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We searched high and low for a good-fitting boot. We finally ended up on a few motorcycle forums and found these boots were recommended by riders who had tried and tested them.
The Gaerne Balance Oiled boots are the best fitting motorcycle boot for wide feet that we know of, bar non, across all brands. The ability for them to conform to many different shapes of feet and sizes of feet is outstanding. They’re not sloppy, but there’s plenty of width in there for people with wider feet.
The Best Motorcycle Boot For Wide Feet
We like this booth so much because it has an almost old-school philosophy to its design and construction. Available from Revzilla.com best prices guaranteed
The entire upper of this boot is made from only five pieces. In fact, two pieces of leather comprise probably 90 % of the upper.
That means a greatly reduced amount of seams, and because there are so much fewer seams, the boot can fold more easily and is much more comfortable for the user.
The second thing is the leather is that actually according to guarantee it is the finest leather of any boot they use.
It’s a special oil-tanned leather and is very expensive to use, but its quality is supreme.
It is an extra water-resistant boot. It’s soft and supple and lasts a very, very long time.
Another feature that we liked is the Goodyear welt construction to the sole. Goodyear welt construction is a little bit more sturdy, a little bit more supportive.
It has a better feel and better support when you’re standing on the footpegs.
This boot has a gum rubber sole; it’s a flat sole, and it’s very grippy even on loose ground.
The fact that it’s flat has no steps and not too much duration means it’s very easy to move your foot forward and aft on the footpeg.
The balance is fully waterproof and has a Gaerne aquatic membrane inside, so it’s fully waterproof.
You can stand in water, the water will not penetrate through the waterproof liner and get to your feet, but it’s also breathable.
That’s another thing that’s good about this oil tan leather; it is extra breathable. much more so than if it were a less expensive PU coated leather.
Safety
The balance oil has a hard plastic shim plate, and it has a hard insert in the toe area. It has a hard insert in the heel area and a very stiff midsole.
The midsole is very supportive, but it does not have reinforcement in the ankle area.
The leather is much thicker than street boot leather. It is 3.2 millimeters as opposed to 2.2 millimeters combined with the extensive padding and the interior, giving it a good amount of rigidity.
It is somewhere in the middle for a rigidity between a street boot and a motocross boot.
Fit & Specks
The height of the boot is about 13.25 inches, and the weight is about 2.6 lbs.
The overall result of the simple construction and the quality leather is that this boot is very comfortable.
It is perhaps the most comfortable boot that we have ever encountered.
These boots are bomber recommended; in fact, they carry our highest palmer recommendation. They’re one of our favorite products to sell, the reason for that is simple.
They go out the door, and often when the customer receives them, they’ll call us back or email us back and say, “boy, I was expecting them to be good.”
Even with the bar set so high, they exceeded my expectations. I have guys that are coming back to me for their second pair.
They’ve had them for two, three, four years. One customer I know has had them for over five years and is still going strong.
The other thing that’s important to mention relates to how they perform in the field and their comfort.
This is perhaps the best boot for walking. I know people that have hiked for miles and miles and miles.
If I had to hike five miles in a motorcycle boot, this would be the one to do it in.
It’s the lack of seams and the excellent shaping to the forefoot area and the extra volume in the toe boxes that make them super comfortable.
Their longevity is outstanding. As I said earlier, we’ve had guys coming back for their second and third pair.
The combination of the high-quality leather, again, I hate to reuse that word, but it results in a boot that lasts a very long time.
This model has been in the Gaerne line for a long time. That’s one of the best ways to measure longevity if it’s been around for a long time.
It’s a perfect 50/50 dual-sport and adventure touring boot you can walk in, and it’s got a good amount of protection.
It’s very comfortable, has great longevity, and simple construction that we like.
Alpinestars Toucan Gore-Tex Boots
Alpinestars has released the next hardcore iteration to their adventure touring lineup. Available from revzilla.com
This boot will finally match up with something like their tech touring series of products, which are rugged, versatile, protective, and multi-seasonal.
They took for the Toucan the best of the lightweight and comfort features they’ve used on many of their race and sports products and coupled them with the hardcore durability off-road protection.
The beauty is at the time of writing this article, the price point for this boot is around the $500 mark.
We have a hardcore gore-tex off-road riding boot, a dual-sport riding boot that comes in extremely lightweight when we throw it on the scale.
