But anyways that’s how my Footbike looks like now. Which is not much different from when I bought it two years ago, but…

…we need to take a closer look to point out a few details. First of all the wheels are remarkably smooth running like on the first day, thanks to the industrial bearings.

The frame isn’t exactly a masterpiece as a bit of rust has developed under the maintube support plate.

Ofcourse rust develops underneath the bike as scratches expose the steelframe. If you go a little off the road, something will scratch your frame, there is no way around it.

The platform you are standing on while footbiking is in my opinion quite a hazard. It happened to me that I kicked too close to the footbike and as a result, my ankle hit the metal platform, which cut through my socks and of course skin too. Bleeding ankles were not too uncommon when I was learning how to footbike. I believe the manufacturer could surely improve on that.

Using a footbike on rainy days can be a lot of fun if you don’t mind wet pants. Unfortunately the fender is not wide enough to catch most of the water that comes from the front wheel. Using a bicycle is much better as your feet are not as low to the ground.

Your footbike might gain a couple of more scratches if you lock it to lamp posts or other things around town.

I really like my footbike, even now with all the scratches. It’s not supposed to look brand new cause I’m using it quite often. I must say in terms of gaining endurance and strength it’s the perfect workout machine. I like running a lot but running to work has never been an option to me. The footbike is a great idea if you like to combine your everyday travels with a little workout.

My KSO’s used to be black and now they sort of have a purplish color. I assume the strong UV-light in New Zealand and Australia has bleached the upper material. I didn’t wash them often as I was wearing socks almost all the time. So I don’t think you can blame the washing powder nor the washing machine.

The velcros on both shoes work perfectly fine even after almost two years. I actually thought they would give up just like the velcros you find on jackets. But no, two thumbs up they are pretty good.

Let’s have a closer look at the straps. You can see quite some wear on these but it’s not much of a problem when you slip the VFF’s on or off.

The heel and ankle part hasn’t seen much wear just a little stretching which makes it easier to put the VFF’s on. The footbed material changed from bright yellow to dirty yellow and is asides from that still in good shape.

The rubber sole is worn quite a bit. Interestingly the pinky toe part has lost most of the rubber sole. I assume that happened when I started footbiking in VFF’s. Just don’t do it, you can practically see your sole disappearing, I quit using them and switched to regular shoes for footbiking. Ofcourse the same happens to regular shoes but they are much cheaper to replace.

You can fix smaler holes with bicycle patch kits as seen on the next picture on the second toe. It won’t last forever but you can keep your VFF’s a bit longer.

I’m more of a forefoot striking person while running, therefor the front part has been used a bit more than the heel part of the sole.

And one more picture of the space between the toes. You can see that the glue dissolved and the sole is not firmly connected to the upper material. Note also the color difference between the toes and the upper material.

Well, all in all the Five Fingers KSO are some pretty tough shoes and have lasted a long time. I usually have only one or two pair of shoes and wear them almost every day. A pair of shoes don’t last much longer than two years for me.

I certainly will stick to the VFF’s as they helped me to improve my foot muscles and overall balance.

First of all they are really very comfortable to wear, like a pair of socks with rubber soles. But if you haven’t been running around barefoot for all your life, you should give your feet a bit of time to adjust to the increased strain. Just as the instruction manual says, the muscles in and around your feet are more heavily used since there is no support from the “shoe” itself.

I believe the point in wearing the five fingers is to use your feet without all the fancy support delivered by modern running, hiking, and other types of shoes they never really needed anyways. Mankind ran around barefoot for thousands of years so why shouldn’t we today.

Here are a couple of close up pictures:

So far they are brand new, I can’t complain about their built quality and they look quite sturdy. You’ll find the specs on the five fingers homepage. I’ll write more about them after I have worn them for a couple of months. So check back some time again.

The overall build quality of the Footbike is really great. Before I bought this bike I was unsure whether to go for a Kickbike “Finnscoot” or the Footbike.

Since the Footbike is better equipped and costs less than the Kickbike, I thought well what are you waiting for. But than I looked at several pictures of Kickbike/ Footbike championchips and I hardly ever saw a Footbike. As I couldn´t try both, I went for the Footbike because of its betters specs and because my local dealer told me out of personal experience, that the footbikes built quality is superb to that of a kickbike and I can´t say it was a mistake. All tech details can be found on the Footbike homepage.

The footbike is too new to say anything about its everyday usage but I´m sure I´ll make another post in a month or two.