I bought a pair of Justin roper boots, 12 inches tall, with a “melo veal” foot this summer. The boots are shiny, and look great with dress clothes. They also have a rubber tread sole. So yesterday…
I pulled on those boots with a suit. I folded and placed the suit jacket in the bike’s Tourpak, protected the suit pants from flying road crap with a good pair of leather chaps, put on my Langlitz motorcycle jacket, mounted my trusted iron horse, and rode to my professional association’s headquarters in Virginia to brief an international delegation that was visiting.
I arrived at my destination early, “de-leathered,” put on the suit jacket, and went into the building where the meeting was held. The briefing went fine, and I enjoyed it.
It was amusing that at the end of the briefing, one of our visitors asked, “do you know who owns that big motorcycle out front?” To which I responded, “I do.”
He wanted to have a closer look. He couldn’t ask enough questions about the bike, how it handles, and how I got there on it in a suit. So I showed him the reverse of my process. I removed and folded my suit jacket, and exchanged it with the chaps that I had stored in the tourpak. I pulled on the chaps, smoothed them over the pants, then put on my jacket. The visitors were duly impressed — professional dude to biker dude fully converted. They loved it! They took a lot of photos that who knows where they’ll show up — perhaps on some blog in China, for all I know.
Anyway, it was fun to show the versatility of boots, leather, the Harley, and being a dressed-up pro for a meeting. Who says that you can’t wear dress boots with dress clothes and use a motorcycle for transportation?
And no, to my most ardent followers: I do not plan to wear that particular pair of boots on the Harley often. While the boots have a Vibram® 700 sole, the tread is not the same as Vibram soles with bigger lugs, such as a Vibram® 430 or Vibram® 100. The boots worked okay on that trip because the weather was dry and I didn’t have to stop (much) along the way, nor man-handle the bike into a tight parking spot. If that were the case, I would require boots with lug-soled tread.
More photos of these Justin Melo Veal roper boots are on my website, here.
Life is short: boots, suits, leather and motorcycle can go together. Try it sometime!