Weight
We put the Toucan on the scale, and it weighed in at 2.12lbs. When a lot of the competitors are coming in at 3.5, 4, 4.5lbs per boot, that’s a feat in and of itself.
The Toucan comes with full gore-tex. They’re using the gore-tex membrane because of its highest degree of waterproof breathability.
This means that you can put a trash bag on your foot and be waterproof, but you’re going to sweat like a pig, and you’re not going to be comfortable.
When you’re wearing Gortex, it allows sweat to release itself to release out from the boot. There’s a gore-tex inner bootie that’s non-removable.
Most of the exposed parts here are full-grain leather that breathes the best over top of the gore-tex.
It’s waterproof, breathable, and is guaranteed for life. The Toucan is a rugged, waterproof breathable multi-seasonal boot, and extremely lightweight.
Fit
Let’s Make a quick note on fit. The Alpinestar is a European-cut with an EVA footbed. Five millimeters of shock and absorption are built into the boot, but again on the star sizing side of things, you’re not going to have many surprises.
For you guys with big beefy calves that automatically think, hey, I wear a high sock, I’ve got gnarly calves, and I do a lot of off-road riding.
They have built-in a flap at the top of the boot that allows you to use the wider circumference on the cuff but not have any of that velcro bite your inner liners bite you on your leg.
That flange is going to protect you from the micro velcro on the boot. Again, it’s just really well thought out.
In the Alpinestars line, we saw the Durbin. The Durbin was gore-tex. It was the top end and was beefy.
It was a little too heavy, and it was a little bit too much like an off-road boot to appeal to the rider that wants to come in squarely in the mix of versatility and protection.
For those of you that do 80/20 on-road and off-road. The 70/30 crowd wants to immediately turn off the road and hit the track on a big GS, depending on how gnarly a variety you are, and be well enough covered.
If you’re going the full MX route, remember Alpinestars leads the industry on the motocross side of things for those MX boots.
Now let’s dip into some of the nitty-gritty. We’ve talked about gore-tex, and we have talked about the main construction in full-grain leather. You’re going to see a lot of TPU panels.
We see them on the outside; we see them wrap across the toe box that’s reinforced and onto the toe.
These are TPU panels they’ve stolen directly from the Tech-eight light, which was a lightweight, traditionally sold MX style boot.
What they’ve done is they have given you a lot of shin protection.
Even the panel on the front top of the boot allows the boot to inject a range of motion that’s going to protect you.
You have full protection down the front of the boot, but you’re not eliminating your ability to flex and work your shifter.
Having a little more feel on the boot’s left side makes it a little bit more comfortable when you’re riding on the road or in a little bit less extreme conditions.
Another keynote to call out is the multiple leather panels on the front covering the top part of your foot.
The panel covers one-half of the foot with a cutaway that wraps around the boot’s inner side. They’re trying to cover two bases.
It makes the boot lightweight but exposes more of the leather so the gore-tex membrane can work so that when your foot sweats, it can evaporate out. This helps when you are riding in the warmer part of the year.
The TPU panel wraps up the inside of the boot. It has a raised area along the malleolus on the inside, a dual-density protector built into the boot that covers your ankle.
Another key feature is the elasticated bellows, the elasticated system that is covering your Achilles. That gives you flex.
Across the heel of your foot, it has three panels of TPU that gives you a low profile but a pretty stiff ankle or heel cockpit. The three panels come together, that’s done for flex.
So, by having three panels that meet up, you’re getting some flex in the boot because it’s over the full leather chassis, and that incorporates the gore-tex so well.
This boot sits at the intersection of on-road and off-road using the best lightweight technologies from Alpinestars.
As we end up back on the boot’s lateral side, you see very similar cam-lock style memory buckles with aluminum.
They have their own snap, which is stolen from the off-road side of the world.
The Toucan comes with two snaps, unlike some other adventure boots with three, I guess, to save weight.
Internal Fit
The boot’s internal guts are gore-tex lined to maximize the ability of your foot to breathe.
It comes with a 3D mesh towards the boot’s top and is soft around the impact points.
If you have the boot fully unbuckled, you will see the large gasket. This big flap that comes across the front inner side of the boot is the Gortex lining.
