Having seen the long range weather forecast, and having a place at Strathpuffer, I may have started to have a little bit of a flap about suitable winter footwear, or my lack of it.

Riding flats for MTB (yes, even the 24 hr stuff) makes finding winter footwear surprisingly hard.

I know about the brilliant FeetFirst in Chesterfield as I have used them a few times to resole vegan-non-leather shoes with sticky rubber when it was impossible to get hold of non-leather FiveTens.

So I am planning on something similar for Strathpuffer, but with winter boots. The biggest difficulty being that a lot of winter boots just don’t have great soles for the purpose. Doing a few internet searches I know I am not the only one with this issue, so thought I’d post here in case it is any use to folks.

I have just found these on Ebay – not sure yet of how they will hold up to riding, whether I have ordered the right size (have gone a size up from my normal riding shoes to allow extra socks and possibly heated insoles if I can afford them). The soles seem quite flat so I am hoping that, by the time they have been shaved prior to the dot-rubber resole, they may have a little flexibility. For 19.99 I figured it was worth a shot, if nothing else they can get worn off the bike. With the rubber sole it may be, if I am lucky, that they will work with the flat pedal pins straight away and no need for a resole. We shall see!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/Womens-Waterproof-Snow-Winter-Fur-Thermal-Warm-Lined-Wellington-Wellies-Boots/261694173878?hlpht=true&ops=true&viphx=1&_trksid=p5197.c100068.m2280&_trkparms=ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140211125758%26meid%3D006dcc0f445f46029a14e2462fce7fab%26pid%3D100068%26clkid%3D712421220885740017&_qi=RTM2108002