My genius boot modification
 

Might be handy for anyone else who spends lots of time in hot and dry places - to help my feet from getting sweaty I added these sporty ventilation holes with a 6mm drill bit, and they make a phenomenal difference. In high humidity at 30 degrees, riding off-road all day, and having pulled my bike out of soft sand a couple of times, the only part of my foot that got sweaty was a ring around my ankle. Also after fording a river all the water drained out and my feet were dry within an hour and a half :) The only down side is a hissing noise while I'm walking ...

https://i.imgur.com/kLZ8164.jpg

Funny, IIRC runners / trainers used to always have two nice grommeted holes in the same spot!

I've favored drain holes in anything which regularly gets filled with water--this includes pockets of all outerwear, along with footwear designed to be worn in rain or stream-crossings. Boating gear is generally designed this way, and it's been a mystery to me why motorcycling outerwear is not.

Drilling holes for ventilation had not occurred to me, but I guess I'm going to have to try it. I wouldn't do this in boots which keep my feet dry under water, but if they're going to collect water anyway I want to provide a way for it to get back out again.

A friend who took part in the Dakar Ralleys in the 80'ties has boots where they experimented with ventilation slits, but this never went into production. So I prepared my boots for Southern Africa likewise and drilled two 10mm holes left and right like @Turbofurball. Cool indeed :thumbup1:


If anybody remembers "The long way down": Somewhere in central Africa Ewan McGregor grabbed a drill and did the same :mchappy:

Reminds me of the old army surplus jungle boots that we wore as kids in scouts 30 years ago.

I wanted grommets like you get on All-Stars, but my local shoe repair place said they didn't want to do it so I just grabbed the drill instead ... these boots need replacing soon so I figured I had little to loose. I'm going to put them in my new boots right from the off.

I didn't know Ewan McGregor had beaten me to it though, guess I'm doomed to be the same level of inventor as Homer Simpson

bier