Categories: IrreverenceKitMusings from the V-Bunker

The Punter

Socks over the booties? Please say it ain't so.

They say you can measure the quality of a man’s character by his ability to admit when he’s wrong. That in itself seems wrong, since it would obviously be better to be right in the first place, but I’m probably missing the point because I’m Dutch and everyone knows Dutch people are 97% more righter 84% of the time than the rest of the world.

I must confess to a certain hubris when it comes to kitting up for a ride; I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’ve gotten accustomed to making good decisions about what to wear and how to wear it. But today I strayed from the path: my socks were carefully and deliberately pulled out over the tops of my overshoes. Not only is it the most concrete evidence that my socks are too long, it looked like I had two orange gaskets stuck to my ankles. Not to mention that this resulted in only a tiny amount of my shins being exposed between my knee warmers and socks.

Sometimes we must stray from the Path in order to understand where it lies; today I have wandered far indeed but have found my way back. Do not lose faith and always seek to return to the Path.

VLVV.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

Chipomarc says:

Dec 8 2015 at 9:25 am

There's been a major twitter outing today, but the rider hasn't been ID just yet
frank says:

Dec 8 2015 at 9:59 am

@Chipomarc

Its G himself, obvs.
chuckp says:

Dec 8 2015 at 11:01 am

@frank

@Chipomarc

Its G himself, obvs.

Actually, it's not ... according to G himself. G claims it's Froomie.
chuckp says:

Dec 8 2015 at 11:05 am

@chuckp

@frank

@Chipomarc

Its G himself, obvs.

Actually, it’s not … according to G himself. G claims it’s Froomie.

My bad. I mis-read a Tweet.
wiscot says:

Dec 8 2015 at 12:22 pm

@chuckp

@chuckp

@frank

@Chipomarc

Its G himself, obvs.

Actually, it’s not … according to G himself. G claims it’s Froomie.

My bad. I mis-read a Tweet.

I'd say it's clearly not G-man. Why would he take the piss out of himself? As we know, GT is usually pretty damn Rules compliant. GT also has a bit more meat on the pins.
Mikael Liddy says:

Dec 8 2015 at 1:51 pm

@wiscot

@chuckp

@chuckp

@frank

@Chipomarc

Its G himself, obvs.

Actually, it’s not … according to G himself. G claims it’s Froomie.

My bad. I mis-read a Tweet.

I’d say it’s clearly not G-man. Why would he take the piss out of himself? As we know, GT is usually pretty damn Rules compliant. GT also has a bit more meat on the pins.

It's definitely not Froomie, as he prefers a Sidi shoe & there are nowhere near enough logos or differing closure options on those white ladies to fit that description. My guess would be a pair of Fiziks, which G has been known to wear...
Oli says:

Dec 8 2015 at 3:28 pm

@Mikael Liddy

Why would Thomas mock himself like that? And shoe sponsors come and go.
Mikael Liddy says:

Dec 8 2015 at 6:18 pm

@Oli

Self deprecating humour? Whilst I'm no expert on emoji usage (or at least wouldn't admit as much here), I believe the hear/see/speak no evil monkeys are generally used when one is a little ashamed of what's going on...
Barracuda says:

Dec 8 2015 at 6:57 pm

@Mikael Liddy

@Oli

Self deprecating humour? Whilst I’m no expert on emoji usage (or at least wouldn’t admit as much here), I believe the hear/see/speak no evil monkeys are generally used when one is a little ashamed of what’s going on…

Yep, be G, with a whole barrel of monkeys linking arms
mouse says:

Dec 8 2015 at 6:58 pm

@Mikael Liddy

@Mikael Liddy

@RobSandy

@frank

@Craigyboywonder

Sounds like the company understands exactly how shit their product is.

Saw them with a decent review in Cycling Weekly, and for £15 I thought they were worth a go. They were so full of holes halfway my first and only ride with them they let the water in anyway. I must admit I was in some doubt about whether they’d work, and am not astonished to find that the answer is that they, in fact, don’t.

If they had lasted through that first ride, you likely would have cleaned them off on your return home, thereby removing the powdery residue that is key to keeping the latex from sticking to itself, and ensuring that if you tried to use them again it would take nearly 15 minutes to get half way near getting them on…or so I’ve heard.

I know Apple catches some (well deserved) shit for their inbuilt obsolescence within iProducts, but to design a product as single use & then sell it at that price takes a fair bit of gall.

Huh. That's a bit strange.

I've got a full season of shit Melbourne winter out of mine.

A few points to consider. Yes, they're latex. Yes, they can tear if you walk through gravel with them, or step on a stair edge or other such things. They could be considered fragile but certainly not "not fit for purpose".

I've said it many times on here; these are the only booties that I've ever used that actually keep my feet dry in anything from light rain to a full downpour. Full stop.

Also, yes. The talcum powder that is on the inside of the booties does wash away when they get wet and they stick together like mofo's afterwards. Simple solution: Buy talcum powder and apply to dry latex before you put them on again.

But whatevs. don't let your bad experiences keep you from having dry feet. Or something...