First, a bedtime story
When I was first looking a motorcycle, I wasn’t
looking at sidecars. At that point I wasn’t sure sidecars were a
possibility even though I had always loved them. When I first started
this journey, I looked at what Mr. Man had always ridden,
Harley Davidsons. I had, in fact found a bike I really liked (I can no
longer remember what it was). I reached the ground pretty reasonably
on it but my little legs couldn’t quite reach the forward controls. I
could hit the pegs but not the shifter or the
brake. By this point, I had a pretty good idea that anything on a bike
could be re-arranged for the right price so I told the salesman (who
had been pushing me onto small displacement Sportsters before I insisted
on sitting on something with enough displacement
to move my sizable self on down the road) that I liked the bike but I
really needed the controls moved to mid controls. He shook his head and
said, “Oh no. That would totally ruin the line of the bike.” I thought
to myself “It will totally ruin the line
of the bike when I can’t shift or brake and hit at tree.” At that
point I got up off the bike and left. In fact, I left the thought of
Harley’s altogether rather soon after that and then left the idea of two
wheels completely.
The story above illustrates something I’ve learned
about bikes: Everything is a compromise but some compromises you make
because you have no choice. Yes, moving the controls would have altered
the line of the bike. For some people, that
would be a choice to make. For me, it was not a choice, it was a
fact. If I was going to ride that Harley, I had to have the controls
moved. No choice, just compromise. In the dance of gains and losses
that is motorcycling and motorcycling gear, boots are
my biggest point of compromise. I have to make the worst compromise in
my opinion: I have to trade safety for fit. And it really, really
sucks. I have, however, come to understand that being on a sidecar
means that those compromises are a little safer
to make than if I was on two wheels. I can’t have 90% of the wrecks
that two wheels can have. I can’t low-side, can’t slide, can’t drop the
bike in a parking lot. Boots are designed to protect mostly against
accidents I can’t have. The accidents I can have….well,
I’m not sure boots will save me in those cases. Also, I don’t have to
put my feet down so I don’t have to pay a lot of attention to the tread
on the bottom of my boots. It’s a feature that doesn’t factor into my
boot decision and trust me, I need all the
wiggle room with boots that I can get.
My name is Sidecar Adventures and I have problem feet
I have on again off again Plantar Fasciitis. What
is that? Well, it’s pain personified is what it is. Plantar Fasciitis
is a condition where the fascia (connective tissue) in the bottom of the
foot “falls” instead of being springy up
against the muscles of your foot like it should. What causes this?
Weight is a factor but not the only one and not always the primary one.
Folks who play sports where their feet take a pounding are at risks.
Think soccer, running, rugby. Putting your
feet on pegs that are vibrating? Guess what? That qualifies. So even
if I am not having a flare up, if I ride a lot, I will get one. Go
me.
There are a few treatments for this painful condition and I’ve tried many of them:
1.
Rest. Please, like that’s going to ever happen for
me. I can’t exactly call into work because my feet hurt. I do take
measures to stay off my feet as much as I can but that’s as good as I
can do.
2. Ice. If things are going bad I have been known to
freeze water bottles and then roll my feet over them. It’s helpful
short term.
3. f Stretching. Yes. This. I found that stretching
is one of the number one ways to alleviate the pain of Plantar Fasciitis
and to help the healing process.
4.
Taping. My other number one solution. A simple
taping on the bottom of the foot in the shape of an X can suddenly
vanish all the pain. It’s the miracle of Christmas wrapped up in
athletic tape.
5.
Cortisone shots. No thanks. This is an injury
that is healing. Inflammation is secondary and while the shots can mask
the pain, they won’t fix the problem. There is also anecdotal evidence
that in some cases, cortisone shots can
rupture the fascia. Um…no thanks.
6.
Better shoes. There could be an entire blog post
about shoes and my plantar fasciitis (and someday there may be) but for
now let me just say that quality shoes are a must. Arch support and
lateral heel stabilization have become very
near and dear to my heart. Such factors weigh heavily in my riding
boot choices.
I really could do a whole post just about how
plantar fasciitis has impacted my life and my riding….I’ll save that for
another day.
