stand on the hippy fu9kers feet then see if it's "trendy". It's gopping and has no reason to it – beach side at a push, but even then flipflops or something… we're not 3rd world over here – although you could be forgiven for thinking it sometimes!

its almost meditative as you have to focus on the terrain so much more

Presumably to avoid the dog sh*t, glass, needles, lit fag ends, nettles, thorns…

What pedals for barefoot riding?

But surely if the non-warty person you touched washed their hands soon afterwards then they could avoid infection by the HPV that causes the wart?

Suppose it depends on how soft and sensitive their skin is to infection, most people don't wash their hands every 20 minutes, but I dont know the length of time needed to become infected. I imagine it's probably not aids-like in instant infection but I suspect it's pretty quick, or people wouldn't pass it on hand-to-hand as they do.

I spend a lot of time barefoot, as above, in the summer – loads of time at the beach and on the way back from the beach. I've had foot injuries, I admit, but that was from running backwards down the beach to catch a ball, I kicked a sharp rock with teh ball of my foot. It healed, I'm fine. I spend a lot of time jumping around on sharp rocks, kicking through sand, being dragged by a kite on rocky/pebbly surfaces. Never seems to do me much harm.

Sui-good mature reasoned response there. I'm not sure how "barefooted" = "third world". I see loads of people in 3rd world countries wearing shorts and tshirts, are you suggesting wearing these is 3rd world also?

Gary_c – I can confirm SPDs don't work barefoot, they hurt just a little too much, feels like you're "clipping in" with your foot bones. V8's work just fine though, the little teeth provide just enough grip without cutting.

I spend a lot of time barefoot, as above, in the summer – loads of time at the beach

Yeah, barefoot at the beach, that seems perfectly acceptable to me.
But walking through the centre of Edinburgh and popping into Tesco in bare feet doesn't. 😕

Fit when girls do it (Joss Stone before she went yank)

Should have gone to Specsavers mate,
she's not exactly a munter, but not what I'd class as fit.

But walking through the centre of Edinburgh and popping into Tesco in bare feet doesn't.

Most beaches I know of are right next to towns and shopping centres, I dont specially fit trainers to nip into the shops. If it works in that case, no reason not to apply it to the same situation away from teh beach.

Apparently waynekerr wouldn't…