|
|
|
|
|
|
|
SPECIAL DEALS Current Deals and Coupon Discounts at Online Shops!
B/G 2002
|
200 5Monday, February 14 Dear
VTwin Mama, Dear
Carrol, Friday, April 22 Dear
VTwin Mama, I'm five feet tall and ride a Sportster, with foot pegs. I need to wear a boot that has a minimum two (2) inch, chunky style, heel. Then, because of the length of my foot, that the chunky heel wants to get hung up on the peg. While riding I'm doing a balancing act on the pegs. When that heel gets hung up behind the peg, (which is naturally what it wants to do) my foot is not long enough to reach either the rear brake or the shift lever. You can see how this could be a serious problem. Frustrated in not being able to find a two (2) inch, wedge type heel, riding boot, anywhere, I took the ones I have to a shoe repair man. I asked him to make a wedge out of dense rubber (black to match) that would fit with-in the upside down "V" shaped area of space created by the heel. He then glued it in, making the bottom of my boot a solid piece. I have far more stability on the pegs and no worries now about getting hung up and not being able to reach the break or shifter. As a bonus, my foot slides over cracks in the pavement! This process cost me $10 - I would have gladly paid double!! Hope this helps some of your readers. I figure where I'm having problems so are others. This "easy fix" made me a safer rider. Best to you all, – Tina in California Dear
Tina, Dear
VTwin Mama, Dear
Small Rider Footsies, Wednesday, June 1 For Small Rider Footsies who is looking for riding appropriate boots in size 5: Caterpillar makes hiking and work boots in very small men's and ladies sizes. In the summer, Cats are all we wear. They also come in wide and narrow widths. Enjoy. – K & T (note from Mama: thanks for the suggestion . . . the search engine coughed up plenty of sources for this choice.) Monday, August 8 Dear
VTwin Mama, The boots I got were the Combat 208. The smallest they had were still a size bigger than I normally wear, but they were still very comfortable Please let everyone know that the styles are a little on the radical side, but they can cover them up with their jeans and if it means better handling of the bike, then it is well worth it! – Phoenix Dear
Phoenix, Dear
VTwin Mama, Dear
Stephanie, Winter riding gloves are a pain in the butt to get right IMHO. The problem stems from the fact that many are so bulky in the palm when you curl your hand to grip controls. Also is the question about whether to get them with individual fingers or just the thumb separate. Yup, then there is the closure issue. I find this almost impossible to shop for online, so I'm always checking out selections at rallies, bike shops, ski stores, outdoor stores and even the local Wal-Mart and such. You never know where that perfect pair is going to materialize! Still, you could hop onto my Riding Gear: Boots and Gloves pages for previous postings on the subject. Well, bottom line is I would LOVE to share my own pair's name, but I'm muddling through with less than perfect gloves and really don't much winter riding any more, so it's not been a high priority on my list of things to solve. Readers, time to share your favorite pair . . . . please be specific! Now, for a note of fun: when I first conceived the notion of the VTwin Mama site, I pitched the idea to another site looking for fun things to add to their site . . . if you read the original column, you'll see that my leading question (in hopes of getting audience participation) was about finding that perfect pair of winter riding gloves! Talk about your "way back" machine of memories! It was written in October 2000, so basically for 5 years I've been on the hunt! – Mama Tuesday, September 13 For Stephanie who is looking for input on colder weather riding gloves: I ride in the winter whenever it's 40 degrees or above and the best pair of gloves I've found aren't even riding gloves. They're those stretchy Isotoner gloves with the leather palms you see in all the department stores. They have a warm fleece lining and they aren't bulky at all, and they're long enough to fully cover your wrist. – Diane (note from Mama: I love Isotoners and didn't even think about them as riding gloves . . . what a great suggestion!) Ah yes, the oh so elusive warm bike gauntlets for winter riding. I ride year round and despite what people think, it does get cold in Sydney in the winter. Hell, it snows up in the Blue Mountains and down south in Victoria! I have yet to find ANY motorcycle specific gloves that really keep your hands warm hour after hour. (Although I think you can buy electrically heated or battery operated ones now?) I discovered years ago that a good pair of ski gauntlets, for extreme winter conditions do the best job of all. They are not cheap (made of gore tex) but keep your hands quite warm for long periods and have the benefit of being of waterproof to boot. Some bike shops do carry a motorcycle version of these gloves now, however they always seem to be more expensive than the bloody ski shops. Obviously ski gloves do not have a lot of protection in the event that you fall off the bike. It's six of this and half a dozen of the other. I worry less about falling off than I do about frostbite! You might also look at heated hand grips for your bike. Pioneered by BMW and now available for most other brands of bikes. You can also buy heated vests and boots now. Do some web searching by typing something like "Winter motorcycle gear" and I am sure you will find a whole lot of new ideas. Winter bike gear improves all the time. I know guys who ride in Northern Europe in the winter. They wear special face masks, ski-mobile suits and heated boots. The Swedish Army actually trains their motorcyclists to operate in the winter months with all of the above clothes and spiked tires for traction. A cheapie answer to warm winter bike pants is the Russian Army's down filled combat pants, white obviously, or black and white camo, but they are warm and you can often find them for sale on the web in Russian Army surplus stores. There's tons of stuff for winter riding on UK and European websites. – Kevin (note from Mama: thanks for sharing!) Dear
VTwin
Mama, Dear
WestShan, Wednesday, November 30 For WestShan who is looking for boots that will give her extra height: I don't know the model name, but I found a pair from Harley Davidson that were about $120 and have about a 2" heel. I love them because the give me height, are actual riding boots with the rubber sole and have zippers vs. ties. I just got them mid/late summer and they appeared to have been new at that time. I hope it helps! I am 5'4" and the extra height in the boots while not sacrificing functionality for riding made these a great choice for me! – Sandra (note from Mama: here's the official HD page for boots and several look like they have the heel you describe . . . once an item is of interest, then it's possible to shop the discount online boot shops for pricing comparison . . . check my Women's Gear page.) |
| © 2005 VTwin Mama | Disclaimer |
