Boots, MotorCops, Bikes, and Boat Shoes?

If you ride a motorcycle, wear long pants and boots.

If you work out at a gym and/or play sports, wear shorts and sneakers.

If you sail a boat, then you can wear shorts and boat shoes (if you must, but honestly, they’re awfully dorky-looking).

And flip-flops?

Flip-flops and crocs are for the trash. Period, end-of-story.

Yesterday, I observed dozens of pairs of these…
… on many law enforcement officers who escorted about 200 of us aboard our respective motorcycles to a charity fundraiser. It was a great ride.

While most men at the event were properly booted in motorcycle boots (I am wearing Wesco boots with lug soles, for example)…
There were some idiots…
… who never learned the lesson that …

Motorcycle Boots are for motorcycles
Sneakers are for the gym
boat shoes are for boats!

and sandals, flip-flops, and crocs are for the trash.

Life is short: ride a motorcycle? Wear long pants and boots! Period. End-of-story.

4 thoughts on “Boots, MotorCops, Bikes, and Boat Shoes?

  1. Hi, BHD. Very timely blog. I was going to email you about this topic and lo, and behold, there it was. I just don’t get it. If a guy has a badass bike, why not buy the badass boots to go with the bike? I have seen more bikers lately with sneakers. No boat shoes… yet. Give me a break people. Bikes and sneaks just don’t go together.

  2. Life Is short: If you are going to be anywhere seeing people wearing Flip-Flops, wear earplugs.

  3. I wonder if that guy wearing the boat shoes with the Harley is one of the riders members of the general public think about when they say that all motorcycles are dangerous. If he couldn’t properly stop and support his bike while wearing those shoes, he could be the one whose bike causes or is involved in an accident that gives motorcycling such a bad name. I also note young kids on ‘crotch rockets’ tend to wear sneakers or flip-flops while riding instead of putting something intelligent on their feet. Flip-flops are especially bad for your feet even if you’re not riding a cycle. I’ve noticed more and more men and women wearing them and I believe in a decade or two we’ll be seeing major foot and podiatric problems arising because of them.

  4. Yesterday evening during rush hour I was walking eastward along 42nd Street heading towards Madison Avenue,Grand Central Terminal and home. I heard a loud noise coming towards me and it was a biker riding very fast, weaving, lane splitting on a black Norton which he was gunning. I noted he was wearing a helmet but when he got closer and I could see him clearly between cars, buses and trucks, I saw he was also wearing a short flimsy t-shirt that flapped in the breeze – it wasn’t tucked in. He was also wearing shorts of the ‘gym short/workout short’ variety and flip-flops. Yikes! While it was hot yesterday (and today) with temps in the low to mid 90s, I don’t think flip-flops and underwear are the right answer for hot weather motorcycling. In any event, he reached the intersection of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue where he gunned his bike while waiting on the light to change. I stood looking at him in amazement and then continued on my way. I then came upon one of NYPD’s Highway Patrol units, a cruiser not a Harley. The officer therein was finishing up paperwork but I could see quite well that he appeared to be wearing Dehners on his uniform as is the NYPD-Highway Patrol uniform regulation. Uniform regulations aside, he might have been justified in wearing flip-flops while sitting in his cool, air conditioned patrolcar and not the Dehners he had on.

    Methinks boat shoes would have been an improvement over flip-flops for the Norton biker. Maybe he should have stopped to ask to borrow the officer’s Dehners instead of continuing to wear what he had on?

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