As my Bevel gets close to completion, my thoughts turned to actually riding the old girl. Unfortunately my boots that I brought when I first got her back in 83 have passed on to where ever boots go when they pass on. (Boots have souls for those that didn’t get that).
For 27 years, a re-soul and a zip replacement, we traversed the east coast together. Through a myriad of sometimes quite adverse conditions and countless gear changes, protecting my delicate little tootsies from harm, they were a key element to my peregrinations, and now they’ve gone. A victim of the scourge of all leather, complacency, a dark corner of the cupboard and mold! Sad face.

With all the emotional investment involved, the process of replacement, like finding a new partner after death or divorce, is not an easy one. Time has marched on, bringing with it great technical advances and style concepts. I did acquire a pair of u-beaut save the lower leg from all sorts of conceivable damage from an off boots a few years ago, but that’s all they were. A piece of technical equipment. So I began to scour the Internet and visit local bike shops in the hope of coming across a pair of saviours to my anguish. They had to some prerequisites, real men on bikes only wear leather, they had to have some semblance to the period of the machines both Bevel and 888, they had to provide protection to my ageing limbs, and I had to be able to form a relationship with them built on trust. Easy you think, not so.

At the bottom of a kick start stroke, if your method is not perfect, the lever smacks you in the back of the calf, if the bike isn’t in tune kick back causes your knee to slam into your jaw. One can lead to deep vain thrombosis, the other a torn Achilles tendon and possible dental work and having tongue surgery. The unspoken perils of vintage bikes! These are things old age is not friendly too. So a boot has to be tall and supportive. Most of the modern boots just aren’t tall enough, and carrying around a gum boot (Wellington for our English friends) is just not a good look. Not to mention the practicality of changing boots while holding a throttle during warm up. MX boots fit the bill here, but fail in ever other department unless your going to a goth event with your under aged girl friend and are attempting to fit in.. So what did I find?

Well, Dainese Imola 72’s, nice, period, sturdy, functional. Zip won’t do up if your wearing leathers. Lewis leathers racing No 178, definitely period with history (Aggo and Hailwood used them), functional, very stylish indeed, incredibly well made, but by god they are expensive (Au$650 delivered), and not available in my size for 4 months.
Then I stumbled across Stylmartin. Not cheap, but the Matrix seems to cover the field nicely. It fits the Bevel and the 888 in looks, heavily armoured ( even comes with toe plates you can fit for kicking the teeth in of that weasel that’s been stoomping your wife without damaging the boot). They’re Italian, the business being just down the road a bit from the Ducati factory, how good is that! (actually constructed in Slovakia, which is where Aktapovic exhausts are made). And like Ducati, the business went down the crapper, and rose from the ashes producing a superior product line, just like our beloved 851/888.

For my last pair of boots, how could I not choose them. Hang the expense! 😁