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As was previously mentioned, I am in the hunt for a pair of boots. After a semi-thourough search, I think I know what I want given what I want to spend. Its a little amusing to shop around for these kinds of things. I’ll explain.

The first step was to check the forum’s that I participate to see what those ‘trusted’ opinions think. I say trusted source because after you sort through the morons, good advice is usually given. In addition, forum members arent afraid to say the bad either.

The next step was to confirm the forum thoughts on the internet to see if any of those met my needs. I also expanded my search among brands to see what II wanted. Pictures are a big help, but serve nowhere near as well as the actual touchy feely of the product in the store.

Enter the local Cycle Gear. Some things at Cycle Gear are very well-priced, and others are not. In this case it wasn’t a matter of price, but selection. They did not have the brand I wanted, nor did they have the type of boot in my size. I found a pair that was 1/2 size too small and tried them on for the function. I knew that’s the type of boot - just above the ankle with protection, but almost street shoe comfort.

I have bought most of my dirt gear there and they were very similar to online pricing. I like to support the local shops as much as possible within reason. My rule is to buy it locally if its within 10% of the lowest online price. My guess is that Cycle Gear gets about 50% of my business. Example: Shoei X11 price at Cycle Gear was $490 OTD, and through The Helmet Shop it was $403 delivered…not a difficult decision.

Next was the online search for the best price. This is a tedious process as a lot of what comes up on search engines are crap. In addition, Ebay sources may have the best ‘Buy it Now’ price, but include the $20 shipping & handling and its no bargain. Kneedraggers.com had what I wanted with a guaranteed lowest price. They also had the armor I was looking for - great! As I entered in the products (one pair of boots & some jacket armor), I noticed that the shipping fee was $55 for a $164 order. It just can’t be. So I inquired:

I am thinking / hoping that there is a miscalculation for the shipping fee in my shopping cart. Its $55 for Fieldsheer armor (shoulder, knee, elbow, & spine CE individual sets for $16 each) and a pair of Alpinestars Ridge boots.

The total of the goods is $164. The shipping is $55 additional. Silly.

Please tell me that is not so as I was ready to order. I even humored myself and went until the “review” section of the checkout process. No change. It did serve as a good morning laugh though.

Thanks,
Bob

(NOTE: In hindsight after reading the above again, my original note was more dickish than I originally intended.)

They responded:

Hey Bob I am sorry for the confusion. Our computer sometimes cant calculate the correct amount of shipping so we have to adjust it when the order comes in. Your order is not charged as soon as you submit it. We must first have a look at it and make sure everything is available and the prices are correct before we charge you up so we would have corrected that. Feel free to place the order knowing that we will correct any misgiving shipping quotes or give us a call if you would like to speak to someone directly. Thank you very much.

That’s cool, but I’m a details kind of guy that want to know the exact amount before I hit the “send order” button. In the meantime I have wavered on my armor decision and want to find one company thathas both the Alpinestars Ridge Waterproof boots I want as well as the First Gear CE armor pieces. So the search continues.