Whilst I’ll happily use Gloves for any endurance ride up to 50 miles, using Glue-ons for longer distances seems preferable – no worries about any potential rubs or losing boots. Typically, I like to get the Glue-Ons off the feet within ten days. This is more a product of gluing a few days before an event but then being too floppy to get the things off until the following weekend.
Fergus’ back feet in their glue-ons the morning following Tevis after a refreshing bath.
Tevis was no different – the EasyCare Glue Crew put them on the Wednesday before, and with only 6 hours sleep between Friday and Saturday nights, Sunday was a bust as far as doing anything coherent. …Come to think of it, the next two weekends were pretty much a bust as far as doing anything coherent, but Sunday a week later I frog-marched myself out to the barn, and, armed with the usual array of Glue-on removal tools – a mallet, a wide-bladed screwdriver, and a couple of tyre levers – set forth to remove Fergus’ boots.
45 minutes later, I was dripping sweat and had nearly managed to get one boot off.
What the….?
I have never had such difficulty getting glue-ons off in the past – evidently EasyCare’s current gluing protocol is ludicrously effective.
In the end, I ripped the front off the shell getting it off. This is not usual – this is the first Glue-on I’ve completely ruined in the process of removal – but given the choice of losing a boot or having it not be reusable, I’ll go for the solid-attachment every time:
Left-front shell with the front torn out to get the stupid thing off.
During Tevis, I diligently carried a complete set of sparsie Gloves but really needn’t have bothered – there was no way those suckers were coming off.
One of the “Tevis Bogs” – it’s not the bogginess that is worrisome, it’s the fact that these bogs contain hidden boulders lurking in the murky depths, waiting for the opportunity to rip off unsuspecting footwear.
In the end, I had to content myself with just removing the front boots that day. Once the boots are off, the feet are soft so it’s an ideal time to trim (and I couldn’t believe how much his feet had grown in the two weeks since he’d had his last trim – why people would want to leave them on for longer is a mystery). A few days later I persuaded Patrick to come out to the barn and take off the back boots. They came off slightly more easily, but were still a struggle.
Our next adventure comes in the middle of September with Virginia City 100 when we will be gluing again. Unfortunately, there will be no EasyCare Glue Crew to help out so I’ll be picking their brains over the next couple of weeks as to what steps they took to get those things so blinkin’ well attached.