Aside from Plantar Fasciitis I have some other foot
issues. I have very small feet so from the start I’m hard to fit. I
wear about a 6 ½ woman’s although I often order a 7 because of some
other fitting issues I have. I can wear about
a 5 kids and that can be handy. Some manufacturers are starting to
make kids touring boots. Kids boots are almost always wider and shorter
so they come a little closer to fitting me. I wear a 38 European
although I’m actually a 37 (it’s that fit thing again.) If I have a choice, I like to wear things
that are fit to European measurement because they are more exact and
universal. A 38 is a 38 is a 38. Doesn’t matter who makes it, they
don’t run small, large or otherwise. I can’t say
that about an American size 7. Because my feet are so small, many
manufacturers don’t carry boots in my size especially
because many gear companies don’t make women’s boots that fit my needs.
I have to hope that the men’s boots come in
a 38. If we are talking American sizing then I can forget about it.
How many men’s boots come in a size 5? Um…none. So unless it’s
European sized or a woman’s line, I can’t buy their boots. My short
feet are also wide however, that’s not the biggest issue.
A lot of people have wide feet and a lot of motorcycle boots can
accommodate that. I just make sure I read the reviews and the
descriptions carefully. The biggest problems are my insteps and my
calves. My insteps are high so I have a hard time getting my
foot into a boot if the vamp is too low. And trust me, the vamp is
always too low. My calves are huge, 23 inches around. That is
massive. That means even if the boot will go on my foot, it won’t
fasten. On top of the big
calves, I have pretty bad edema on my legs affecting mostly my ankles
and lower calves. It’s pretty ugly and most people think it must hurt.
It doesn’t but it can be uncomfortable and
a little embarrassing. Yes, I’ve seen a doctor about it. It is water
and it is due to my weight. As a matter of fact, yes, I am aware that I
am overweight, thanks for asking. Since I’ve been more active, my
edema has gone down, a lot although it is hardly
gone. I get a little tired of telling people that don’t know that yes,
the state of my legs is better than it was. Compared to a year ago,
they are downright svelte. Not that I’ve had to have to conversation
way too many times or anything. So there you
go:
Short, wide, and puffy does not make it easy to buy Motorcycle
boots.
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| My Problem feet and Ginormous calves...and a tattoo |
In the Beginning There Was…
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| My foot in my combat boots |
When I first started riding, Mr. Man’s past history
with riding informed my gear choices. We wore leather jackets, jeans,
and combat boots. Soon we both embraced better riding through
technology and were wearing armored textiles and while
Mr. Man was content with his combat boots for a while longer, I soon
started looking for other options.
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| Check out the gaps in the lacing |
But
I get ahead of myself. The combat boots I wore were fine boots
and for many riders would have fit their needs perfectly forever. I wore Corcoran 2
Field boots. They
are jump boots so the soles are meant to take a pounding and they are
fairly flexible through the ankle. All good things to have in a boot.
There were many things I liked about the boots. They are tall and
provide good ankle support and protection for a boot with no armor. They are made of high quality leather and are durable and affordable boots. The toe bed is roomy and pretty
sturdy so it protects your toes from the shifter and allows plenty of
wiggle room. The lateral heel support is excellent
and they were roomy enough on me to take a Birkenstock insert for my
problem feet. They are also comfortable off the bike and provided great
compression form my edema. I wore a size seven woman’s and had enough
room for thick socks when it was cold but it
also did well with thinner summer socks. So it’s a great boot. There
were things I didn’t like about it and after a while, the bad outweighed
the good. Because of my mighty calves, the tall boots didn’t close all
the way and because of the edema, it was
hard to even get the boots tied first thing in the morning. This meant
I would get the boots on my feet, breathe a bit, walk around an bit
then start to tighten them. I would get them tied as best I could and
wear them for a few hours. At our first gas
stop I would ask Mr. Man to help tighten them. By that time, the
compression from the boots would let him tighten them down and tie them
off properly. Because my legs are short but wide, the height of the
boot never fit me well. The boots would end up creasing
over at my Achilles tendon and press on my heel (ouch). I would get
blisters and raw spots and a lot of pain. The boots weren’t
armored. I would have liked some armor over my
ankle bones and some reinforcement on the toes where I shift. Because
of the edema I could never get them tight enough. At the end of the day, no matter how hard we
tried to lace them down they could be pulled
off my feet without untying them or loosening them. So guess what they
would do in the case of a get off? They would get off my feet and then
I would be really unprotected. I tried to fix this by buying a pair
that were actually 6 ½ thinking that would
help. The vamp on the smaller boots was so low that it hurt my feet way
too much to wear and the calves were so small that it was comical. In fact, I bought a pair of hiking boots at a Wal-Mart on the first day of a road trip because the 6 1/2 boots were so painful. So I
went back to my size sevens and lived with clown feet and pain in my
heel while I figured out what else I could
wear.
