Sunday, August 21, 2011

Out with the old, in with the new

It was finally time to go and get some new boots and gloves. I bought new boots and gloves just after i got the R1 11 years ago. The boots are a set of alpinestar smx's which have needed changing for about 12 months now after the 2009 not the snowy ride the soles started to come apart in the heat. I had them re-glued which lasted about 5 months and then they come unglued again. The last few rides i have been riding with the soles taped up. Not a very good or safe solution. And i just noticed that the thumb on my left hand glove the leather started to rip in a couple of places. Still, 11 years out of a set of gloves and boots was exceptional.

I found a nice pair of alpinestars gloves to replace my old pair of agv ones. The old gloves were only $69, boy gloves are a lot more expensive now some of them are $250+.

Here are the old boots, you can see from these pics that they are well worn out after 11 years.


These boots had served me well, they fitted very well and were pretty comfortable when walking in. But this was the second pair of alpinestars that the soles had fallen off, as well as some friends that theirs did the same thing. Thats the only thing that makes me a little reluctant to buy alpinestars again, other than that i think they are a fantastic boot.

I tried on some of the new alpinestars and also some sidi's. The new alpinestar smx boot has some stupid lace up thing inside the boot with something that looks like a tongue. It fitted nicely just like my last boot but i'll be stuffed if i'm going to be frigging around inside the boot with this lacing up bullshit.
So i tried on the sidi range of boots, and it fitted much like the alpinestar did. Which one to get, the alpinestar was cheaper but the sidi didn't have the lace up crap. Mmmmm. Well it was decision time so here's what i went with.











I thought i'd take some pic's of them whilst they are still new and clean, because they'll never be like this again.
Now i just hope they are as good as my old pair of alpinestars. Only time will tell. I'll get back to you after a few rides and let you know what i think of them.

3 comments:

  1. Nice boots Oll. Remeber my Alpinestars lost their soles after about 2 years. Must have been a common problem. If gloves are $250 these days do you have to sell a kidney to buy boots?

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  2. Excelent choics in boots there. I have the exact same ones, and I have to say i am very very pleased with them. Not to mention they look good to.

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  3. I went out for a quick ride last sunday to try out the new boots, they were very stiff and didn't flex real well when i first got on and found it a little hard to shift gears.

    I guess they will need a bit of breaking in to allow them to flex better.

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