New Kicks Agian

The shoes are a 2006 Nike Altea II mens 42. They hit the scales at 583.5g stock, not bad at all. The fit was good, but they did not have that Sidi quality feel. The shoes do not have a tongue but have a stretchy piece of fabric that works better than a traditional tongue.

The shoes are VERY VERY stiff, they may be to stiff for a mountain shoe but I will find that out later.

Tread to be attached. Cut from a old Bontrager Jones AC tire.

The attachment process.

1. Scuff the desired area with either fine sandpaper or steel wool to roughen the clear coat and increase surface area for the glue.

2. Clean the tread and shoe with rubbing alcohol, let dry and apply glue. I used Shoe Goo but if that does not hold strong enough I will switch to an epoxy resin.

3.With the tread in place and glue applied tape the tread in place to apply pressure and hold the tread in position.

4. After 24 hours the glue should be cured and ready to walk on.

The finished Product weighs 652.6g, 5. Thats 127g lighter than the Carbon Dragons and a hell-of-alot stiffer.

A belly up picture of the shoe.

I am leaving for Moab on Saturday and will be testing the shoes for a weeks time on the trails there. I will be bringing my old shoes as a just in case option but hopefully I wont need them.

New Kicks

I ordered these sweet thangs back in December 07` to replace my old Nike shoes which served me very well for the $60 I paid for them (thanks Roger) 2 years ago. Last summer I tried to place an order on a pair of me Sidi shoes and according to Sidi the model that I wanted was not in production yet. So I waited. Over winter break I placed the same order again and the shoes were delivered. I had my dad pick up the shoes at the shop and send them to me here at school.

These are the shoes.

They were alot stiffer and lighter than the Dominators that I tried on and they looked good! Their was only two small problems, they were 780g for the pair and they didn't fit. I had tried on a size 42 and 43 Dominator at the shop and from that measurement I ordered a size 43 Dragon. Even with a thick winter cycling sock they were to big. Apparently Sidi made a mold change a few years back and the shoes I fitted were from that era. The shoes are the equivalent of a 43.5 in the old sizing.

Carbon on the soles of her shoes, now thats one way to lose those riding blues.

I sold the shoes on ebay about a week ago for $235 and with that money I bought my next pair of shoes. A pair of Nike Altea 2 road shoes. They have a full carbon sole, (not just a insert) use three velcro straps, are light, and are SDP compatible. My plan is to Attach tread to them and use them as a mountain shoe. I will be testing them over spring brake in Moab, Utah.

An Alternative

We still have to much snow here in Durango to do any real mountain biking so a few weeks ago I decide to try out a pair of free rental show shoes. I made a 2 hour outing in fresh snow. It turned out to be a good bit of fun for walking around in snow. Yesterday I decide to go out a bit longer and on more aggressive terrain. I headed out on the bike/ski trails and then cut off the trail and headed up a slope that would take me to the top of the ridge. I followed the ridge as far north as I felt comfortable and then headed straight east until I hit Horse Gulch road. I headed down the road until I intersected the power line trail and then headed back home from there. The hike lasted 3hours and felt like 5 hours on the trainer stand.

The Slope to the top of the ridge. The grade was close to 100%. I averaged maybe five steps a minute and every step my foot sunk down around 2 fest, slow work at best.

A quick picture after 2 hours of hiking. Behind me is the town of Durango and some to the college campus.

A picture from my dorm, this is where I took some of the pictures.

A panoramic view of Durango from Raiders Ridge.

Another view from Horse Gulch road.

Lots of Snow/ Snow day Agian

This is a picture I took this morning around 8:00, probably another 10 inches on top of the 6 inches that came down yesterday and it is going to snow all day! No outside riding for a good while now. Snow shoes are my new best friend now, I can pack trails and get cardio training.