Originally Posted by
tjspiel
I said booties were kind of a pain. That's not the same as being difficult. For example, it's not hard to put on 6 layers of clothes in the winter, but it's a pain in the ass compared to 3, - which normally will do the job.
The best pair of booties I had were from Performance. They had an actual rubber sole and they had zippers at the back. I just left my shoes in them and would roll the booties down to get my shoes on. Eventually the zippers broke and Performance changed their design so now I just wear insulated hiking boots.
The booties I had before that had various combinations of neoprene and elastic underneath which would wear out after a few weeks of daily use. Copious use of duct tape might get them through the whole winter.
Booties are fine for the occasional rainy or cold weather ride. But it's cold and potentially wet here almost every day from December well into March. Booties aren't meant for that.
It takes all of 5 seconds to slip booties on, and 10 to take them off. I'm just not seeing the pain-in-the-ass part. I conflated inconvenience with difficulty via sarcasm.
I'm on the same pair of Louis Garneau booties which I began using last winter, and that was with me stretching them out over a pair of Pearl Izumi X-Fuels. Got a couple of runs in the neoprene from stretching but that's about it. They are not made to walk on more than a few steps (obviously).
To each his own.