Since no one responded to my thread wondering if these were any good (as they are at Closeout prices on SixSixOne for $10 each, which is half price of any ankle brace you can find in a store: http://sixsixone.com/Catalog_661Bike.aspx?id=a771d501-93aa-4de2-854c-a0171e8b505b&product=1b8e9d08-3067-412f-afa9-cc14f1a12b91) I figured I’d write a little review.
I got two in Medium. I wear a 9.5 size Vans Dunbar 3 for riding (which I LOVE and will have to buy another pair soon). They look like an ankle brace. They have little plastic ‘cups’ inside that kind of go over your ankle bone knobbies (whatever those are called) along with a fairly flimsy (easily bendable in your hand) straight piece of removable plastic running up both sides. In my hands I didn’t feel like these would offer me any support or protection.
They fit just fine and fit in my shoe just fine, no problems at all. The cups don’t quite fit right over my ankle bones initially but that didn’t cause any problems at all.
I took them on a couple mile downhill muni ride (my second ever) and I have to say I like 'em! By the time I hit the bottom both insides of the braces had red rubbed on them from the cranks on my DX hitting my ankles—during the ride I never felt or noticed any sort of impact. Being that I’ve hit my bony ankles on the cranks before and know it hurts A LOT, I am pretty glad I was wearing these the whole ride.
All in all, if you want a beginning cheap ankle brace for your initial muni rides, I’d recommend these, especially at this price!
FYI I looked at braces at Big 5 and the low end ones were $20 each and had no stiff support in them like these do, they were just fabric. I am buying a pair of these SixSixOne Race Braces in Large for my buddy who hikes alongside me while I unicycle, he tends to try to roll his ankles.