Aerostich Combat Touring Boots

I've had my CTB's for at least 10 years and have put in excess of 100k miles on them. They are the best riding boots I've ever owned and have held up very well with the exception of the Velcro, which lost it's ability to hold in about 2 years. I've since replaced it with Velcro which has held up well since. I don't think the Velcro which originally came on the boots is as high quality as genuine American Velcro. The other issue is the plastic coated material under the lace holes joining the two sides of the boot together. It flakes off and is regular cotton underneath. I've had to coat the material with silicone (Shoe Goo) to get it waterproof again. It would seem to me that a boot of this price would use thin leather for this part rather than cheap plastic coated cloth that flakes off and looses it's waterproofness in this area. Other than that, I'm very happy with these boots.

I have had these boots since 1999. They have seen 20,000 miles. The boots look great. They are stiff and I feel great wearing them. They are too warm for the california summers. They are built to last, go for it!

I have had these boots for 3 years now and LOVE them, they get better all the time. I ride about 25,000 miles per year and wear them from temps of 30's to 100+ ( I live in Florida). They are great to keep the heat off my shinns. I did get them resoled about 8 month ago and put a Vibram sole on them which I like better than the original.

These same boots were made and marketed by Sidi back in the day. It's great that Aerostich is having them made by Sidi just for them. I just received mine, and although they seem to fit really well out of the box, I'm still going to dunk 'em in water and go for a really long walk. The quality of these boots is really unsurpaseed in my opinion. I wear White's boots for work (similar stitch-down construction) and they're now approaching $800. Maybe I'll get another pair of these for work! These boots are well made, and they'll likely be the last motorcycle boots I'll ever need to purchase. All I can say is "Wow!"

I bought these boots to replace my Sidi Touring -On Road. I took forever to spend the money, and I regret buying them. Sorry. They are high quality, and after many blisters I finally broke them in, now they are very comfortable. Only buy these if you do serious off road riding ALL the time. I have a GS BMW, and I tour, and these boots are overkill. Also, the Cleated sole sucks. It has no heal, and should assist in walking, but that is not the case, and the no heal thing is probably why i dislike them so much. In addition, they are NOT as water resistant as i expected. I rode to Canada last year and had soaked feet for 10 days, and yes, i treated them like they suggested. Either buy the combat lites for touring, with the Wedge sole and heal, or just buy the original Sidi with a waterproof lining. If I can find someone to buy these boots from me, i'll get Sidi Touring -On Road again.

I purchased these boots on sale with the cleated sole, would have preferred the wedge sole but the savings of the cleated sole was to much to pass up, besides when the sole wears out it can be replaced. I like the fit and breaking time wasn't near as bad as others would lead you to believe. Walking isn't to bad for a heavy boot, no hiking with these, but you need some stiffness. Boots are water resistant with mink oil. A little water does seap in in downpours. I like the design, but hate the laces, why not change the laces, the velcro really pulls at them. Good boot overall.

Last September (it's now February) I got over the sticker shock, and ordered a pair of CBT's. Like everyone said, they were very stiff and difficult to break in. I opted not to "case" them by soaking in water, and instead just wore them and oiled the hinge lines with Neatsfoot oil. After three weeks of daily wear, going to class and work, walking around the house, etc, the blisters on my feet had healed and the boots were quite comfy. I proceeded to wear them on a daily basis on my commute, and was very happy with them overall.

Then, about a month ago, the soft, white leather lining began to disintegrate, for no apparent reason. Perhaps I got a bad pair. Perhaps a bit of moisture got in behind it. Who knows. Regardless of why, one day when I took my foot out of my boot, there was tacky white gunk on my sock. It looked like the kind of thing you'd hang posters on a wall with. I reached my hand down inside, and the leather lining had turned into some kind of sludge stuff. When the boots cooled off after a few hours without my feet in them, the edges of the hole in the lining had turned brittle and hard. My $350 boots weren't going to last very long at this rate.

So I called up Aerostich, and they said "send 'em back." So a trip to the post office and $25 later, I had sent the boots in for an inspection. They called me up a week later, and told me that they couldn't repair them, but that they'd send me a new pair for free.

Well darn. I was growing rather attached to those boots. On the up side, I've got a pair of intact boots. On the down side, they're very, very stiff and very, very new. Which means that I'm now breaking in my second pair of CBT's in six months. Hopefully these will last longer.

I've learned some lessons breaking in this second pair: train the leather. Sit down on the couch for an hour or so, right when you take the boots out of the box, and bend the leather by hand to establish crease lines exactly where you want them. Because where the first crease lines form is where they'll stay, for the rest of the boot's life. I opted to give mine an "X" pattern at the ball of the ankle, much like the pattern you'd see on a pair of police motorcycle boots. One of my last pair of boots did this naturally, and it was much more comfortable to break in than the other boot, which had some strange Z pattern to the creases. Now, both of my boots have been trained, and are behaving properly. The crease at the heel breaks straight across, and the outside crease comes right under the buckle.

So my first pair may have been a bust, but Aerostich fixed the problem. My second pair, after careful crease pattern consideration and training, are breaking in nicely. If anything goes wrong with this pair, I'll be sure to post something here.

These are very nice boots, but I feel there is a lack of shin and ankle protection that comes in all my other street and or off road boots. There is just foam instead of hard plastic inside the boot protecting ankle and shin area. I wear a 10-1/2 and ordered size 46 and they fit almost perfect, with no break in required for me. I just figured from SIDI there would be alittle more protection.

I have had these boots for about ten years and have 40k+ miles on them. They are a great boot with a few longevity problems. The laces are no big deal, and I had the Velcro changed when it wouldn't stick any more. The problem I have now is the inside plastic coated cloth tongue is shedding the coating in little chunks, exposing just the cloth. I took them to the boot repair place I used to replace the Velcro to see if they could replace the cloth tongue with a thin leather one. They could... for about $100. I think Sidi should use a much more durable material on this part of what is otherwise a great boot. If anyone has a "fix" for this problem, like some sort of coating I could apply to the cloth to make it more durable and waterrproof, I'd love to hear what ideas you have.
Thanks.

Purchased a set of Combat Touring Boots five years ago from Aerostich. When they arrived, I put them on, and could hardly bend my ankles.
Clunking around the house every night for two weeks, they slowly began to flex. When I finally ventured out on the bike, I could hardly feel the shifter. But I stuck with them, and it was worth the effort.
I've ridden in heavy rain, wore them all day in 32" deep snow clearing the lot, and they've yet to leak.
I'm on my third set of laces, but a little bit of polish and the occational buffing, after 40,000 miles of riding they still look like new.
They're comfortable, easy to put on and take off, wearing like iron, and worth every penny I paid for them.