A quick observation.

As I was (finally!) riding around the city early this evening, first off to visit my friends at MotoJava (Hi Paul and Joe!), then to my monthly MSF Coaches meeting at Pauline's Pizza, I noticed something about the the fit on my Daytonas.

A friend of mine is selling her Size 37 Daytona Ladystars. (I'll try to get a link of some sort from her as soon as I can).  If you've read anything that I've written about these boots, you will know that they run one full (European) size bigger than most other shoes.  I'm a US 7 which is normally a Euro 37. However, I wear 36. That's just the way it goes, totally annoying, I know, but at least I'm here to tell you!  My feet are a little wide, not EE wide, but wider than a lot of women who wear size 7 for sure.  They're also a little thick around my instep (the area above the arch).  So they can be a little snug getting into my boots. Not painfully so, but I can definitely tell that my boots are a little bit narrower there for me than normal.  But if I went up a size, I would lose the fit in the length of my boots.

While I was shifting and enjoying the sights and sounds of San Francisco, I noticed that my toes actually touch the end of the boots. There isn't much room for any other movement, except wiggling my toes comfortably.  Which is ideally how your motorcycle boots should fit. These are made for walking, so they were definitely designed for that in mind.  None of my other shoes/boots fit that way. I usually have ~1/8" more space so I don't feel that.  (Except for a couple of pointy toed heels which I can't avoid having this issue).

I think that when you buy normal street/casual boots, you want to buy them with much more room beyond your toes so that when you take a step forward, they aren't pushing up against the inside of the shoe/boot. I would say that is certainly the case with riding boots as well, however, keep in mind that riding position fit with shifting, putting your foot down, and putting your foot back onto the footpegs is a little more important.  Putting on the boots, standing up and sitting down isn't going to give you any indication of what riding position is going to be like.  So make sure you keep these things in mind when trying on protective boots, especially Daytonas.

New Review.

Check out my Racer High End Gloves review here!

Horseback Riding is riskier than Motorcycling!

And horseback riders only wear what I would call a 'Salad Bowl' aka half helmet.

Who Knew?

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001626.htm
http://www.hughston.com/hha/a.horse.htm
http://www.nature.com/sc/journal/v40/n6/full/3101280a.html

And, if you have a few minutes to spare:
NHTSA on Motorcycles

SideStandUp Aug.4, Gloves

This month's SSU topic was all about Gloves! One can never have enough pairs of gloves, in my opinion. How important are your hands? your wrists? Maybe you're an architect, a software engineer, a construction worker, a lawyer, a teacher, or a fabricator. No matter what you do for a living, I imagine using both of your hands is crucial to the success of your occupation.

So why shouldn't full fingered, leather gloves be important while riding your motorcycle? If you think about how long a good pair of gloves can last (sometimes 5-10 years, if you buy the right pair), they are well worth every penny. It can be hard to justify $100-$200 or even $300 for a pair of gloves. My wonderful friend Brian (you rule!) who works with me at Scuderia, gently reminds customers that if you take the average number of days a year that you ride (say 5 days a week x 52 weeks= 260) and divide it by how much you spend on one pair of gloves (say $100 for a decent pair of gloves with protection), that equals $2.60/day!

And more than likely, a good pair of gloves will last you at least 2-3 years. If you want your gloves to last 5-10 years, then you definitely need to spend at least a couple hundred dollars. So how do you find that perfect pair? Well first, narrow down your options by figuring out what kind of glove you're looking for:

• Summer: Perforated, ventilated
• Winter: Waterproof, insulated
• Year Round: Street, track, touring

In San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area, these are the kinds of gloves that work here, given the year round fantastic weather that we have (except in San Francisco in July and August, when it's 60 degrees, windy and foggy):

Yes, these are ALL women's gloves! I would highly recommend the basic gloves for those of you riding scooters as well. The Olympias are probably the most popular scooter gloves that are sold at Scuderia.

Basic: (less than $70, all leather, full fingered, 3 season gloves, not waterproof, minimal armor)

Better: (more armor, stronger gauntlet, higher quality leather, $100 and up)

The Phantom goes down to a Size 6, which is pretty small for a race glove. So if you have really small hands and need a fantastic glove, you'll love the Phantoms.

Finally, when you're shopping for gloves, you'll want to assess fit in the following ways:

• Are they snug enough so that when they stretch they will still fit?
• Leather gloves will stretch so try to buy the snuggest size you can.
• How do they feel when working the throttle, clutch and front brake? Do you feel any extra 'bunching' of material along the palms, fingers?
• Remember that you'll never make a closed fist while riding, so assessing fit while opening your hands all the way and making a closed fist doesn't matter. You'll never fully extend your fingers straight out either, so remember that fit around the throttle is most important.
• When your hand is wrapped around the throttle, are your fingertips pushing up against the inside seam? Or do they just touch the inside? If they're just touching, that's normal. You just don't want added pressure onto the seam.
• Can you fit the gauntlet over your jacket? Or will your sleeves go over the gauntlet? Keep in mind that putting your gauntlet over your sleeve will keep you warmer and prevent air from going up the sleeves.

For me, my hands are the second most important part of my body when I gear up. I hope they are for you too!