Part of safe motorcycling is comfortable motorcycling. Any time spent thinking about discomfort detracts from your ability to pay attention. It might be the weird stitching inside your glove, or how hot your feet are, but that sort of stuff adds up.

I wear tall, wool blend socks (Bridgedale knee high ski socks and SmartWool knee high snowboarder socks) as a way to control sweat and temperature. They work great for keeping my foot temperature as regulated as possible, even if they happen to get wet. Unfortunately, as all socks do, they tend to sag over time. When mid-calf socks turn to “quitters” it’s annoying. When knee high socks slouch inside of an 8″ boot and underneath leather riding pants, it’s a constant source of discomfort. You can’t really reach down and pull them up at a stop light.

I started looking at ways to keep my socks up. And that, my friends, is why you are about to read a review on men’s garters.
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One of the problems with motorcycle boots — particularly if you ride year ’round and have waterproof boots like my Sidi OnRoads — is that your feet get hot in a hurry. Even if it is cold while riding, walking around generates a lot of heat. And then you hop back on the bike and your feet get supercooled thanks to your foot perspiration. Summertime is a bit of the opposite problem: I don’t have to worry about getting cold, but regulating my foot temperature goes a long way in my overall comfort. I don’t even need to mention what a drag sopping wet cotton socks are when you’re caught in the rain.

My sock research pushed me to wool socks. They regulate heat and moisture better than cotton socks, but I was concerned about itching. When you’re riding mid-distance like I do, little things like an itch deep in a boot can really wear on you. I found a pair of midweight, calf-height socks by SmartWool, which features a blend of soft merino wool and other synthetic fibers. I wound up buying six of their snowboard socks at $6.95 each from Sierra Trading Post, and love them to pieces. Almost literally.
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The first half of my ride home from Georgia was great. I was moving along at a good clip, and the sun was bright and shining.

That is, until I got to Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Fayetteville seems to be the tipping point for bad motorcycle weather. On my trip down, my route south of Fayetteville was completely covered by rain. I guess the northern part of my return trip got jealous and wanted to get in on the “fun.”

It rained non-stop, and hard, all the way home. It wasn’t as bad as my trip down, but it was a soaking rain. Paranoid (and hopefully wiser) from my gear problems on the way down, I adjusted my waterproofing strategy slightly.
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The first half of my trip down to Georgia was fantastic. It was cool enough that I wasn’t hot in my Rev’It Cayenne Pro jacket, but not so cold my hands were freezing. It was overcast enough that I didn’t have to squint behind my Native sunglasses, but not so overcast that I had to worry about rain.

That is, until I got to Fayetteville, North Carolina. Then the sky opened up. It didn’t stop until I reached Savannah, some 280 miles later.

What followed was a near total failure of every piece of waterproof motorcycling gear that I owned. Am I being too harsh?
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I love SmartWool socks. It’s good for keeping your feet warm when it’s cold, and breathes well enough that your feet don’t roast when the temperature is hot. More importantly, wool doesn’t lose its insulation properties when wet, which can be a really Big Deal™ if you are riding in the rain.

I own some SmartWool snowboard socks, and really love them. I looked for some lighter-weight socks to wear during the summer.

I found out that the difference between light-weight and mid-weight wasn’t that appreciable, and for the purposes of motorcycling you’re probably better off getting the taller, mid-weight snowboarding socks.
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My struggle with frostbite/exposure from riding last year has been well documented on Gibberish (here, here, and here, chronologically). Despite trying to put together better cold-weather gear, such as better fitting boots, thicker Cool-max socks, and heated hand grips, once bitten, twice shy. I’ve ridden a lot less this season.

With my trip to Tybee Island, Georgia looming, I was desperate to get something to protect my feet. I had read positive things about SmartWool around the Web and was willing to give their custom Merino wool and synthetic fiber blend a try. I ordered a pair of SmartWool snowboard socks from Sierra Trading Post and hoped that they were all the same size this time. Like always, my order was processed quickly and my socks arrived within a few days of ordering. Sierra Trading Post has really good turnaround.
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