Tall Boots, Zippers, and Mixte Stays

If you ride a mixte with twin lateral stays and wear tall boots with zippers along the inseams, you may notice that the zippers can rub against the stays as you pedal, which, over time, can damage the paint. This was a big problem on my vintage mixte - whenever I would wear boots like these, the entire length of the zippers would rub. On the Royal H. this is less of a problem - either the stays must be closer together, or my feet further apart on the pedals. The zippers themselves clear the stays and only the pull tabs hit them occasionally. Still, it won't do to have metal tabs repeatedly hit parts of the frame.

I am going to try covering the pull tabs with black electrical tape or something similar. If that doesn't work, then I guess I just can't wear these boots on the mixte. Unfortunate, because I don't own that many pairs of footwear. My previous pair of tall boots had zippers along the back, but after wearing them out I was not able to find a replacement with the same design.  Just a little glitch to be aware of when it comes to mixtes and tall boots!