Biker boots. Marvellous things

Blinged-up silly wellies to the uninitiated, they stop your ticklish soles being ground away when you lazily drag your feet on the road, protect your delicate shins from stones, scrapes, knocks and bumps, and keep your tootsies together in an off (theoretically).
But generally-speaking what they don't do is keep your plates of meat dry. In fact my old Alpinestars S-MX and Sidi Vertebrae boots are the biking equivalent of colanders – they just need to see a dark cloud and they instantly fill with water.

Enter the Alpinestars SMX-R Gore-Tex.
Masquerading as ordinary race boots, these jobbies boast vented CE protection around all the areas you need it most – heels, shins, ankles etc... but they also sport a lovely Gore-Tex membrane to boot ( - see what I did there?).

This means that these £169.95 race wellies will at the very least keep your feet dry in the rain, even if the rest of you is soaked to the skin.

On first inspection these boots are very pretty indeed. On closer inspection they're still works of art.
The injection-moulded protection is lovely and shiny, the vents subtle, curved and plentiful and the toe protection delicate but striking. The soles, being a non-gaudy mix of black and white, are thick and stiff without feeling like you have a sheet of MDF strapped to your feet and the heels are tough and thick without looking like cowboy boot heels. The bright white A-Stars logo is also a nice-looking contrast to the rest of the boot and lets people know you've spent a fair whack to stay in with the in-crowd.
Unlike regular Alpinestars race boots there aren't those fiddly race bootie-type things inside – rather a Gore-Tex lined flap on the inside of the zip instead. The net result being that you just slip your boots on and go without having to do up internal laces and generally faff around.
On the subject of doing these up, there's the regular zip on the outside of the boot (more of that to come) and a ratchet closure on the top 'cuff' in a motorcross stylee. Again, that's all there is to it, unlike some other offerings which feature fishing wire and multiple rotating adjusters.



Now one problem I remember from when I first got my old regular SMX boots is that Italians appear to have very narrow feet. Mine certainly aren't Hobbit-like, but I do have initial trouble in terms of comfort.
When I first popped these on, as excited as a little boy at Christmas, I immediately noticed a tightness on either side of my foot (x2), despite them being the right size.
In fact they were so tight that after about 10 minutes of walking around my living room I realised my feet were going numb, so I took them off to get the blood back.
I persevered later on though, and they seemed to stretch pretty quickly, giving a snug, comfortable feel without the initial circulation problems.
My first ride in them confirmed that they had settled in to my feet and I came back after an hour without any discomfort at all, although I could still feel the tightness on either side of the boot. I realised that it's more of a reassuring feel rather than an impending emergency, so all was well. I'm sure they'll give a little more as time goes on though, just as my old boots did.

As for the SMX-R's selling point, I had to test the waterproofnessnessness, even if it was just for my own peace of mind.
Confession-time: My first venture into a bucket of water was an abject failure.
I had obviously disengaged my brain before filling the bucket with icy hosepipe water, and stepped in without realising the displacement would send the water up and over the level of the inner lining so that, although it wasn't over the top of the boot itself, it still got in above the zip and soaked my previously-toasty feet.
A spell on the windowsill and a blast with the hairdryer later and I was ready to go again. I stepped gingerly into the bucket, having poured some of the water away, and watched the level rise to around the point of the middle vent, which is just below the top of the internal Gore-Tex flap.
And my feet stayed warm. I wiggled my toes, plodged up and down a bit... and nothing happened.
In fact when I stepped out and took the boots off my feet were perfectly dry – money well spent!
Because the water still gets into the boot – but not through the lining – it took some time to dry them off again because they were soaked, but it was job jobbed, as they say.



Apart from the initial tightness, there was just one potential problem I noticed, and that's the zip. My old boots feature the Velcro-covered zip on the inside of the leg, whereas these have it on the outside, with just the thinnest of storm flaps to cover it. I'd go as far as to say it's all-but totally exposed.
I'm no expert but I would have thought that the outside of the leg would be more likely to come into contact with the road than the inside, and surely that means the zip could be more prone to failing in the event of a crash...?
The boot would still be held together with the ratchet, sure, but to my mind the zip could well be a weak point in the design. Again, I could be wrong, but that was the first thing my untrained eye picked up on.

All-in-all though, despite this, they're great boots and no real difference price-wise to regular colander race boots. I can see myself wearing these year-round and consigning my other ones to the cupboard for good.
I just need to waterproof the rest of me now

I have the non-waterproof version of these and they are great. As far as your concerns about the zip being on the outside, I can confirm they crash very well, the metal buckle got ground down a bit but the zip was fine (in fact, they were the only bit of my kit that survived ok).

Cool. And they do them in tiny-person sizes. So do you think they'll do me through the coming winter then Muz? I was going to go for the Daytona Ladystars, but to be honest I don't think I need the extra height really, and I dont' want to pay the extra notes...

I think they'll probably do you until they fall apart, TBH. I've done about 3-4k miles and been through loads of watery weather since getting these and I haven't had a spot of water come through.
Make sure they fit before you buy them though - walk around in the shop for a good 10 mins and wear some thicker socks if you'll be wearing them through winter. What might feel snug to begin with might end up making the end of your big toe go numb for three weeks or so.

Not that it happened to me

Cheers Mister. Looks like a shopping trip coming up for me in the next couple of months then

Originally Posted by Little Vix Pink

Cheers Mister. Looks like a shopping trip coming up for me in the next couple of months then

Piles and piles of titchy sized cheapness at the NEC in a bit...

Originally Posted by chillitt

Piles and piles of titchy sized cheapness at the NEC in a bit...

There is indeed, and KtC should have bought tickets already... You going?

Originally Posted by Little Vix Pink

There is indeed, and KtC should have bought tickets already... You going?

Yes. on a thursday, apparently..