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| These Hiking Boots where motorcycle boots for one trip |
The Little Doha that Could
This
is the story of how I found salvation in a pair of boots. We were, as
we often are, at our local BMW/Triumph dealer on a random day looking
for nothing in particular.
As I often was, I was in the boot section looking wistfully at the
Alpinestars, Sidis, and Daineses that would never fit me. We knew, we
had tried. All of their staff knew too, because they had helped us try on
boots. While I was over there sighing and moping
I saw a pair of low stunter boots by Sidi that looked for all the world
like high top suede tennis shoes but with some armor and reinforcement
that provided some protection. I glanced through the boxes and
surprise, surprise, I found a size 38. To this day,
my guess is that someone special ordered that size and then didn’t want
them because I don’t find shoes that small on the shelves regularly. I
tried them on not expecting anything and….they fit. They. Fit. I
walked around and found them stiff and not super
comfortable off the bike but I could live with that. When I sat on a
bike they disappeared off my feet like I wasn’t wearing anything. I
showed them to Mr. Man and we looked at the Velcro restraining strap
that would secure the laces down. It was in no
way long enough to go across my ankles but it looked like I could pick
the stitches off. So we bought them. And I wore them. And wore them.
And wore them. I discovered that they still came off my foot to easy
but they were more secure than my combat boots.
I discovered that with a cushy Dr Scholls insert they were comfortable
to wear off the bike as well as on the bike. I liked the security of
the stiff sole, in fact, I found out later that the Doha was based on
the footbed Sidi uses in their off road boot
so it was great for dual sporting. For a while I still wore the Combat
Boot when off roading but comfort won out I and was wearing the Dohas
exclusively and loving them. Until…one sad day, I found a tear next to
one of the eyelets. It was time to replace
them.
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| New Doha boots |
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| I still need to remove the lace retainer |
I Would Like to Thank all the Stunters
Have
you see those crazy guys who do wheelies and stand on their moving
bikes while going down the highway? Those are stunters. I love
watching them in empty parking
lots or abandoned airstrips doing their crazy thing but I hate them out
on the open road. Ranting aside, part of their aesthetic is to have a
very street look. So yes to helmet and short gloves but no jacket or pants
or boots. What you don’t see is that under
their t-shirts they may be wearing body armor or their jeans may be
armored or be made of Kevlar mesh…or they may just be wearing a t-shirt
and jeans. They like to wear tennis shoes or boots that look like
tennis shoes. Because of this aesthetic, there has
been a lot of financial reward for gear manufacturers to start
producing lower stunt style boots that lace like tennis shoes.
Commuters often like this style of boot as well because it transitions
from bike to casual office easily. This was not the case
when I started riding seven years ago and the shops we frequent don’t
carry gear like that. They carry racing and touring inspired boots. So
all this was happening and I had no idea until my Dohas had to be
replaced.
Revzilla
has become one of my favorite online stores. They don’t charge
shipping over a certain amount and returns are easy and hassle free. I
also love their video
reviews. Check them out Here. I hopped online to order more boots
and low and behold, pages and pages of low lace up boots that I can
wear. I’ll give you, not all of them are in sizes I can wear but enough
of them are. Even better, new styles seem to be
coming out all the time. Suddenly, my inner shoe lover has blossomed
and I own three pair of boots with an eye to buying more. Are they as
great as full coverage touring boots or as sexy and heavily armored
racing boots? Nope. But they fit me, and they
provide protection and comfort. What more could a girl ask for?
I'll do a post soon that reviews the boots I now own but that's another post for another day.
