Shorty boots, like shorty gloves, have always seemed a little pointless to me. A true and unequivocal triumph of form over function, like underseat exhausts or any number of manufactured pop bands. They seemed to lack any real purpose, too uncomfortable to be practical off the bike but too limited in protection to be of much use on it. Clearly I'd kept this opinion to myself, which in itself is pretty unusual, because a pair of Alpinestars SMX 1.1 boots suddenly arrived at around the same time as my birthday.

Now I may be opinionated and outspoken, but I'm not rude or ungrateful. So I tried them on in good grace, having explained that bike boots are avery personal choice and I may have to take them back and swap them. I wiggled my toes around and walked around the living room. Then I removed the labels - these were NOT going back.

They are exceptionally easy to put on. Don't scoff - there are plenty of boots which are a pain to get on, with inner laces and tags and buckles. These just open nice and wide, slip on and zip up. There's even a nice solid flap to go over the zip and help it stay shut, and once it's zipped on the boot is not going to slip off your foot - something I've always been wary of and one of the reasons I've been anti shorty boots.

As purely walkabout shoes they work a treat. They are light and comfortable, they offer support in the right places and they ar egenerally pleasant to wear. Though one might perhaps question the need for toe sliders.

Yes, toe sliders. Because, depsite their lack of length, these really are perfectly legitimate motorcycle boots. They have toe and heel armour, the soles are reinforced and they fit and feel exactly as you would expect proper motorcycle boots to feel. No, they don't have shin protection, but that's about it. There's a chunk of armour directly above your vulnerable (and bloody painful if it gets chipped) angle bone, your heel is in a gel cup and your toes are protected. There's the de-rigeur gearchange pad, too. I wouldn't want to go on a track in them but for everyday riding they are brilliant.

You see, the lack of shin plate doesn't really matter that much. Yes, there's a chance of breaking someting in a collision. but after some navel gazing I realised that it wasn't really much of an issue, and the advantages outweighed the risks by so far that it became a no-brainer. These short boots fit in a bag - they take up no more space than regular shoes, in fact. So if you dont want (or it isn't appropriate) to wear boots all day at work you can out them in the bag from which you got your shoes. Having had the convenience of an Aerostich suit ruined by my boots taking up the whole bag so I had to carry the suit, believe me I can see the advantage.

There are, of course, disadvantages. If you whack your shin hard you'll break it. That's always a goody. They aren't waterproof, thought here is a waterproof version available I believe. And if you do forget your shoes it will look slightly odd wearing them with a suit. Though somewhat less than when you try to get a full length pair of armoured boots under tailored suit trousers. Ask me how I know this...

I didn't expect to like them but I do. I'm a total convert and would thoroughly recommend these boots. And at just £129.99 they're extremely good value, too...

SB