Or spray on PTFE grease... Or a wax furniture polish..

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Simply... Yes.

If you're going proper adventure riding then you will be going off road at some time. Riding and pushing a heavy, loaded bike around in uncertain conditions over unfamiliar terrain. Most of the roads in the third world are full of pot holes and undulations and off highway, even a campsite entrance can be a paris dakar event... It's just day in the life of adventure riding.

I test ride bikes all day long in my workshop boots, cotton pants and crappy gloves. I ride around the south of France in flip flops to go to a restaurant etc.

It's stupid yes, but It's an assessed risk that I've decided to take myself. I'm a very experienced rider and I don't take chances..

So, I'm not just being a jobsworth here..



The biggest consideration 'for me' is that I don't want to be slowed down, stopped or stuck in the third world with broken ankle in the middle of country where healthcare is either unavailable or at a standard that you want to just curl up and die..

Breaking your ankle in the mountains of Ethiopia etc is a major event... You will survive no doubt and have an amazing adventure in the process but walking around the rest of your life with your foot glued on backwards by a doctor who is using a Haynes manual is something I'd like to avoid if possible..

I've escaped major injury a few times due to protective kit. I've so seen/ heard some horrendous injuries and stories of people who though hiking boots are going to help them. Ask any doctor about ankles. They are one of the most complicated and fragile parts of the body. Why wouldn't you protect them all you could ???

Now of course, having the best kit is no guarantee that you won't hurt yourself but good kit DOES WORK... I know it does. You can DRAMATICALLY reduce chance and severity of ankle and foot injurys with decent , protective boots. The same goes with all your riding gear.

I think they are the third most important piece of kit after a helmet and a back protector.


But when it all comes down to it, you do what you want and what you feel comfortable with. And long may it be that way..

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Statistically, the highest chance of injury while riding a bike is feet and ankles (the highest consequence is for head injuries, but that's a different story). More protection is better.

Everyone decides how to weigh the odds based on their own riding style and where they go. The fastest I've ever dropped a loaded dual sport was only about 15 mph, but I was on a deserted dirt road somewhere in the Andes, alone. The bike landed on my ankle. I was very glad my ankle was encased in a proper motocross boot at the time, not a hiking boot--no broken ankle, but some serious pain and bruising.

Make your own choices, but don't do it based on wishful thinking.

Mark

I dropped my loaded DRZ trying to climp up a cliff face track in Ethiopia after camping down on a lake. The bike bounced off the toe of my boot and trapped my ankle under the progressive joint on my rear shock.

On the Ruta 40 in Argentina, in the same boots I crashed on the stones and again, my ankle ended up under the bike.

I was wearing AlpineStar Tech 10's which are SUPER beefy and I still broke my toe and had some strain and bruising.

I swear, both occasions my ankle would of been facing backwards with unsupported boots.

In the UK I wear W2 Adventure boots as the Tech 10s are too restricting...

Overlanding, I find it hard not to wear MX boots... However, they do slow me down a lot during the daytime stops. But when you stop in the day for lunch, petrol etc, you never really want to leave your bike alone.

Sidi Couriers were very popular before the Adventure came out. A lot cheaper...

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

It's not about wishful thinking or misunderstanding the importance/vulnerability of your ankles. I would probably prioritise boots at the top of my own personal list of protective clothing, helmet would be third behind gloves as well for me.

I'm just not convinced that all the plastic and metal of motox/enduro style boots makes any difference short of getting run over. I put the question out to see if anything had any thoughts other than the standard two lines.


Personally, I just splashed out £177 on a pair of Altberg 'Desert Riders'. They offered them as an option when I phoned up asking how durable their desert military style boots were. It's only now I've realised that they came up with them after a request for custom boots by Chris Scott! Finally off for some fun again after 4 long years, I'll let you know if I end up breaking my ankles then you'll be able to say I told you so.

__________________
UK to Mongolia 2009, on a DR350

My name for this is "wishful thinking."

Two of us have described situations in which we believe we would have done serious damage in the absence of MX boots. Neither involved getting run over.

I have no wish to say I told you so. Besides, the fact is that most riders will not break feet or ankles no matter how they're shod. That's not the way I weigh risk.

In risk analysis, which is what we're doing here, there's an almost universal phenomenon in which the negative event--in this case, absence of foot or lower leg injury--is used to justify continuing to do what's been done in the past. But risk is not composed of probability alone--it's a combination of probability (likelihood) and consequence. Even a low probability if combined with a serious consequence amounts to a high level of risk. That's why I wear a helmet and that's why MX boots on overland trips.

YMMV. Good luck with your choices.

Mark

The key word there is 'believe', you cannot prove or indeed know yourself that you would have suffered serious injury had you not been wearing motox boots. It could be viewed that your belief is wishful thinking, justifying the money you spent and discomfort experienced from traveling with your motox boots.


This is the 'debate' that I'm not interested in having, where you assert something that's purely opinion, then I assert a contradictory opinion, then we keep repeating ourselves ad nauseum.


But to an extent you are doing the same thing, by choosing to conclude that when you have had an accident whilst wearing motox boots and not suffered injury, that the boots have prevented an injury you'd have otherwise experienced, and therefore you should continue wearing motox boots in order ensure that you are similarly protected in any future accidents.

__________________
UK to Mongolia 2009, on a DR350