours for crocs, even in pale blue ;-)

Trobairitz said...

Both look very comfy.

And doesn't Croc make a deck type shoe now?

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