On the outside of the boot, under the canlock buckles, you will notice another material.
It is suede, which gives an additional level of abrasion resistance in the high-use areas.
The TPU panels that have the memory buckles and the cam locks come all the way across, covering the suede, giving you another level of abrasion resistance in high-use areas over time.
Another key feature is that all the stitching is dual stitched and recessed. If that stitching were exposed, it would have a high propensity to be sheared or torn if you were to crash in these boots.
Alpinestars is building this boot knowing you’re probably going to go down at some point.
By resetting those stitching, you preserve that stitching’s integrity over time, thus increasing the boot’s longevity.
Boot Sole Construction
One of the things I want to call out here is the skywalk soul from Alpinestars.
They have teamed up with skywalk to make a super lightweight three-quarter reinforced shanked sole for this boot.
The way the boot is constructed is it’s a true stitch. It’s not false stitching, and there’s no glue in this sole.
What you get is a multi-density sole that has five millimeters of EVA in it, which is great for shock absorption.
The stitching goes 360 degrees all the way around the boot. That is what is attaching the sole to the boot.
Again, that’s more costly to do, and it takes more time to manufacture.
There are some manufacturers out there as you go down the food chain where you’re going to see them putting the faux stitching on but having a glued sole. Alpinestars isn’t doing this.
They’re reinforcing the stole, and then they’re stitching it on with the beefy stitching that goes from boot carcass to sole, and that’s the thing that’s keeping it together. It’s lightweight, and it’s higher quality.
If you look at the main profile, you can see how far around the secondary buckle is wrapped behind the boot, even if you look at it straight on.
They’re doing that to get it out of harm’s way. You want to optimize a boot, so your buckles will stay in place and not be sheared off in the event of a crash.
In Conclusion
We have talked a little bit about sizing, we have talked a lot about protection.
We have also talked a lot about comfort, but remember the key claim to fame is this boot gives you lots of protection but is multi-seasonal and extremely lightweight.
I would wager that in the four-season hardcore category for off-road boots or ATV boots, you’re probably getting the lightest boot in the mix.
Tour Master Solution WP Air Boots
The Tour Master Solution WP Air available from Revzilla.com is a rock-solid waterproof touring boot coming in at just over $100. I love this boot for a few reasons.
- They are very reasonably priced
- They come in a wide range of sizes up to size 14, which is huge
- They Are Waterproof
What you have with the Tour Master Solution WP Air is a similar sport-touring all-season boot instead of being geared in full leather.
You have exposed panels that have an abrasion-resistant mesh lining on top. It’s a heavy-duty textile that will flow air, but it’s done over top of the waterproof membrane.
So what you have is for warmer season riding, for someone who wants waterproof breathability in the summertime or the spring or the fall.
What you have now is an area where you’re further exposing that waterproof hypora membrane and allowing even more sweat to evaporate.
You get that great cooling evaporative cooling effect without giving up the waterproof feature of the boot.
You still get a full leather upper in the areas that aren’t textile. They’ve now switched to reflective piping, which is a nice style improvement.
There is a big shift control panel area elastication on the instep and a reinforced area inside this shift panel or the shin panel.
The shin area is a highly accident-prone area of your leg a lot of times.
On the inside, you have a zipper that zips to the gusset revealing the hipora membrane.
Inside it comes with an air mesh style barrier. Again, it’s a material that’s soft and comfortable, which will wick sweat away from your leg.
The sole is a more aggressively styled sports board touring soul. On the flex meter, I will give it about seven, a seven and a half.
It’s a little bit more flexible; it’s going to be comfortable to walk around off the bike.
Then we have some other style accents. We have some TPR, and some thermoplastic rubber accents that roll their way around.
They complete the form and the function of the Tour Master Solution WP Air.
The Tour Master Solution WP Air comes in a lady size. It comes in a wide size and comes in a normal size.
It is better suited for three-season warm weather but fully waterproof, and fully breathable.
For just over that $100 price point, the Tour Master Solution WP Air is well-positioned for a budget buyer who has wide feet.
Best Prices
| Brand | Category | Revzilla |
|---|---|---|
| Gaerne Balanced Oiled | Wide Feet | Check Price |
| Alpinestars Toucan | Big Calves | Check Price |
| Tour Master Solution WP Air | Big Feet | Check Price |