I've been wearing a pair of Alpinestar goretex boots for the 8-10 years and 20K+ miles that I've been riding. The sole finally started to separate from one last week, so I picked up a new pair of boots, with a bit more of a sport/track bias that the all-weather touring boots: Sidi Roarr First, the name is stupid. Vertigo was a better name. Aside from that, however, I'm really loving them (based on a short 30 minute ride last night in the Palo Alto foothills). A little red lever on the side of the foot opens/closes a vent. A vent which starts working at about 35mph, as I discovered. Gloriously so. At 70-75mph, and with the cool evening air, it was almost too cold, but only almost. I'm going to love that feature during hot commute days. The boot is much stiffer than my old Alpinestar boots. I clump around in them, but they're not really meant for walking. The neutral position of the boot has the leg bent forward, which also makes them clumsy to walk in. That leaned-forward angle of the boot ends up changing how my foot sits on the peg (since I keep the ball of my foot on the peg when not shifting). This results in a more comfortable leg position, AND it causes me to shift my legs' grip on the bike from the ankles to the tank. That was really unexpected. The shell is much stiffer than my old boots (this is good). This also means that I can't feel the shifter through the boot in the same way (less good). It's there, and within a few stops I was hitting it on muscle memory, but I'm glad I had all the miles of riding with softer boots to setup that muscle memory. The other downside of the hard shell and sole is that I can feel a LOT more of the engine vibrations through the pegs. The right peg is particularly bad at 3500-4000 rpm. A reminder to keep it in higher rev ranges... I should have bought these a long time ago. They appear to be exactly what I was looking for in a boot. Now to see how they hold up over time.
