Trainers

Alex's battered shoe sole at the wastey.

When are bike companies going to make a BMX shoe that can handle the rigours of riding brakeless? Lotek soles tend to last the longest for me and they make quite a stiff and protective shoe. Protection is important to me but the thinner a shoe gets the floppier and less protective it becomes. I can't stand bruised heels and twisted ankles. Limping in pain to work the day after riding sucks, it's embarrassing having to move much slower than my mates between pubs with a swollen foot and if I have to sit through another general dressing down from my Mother ending as she always does with 'aren't you getting a little old for all of this dangerous bike riding malarkey' I might loose it.

The hills of Whickham have been tearing my shoe soles to pieces. The 35 mile an hour breakless descents have been melting my shoe and tyre giving off that strong burning rubber scent and pebble-dashing my seat stays with hot rubber fragments. I do enjoy the experience of skidding and foot scraping down a hill but it's starting to get a little costly. Nathan Williams is coming out with a shoe named 'The Brake' on Etnies, it features a dual rubber density compound sole so theoretically it'll be super grippy on the pedal but hard as nails on the tyre for braking. I imagine the harder compound will cause a bit of slippage when footjaming, when moonwalking on the dancefloor and when standing tiptoed to pee the highest in pub urinals.

Dual is cool.

To be honest I think the Etnies shoe sole idea is a sound one although the upper styling of 'The Brake' isn't really to my tastes, its more the sort of thing Ratty would wear sockless with a shoe string belt holding up some of his Aunties flannel half mast pants coupled with an antique Barbour jacket over a bare chest. Just not my thing. Shoe technology is obviously improved since the advent of riding brakeless but I still feel it has a little way to go. More annoying than anything is throwing shoes into the dead shoe tree in Armstrong Park with pristine uppers and daylight shining through the vanquished soles.

Sloane Rangers take note.