Ohhh! Phew, yuk...eeeew!! I needs me some new shoes.

My DMT mountain biking shoes are close to biting the dust. I've had them for two full seasons and they've held up really well, but I think it's to the point where I'm asking too much from them now.

They've seen a nasty drought last summer, when they were so dirty that puffs of dust would billow from every nook and cranny with each pedal stroke. And this year has seen a fair amount of rainfall bringing damp and soggy trails, thus damp and soggy shoes.

But what's really driving this decision to start shoe shopping is something else. You guessed it...they stink. The last couple days were the worst. I rode the 'cross bike to work yesterday and wore my mountain shoes as you would expect any self-respecting non-road bike riding commuter to do. On the way home the skies opened up. I was drenched in the first 1/2 mile. Pooling water on the roads made matters worse. I drenched my feet in funky standing water about 5 different times as I had no choice but to ride straight though giant puddles. Nasty.

When I got home I stuffed my poor DMTs full of newspaper to help them dry. It was still 100% humid outside, so they fermented over night with very little actual drying ever taking place.


This morning came and as I packed for the weekly Thursday MTB ride, I tossed them into the back of the Outback, but not into the gear bag so as to help them air-out a little more.

Wow. Bad idea. When I opened the car door at noon to go snag a sandwich, the stink-o-meter broke. It smelled like dead fish wrapped in roadkill dipped in three-day-old spilled beer. Needless to say, I drove with the windows down until I got home tonight. Mega-yuk.

I'm going to look into these Six Six One shoes a bit. I own two pair of their gloves and they are made really well. One pair I've abused for over four years. I hope their shoes are of the same quality...or at least smell good.