Start Measuring
Firstly, all you kids, kindly get off my lawn. Especially you kids who wear too tall black socks with white cycling shoes. Get off my lawn and stop racing in my favorite bike races. There’s no call for that. Why should my Milan-Sanremo enjoyment be ruined by this? It’s a sunny day, no snow, no rain, white socks not good enough, eh? Riding along the Ligurian coast from Milan to Sanremo without two seconds consideration about sock selection, eh? Just thinking about Sock Height not good enough, EH?
Winnipegcyclechick’s stellar treatise on sock height should be required reading for everyone, even non-cyclists. People should have this knowledge. Mongols on the Steppes; Тийм ээ, тийм, би энэ оймс өндөр мэднэ.*
While we have lost the battle on sock color the final battles on height continues. We can use the VSP generator between VSP runs to work on other important 1st world problems. To this end, straight outta the Velominati bunker we have this: the sock height calculator.
S = A/π – √B ± (B/A) / (1/CS¹)
Where:
The term CS¹ has become most controversial in peer review but most agree a correction factor should be available for individual taste.
*In English: Yes, Yes, I know of this sock height.
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View Comments
@Gianni
But wouldn't that violate Rule #43? I prefer not to have a bell but I do need one more often than not.
Just ordered 3 pair of these. All white, no logo, 3 inch. They should come to around 3-4 cm above the malleolus, which is what I am aiming for. I think Le Blaireau probably would not throw me off the podium for wearing them.
http://defeet.com/pc_product_detail.asp?key=5735CDC01A3048F0A8CC888C7712C80A
@Buck Rogers
Those are great socks...i was quickly led to DeFeet after experimenting with a few others...LG, Castelli, Gore.....its all i buy now...all white (i don't mind the brand on the cuff, its simple enough). I prefer the 5 inch, brings it to the part of my calf where the muscle really gets nice n flexed on a long ride, looks fantastic. I'm also 187 cm, so short socks look even worse on me than shorter riders.
@gilly "You’ve got a screaming baby head trapped in your left knee!"
Please explain
@KogaLover
Easier to spot in the original pre-zoom shot. I suppose you can either see it or you can't, but I did run it past the font (aka Mrs G) and she saw it straight away.
@KogaLover
A technical breach perhaps. However NSW government aren't arguing that bells create a more polite society. They're worried about you and your 8 kilo bike ploughing into a group of pedestrians at a crossing killing 6 and injuring 13 due to a lack a tiny tinkling on your 80 kph approach.
@Gianni
Can't speak for my east coast colleagues, but I know here in South Aus the wording of the law is an "audible warning device", to which my response would be to point in the direction of my mouth should I ever be questioned.
Scariest thing about the raft of law changes in NSW is not necessarily the laws being enforced, but the increase in the penalties. Take riding without a helmet for example, this act (entirely legal in the majority of countries worldwide) used to incur a $71 fine, since the start of March that penalty is now $319, an increase of 450%!!!
@Mikael Liddy
There's also the very Soviet quasi-registration system requiring cyclists to carry ID so their fines can stick which is dressed up as a safety issue. (clearly emergency depts need to know who you are before they can treat you). Then there's ripping out bike lanes. Welcome to the North Korea of cycling.
Oh Jesus - those f**king black socks. Maybe the worst thing to ever happen to cycling kit. Well, except maybe for $300 bib shorts (WTF?) If I see one more dork on a million dollar carbon bike while wearing those shitty black, over-the-calf socks....... Time was, you showed up at the Tuesday Night World Championships wearing your business suit socks because you forgot your real socks, and everybody laughed at you, with good reason, because you looked like a moron.
Now you show up with them, and it's like it's some sort of secret society. I get multi-colored shorts. I get white shoes. I get $250 sunglasses (well, sort of). But I do not get how anybody can look at those hideously tall black (or red, or orange, or yellow, or plaid) socks and think that it was ever going to be a good idea. It's just too reminiscent of the days when the preppy crowd wore color-coordinated polo shirts two-at-a- time, with the collars turned up. Just like wearing business suit socks while riding, they thought it was a fashion statement, when really, it was just sorry-assed herd mentality at its very worst.
Here's the deal: Black socks are to be worn, not seen. The only people who can wear any kind of shorts with black socks are young children and old drunks. Otherwise, you think that you're making a fashion statement, but really, you just look like a dumbass. Or a toddler. Or a drunk. Put another way: Long pants, black socks. Short pants: Not black socks.
It's a sad day when we have to look to the tri-guys for fashion sense.
Here endeth today's sermon. Go forth and sin no more.
It's like the fat middle-aged guys who go out and buy the massive Harley.
While there is a certain merit to matching the shoes to the socks, what if the socks go with the rest of the kit? Compliment the helmet accents? Matching caps and socks? Is that a thing?