Tcx Air Tech Gore-Tex Touring Boots
TCX Air Tech Gore-Tex Touring Boots
CW EVALUATION
Say goodbye to hot feet
SO THERE YOU ARE, ABOUT TO TAKE A ride on a hot summer day, and your footwear choices are grim. You can wear your heavy, hot all-purpose motorcycle boots (wringing out your socks later), or you can put on your tennis shoes, which offer no ankle protection and look bad with leathers at the Ace Café.
What you need is a pair of light road boots with flow-through ventilation and good ankle protection. Real wa terproofness would be nice, as well. Enter the TCX Air Tech boot, which succeeds nice ly in combining all these virtues.
We wore these boots through the hot, humid weeks of this past Midwestern summer and found them blessedly cool, with good air flow through the Gore-Tex mesh membrane panels around the leather up pers. Though they have excellent ankle support, they're so light and comfortable we were tempted to take a long hike, but quickly came to our senses and went rid ing again instead. Interestingly, TCX's Italian parent company, Novation, spe cializes in hiking boots.
We didn't run into any heavy rain while riding, so we gave the boots the shower-nozzle-in-the-bathtub test for about 20_minutes, blowing water in ` all directions, and were unable to create a damp spot anywhere in the sock region. We're always skep tical of "breathable" mate rials being waterproof, but water merely beaded up and flowed off these boots.
They're easy to put on, too. You just step in, pull up the half-length side zip pers and fold over the Velcro side flaps. The only thing they aren't is cold-proof. On a recent ride in 43-degree weather, the air flow that feels so good in August is less appealing when the leaves are gone. But that's not what these boots are for; save them for next summer.
DETAILS
Helmet House, Inc.
26855 Malibu Hills Rd. Calabasas Hills, CA 91301 800/421-7247 www.tcxboots.com Price. . .$250
A All-day comfy, on or off the bike A Breathable, waterproof, lightweight A Subdued-yet-modern styling
`~owns V Full sizes 6-13, but just two half -sizes--81/2 and 12½ V Black only; what, no neon yellow or fancy racing stripes?
