I don't race, but wear riding boots, and I have no doubts that they have saved my ankles on more than one occasion. If it weren't for riding boots, I'd have been on disability and missed many months of work. I'll not ride without them. I had to re-adjust all my shifters to accomidate the stiffer boots, but the stiffness is protection. I find it easier to shift with the boots.

I've been wearing Thor boots for several years now, but can't wait to get some Alpine Stars. You get what you pay for, and a $100 pair will not make you happy. The soles of my Thors are chewed up, ready to retire, but the Alpine's have a replacement insert in the middle where the footpegs chew.

 

I have been wearing the cheap ol Oneal Element boots and I have to say I am rather impressed by them now. When I first got them they were very stiff. I wlked around the house with them and then ended up riding a day with them soaking wet, and now they are as comfortable as my hiking boots are.

 

I can send you a pic of the back of my left calf if you like, it might convince you to get protection, long story short, when the cards were down my brain went to SMA mode and I put the foot out to push off the vertical embankment I found my self sideways on. it's been 4 years now and you can still see the divot in my leg (it's not to big thank God, got no muscle) you can also see the the gouges from each tooth of the peg, thankfully this happened on a 12 year old Warrior, I shudder to think what the new pegs on the DS would do, at the time I was wearing high top Redwings, about 4"-6" taller than those trucker boots, I must get something but the left ankle has never been the same so stiff MX boots are out. I'll check out those Sidi's jeff was talking about, I have also seen in Dirt Wheels a pair of Garne(sp?) that were suposed to be softer than others, if you can't live with riding boots maybe a pair of engineer boots (you know like bikers wear, about 18" tall lace up
P.S. the red wings did protect the flesh below them, all damage was above the top of the boot, they didn't protect my ankle

 

Yeah, I had a similar close call 2 weekends ago. My foot came off the left peg after landing a small jump and it grabbed my foot, sucked me under my ds and twisted my left ankle and took a little hide from the inside of my calf! Ouch! could have been worse though. That's why I am looking at riding boots now.

 

Buttfungas, how about getting some nerfs?

 

Yeah, RaptorRRC, nerfs would be a good idea!

 

I bought the Alpinestar Vector after a 15 year old set of Malcolm Smiths. After a few rides they are almost as comfertable and they look awsome. Unlike the Tech 6/8 the Vectors dont have the steel toe guard and allow a little more movement. Seems as though they were made for quad riders.

 

Just dug this link up from an old thread about boots. They are the softer boots that DSJockey was talking about. I am looking at boots now also.

https://secure.rypusa.com/catpage.cfm?Cat_Selected=7

 

I've got the now discontinued Alpinestar tech 5's. They've saved my bacon several times. I love Alpinestar, well worth the money, however, with the somewhat notchy shifting of our beloved DS I do find it easyer to whack through the gear box in Vans than MX boots. I do wear the boots when I really get after it, but otherwise often just wear tennies.

 

I just bought the new AlpineStar M4 boot. Supposedly more of an ATV boot. You can get them with the regular AlpineStar sole, or a cleated sole for better traction if you like. They seamed pretty stiff at first when I was looking at them in the store. But after wearing them for an hour or two, they have broken in and are pretty comfortable. You can?t beat the quality of the AlpinStar boots. Check out a small review of them in the July 2002 ATV Action.