Getting the Boot (pt 1)

After years of riding in my old Fryes or construction boots, the time came when I decided to get some real riding boots. As I'm not a fair weather rider, I was looking into something that was going to keep my tootsies dry and warm in the worst of it. The old Scottish blood tends to make me a little frugal at times (ok I'm downright tight!) so the first set of boots I got were Teknic Defenders.

At $169.95 the Defenders seemed like a reasonably priced pair of boots. Features included hand crafting in Italy, Power Skin (tm) 100% waterproof breathable liner (more on that later), side zipper hook and loop entry system, rubber toe protector, injection molded shin plate, as well as Leather/Lorica blend construction. The first thing we found out about them was that the sizing was a little off. A set of boots that I had ordered for my son was too big for him. They did fit me however (he runs about a size to a half size smaller than I do) The fit wasn't that bad and walking in them around the house felt ok but the real test was to come later.

As spring rolled around I got a chance to try them out in the real world. One of the things that I noticed right off was that the toe shifter pad worked great. The nubs on the pad gripped the shift rubber and made me think I'd gotten a new tranny in the old Triumph. A day walking around at Great Bay Triumph's open house proved not to uncomfortable although they did get pretty warm and moist (they also seemed a little cold when the temps dropped). As the year progressed I finally got a chance to try them in the rain.

If you were at Loudon a couple of years ago (come to think of it the last few years) you know they got some heavy rains on race day. As we were walking around waiting for the AMA boys to decide not to race, I slogged through a bunch of fairly deep puddles. I thought that I had THE set of boots as no water leaked in at all! Time to leave came and we mounted up to head home that's when the boots let me down.... No sooner had we hit the road and gotten up to speed but the water started leaking in. By the time we got home I was standing in my own little hot tubs! (ok..so they weren't hot)

I always tend to give something the benefit of a doubt and thought that maybe the water had wicked up my pant leg and into the boots but this unfortunately was the way it was going to be. It seemed that when we hit rain the boots were taking on water somewhere and the bad part was that it held water once it was in! To make matters worse, on the way back from the Catskills the zipper tab broke! (Thank God for Leatherman tools). Now to be fair, the factory did refund my money because of the broken zipper. Would they have done it for the lack of waterproofing? I don't know. The person I talked to did mention that they heard there was a problem but didn't say if the boots could be returned because of it. As my son also had a pair of Defenders and he experienced the same thing, I'd have to say that I wouldn't recommend these to someone. As this was a couple of years ago they may have addressed the problem. If you have a new set and like them please let me know and I'll post it on the site. Stay tuned for "Getting the Boot"(the Sequel)