A guide to the best waterproof touring boots for dry, comfortable year-round riding

For road riders, getting your kit right is never more important than when you’re contemplating big miles and a pair of waterproof motorcycle touring boots is a good place to start.

If you’re just heading out on a short afternoon ride, safety of course is still important but you’re unlikely to experience extremes of weather or require day-long comfort. If you’re purely on track, safety takes precedence so a sporty boot would be more suitable, if you’re style conscious and riding a scrambler or retro, perhaps the way they look plays a more important part.

Jump to:

• What to consider
• Safety ratings
• Our best tried and tested waterproof touring boots
• Ladies waterproof touring boots
• Frequently asked questions
• How we test kit

What to consider in waterproof motorcycle touring boots

But when you’re riding big miles in a day on road, possibly through all weathers, then you will require a comfortable, sturdy boot with good weatherproof properties.

With the possibility of less than pleasant weather, waterproofing is a must, they also need to offer both decent warmth, to cope with cold weather riding, yet also be breathable as your feet can still end up damp otherwise.

Safety ratings

On top of both of those requirements are the needs for safety and all day comfort – although some touring boots see a slight trade-off between these two demands by having shorter, more ankle-length designs which reduce safety slightly in favour of flexibility and comfort.

However, you should still expect a good level of protection with strong heel and toe cups, and shin and heel armour of some description. Just like other boots, you should also look at the protection. They should be CE rated to either a 2015 or a 2017 standard. Basically, each will rate several areas and give either a score of ‘1’ or ‘2’. Look for as many 2s as possible for an indication of higher levels of protection. These results will be printed on the label in that order, along with a pictogram of a bike and rider to show that the item is intended for use on a motorcycle.

For the 2017 standard, the first digit indicates the height of the boots – 1 is a short or ankle-height boot and 2 is a full or shin-height example – but this is absent from the 2015 standard. After the first digit in the 2017 rating, both are then the same and show a rating for abrasion resistance, impact cut and transverse rigidity.

Our favourite tried and tested waterproof touring boots

Ladies waterproof touring boots

These are the ladies waterproof boots that the women on the MCN team have tested and rated as good choices.

Frequently asked questions

Can I ride a motorbike with normal shoes?

We wouldn’t recommend it. How you ride is up to you, and that includes whether you want ride with motorcycle boots or not. It can be tempting to go without, but if things go pear shaped, you could find yourself in trouble; I have a friend who made the mistake of wearing casual shoes while riding and when he unfortunately came off, he lost a toe to the central reservation.

Safety aside, normal shoes can be more uncomfortable to ride in compared to a good pair of motorcycle boots. Shifting gears can without a reinforced toe pad can be pretty unpleasant and the heat from the exhaust can get rather warm too.

Do I need steel-toe cap boots for motorcycling?

They’re often nicknamed “safety boots”, but steel toe cap boots aren’t designed to protect against motorcycle related injuries – they’ll work well enough if you run over your foot while wheeling your bike into the garage, but not if it traps your leg in a high speed slide down the motorway.

Safety boots are tested to a different CE standard, and that means they aren’t rated for abrasion resistance, impact cut, or transverse rigidity, which makes them more dangerous to ride with than a dedicated pair of motorcycle boots.

Lots of motorcycle boots today borrow protective elements from safety boots, such as steel toe caps, non-slip soles, water resistance, and more. But, they aren’t the same thing, and shouldn’t be used interchangeably.

How should motorcycle boots fit?

Motorcycle boots need to fit snugly in order to protect you, and the additional protective elements mean they can feel a bit tight at first – especially when they haven’t been broken in yet. This is normal for a lot of motorcycle boots though; as long as they’re not restricting blood flow, it’s nothing to worry about. They should feel secure, without strangling your toes, when the fit is just right.

If your motorcycle boots feel more like ski boots at first, try adjusting the laces and/or straps a bit – that might be all they need to start feeling comfortable.

How MCN tests waterproof touring motorcycle boots

At MCN, our team of expert journalists have decades of experience gained over hundreds of thousands of miles in order to provide you with opinions and evaluations you can trust, alongside news of the most significant developments in motorcycling safety gear. We want you to stay safe, enjoy your riding and hopefully look great while doing so! 

We don’t test our kit to destruction; we use it exactly how you do, in the real world and in all conditions.

That means we can deliver impartial buying advice you can rely on. To make it onto this list, these touring motorcycle boots must have been worn for thousands of miles by our team of experienced testers, show no major flaws, and meet modern safety standards as well as offering decent value for money. 

Each of our expert reviewers tests their products for a variety of things, both subjective and objective, and these boots are no exception. Factors assessed include the boots’ ability to keep the rain out, what level of protection they offer, how comfortable they are to wear and walk in, how they look, how easy they are to put on and anything other features they may have.

We cover thousands of miles in these touring boots and regularly compare them with one another in the office, so collectively we’ve built the sort of knowledge base you can trust.

If you can’t see a review against a pair of boots on this page, it’s because we haven’t tested it yet. These will only be included if we think they’re important and relevant in the market, and rest assured, we will be working on bringing you a review as soon as we’ve done the miles.

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When we review a product, we award it a score out of five. In the ratings tab of a given pair of motorcycle boots, you may also find more specific scores for the different aspects of a product’s performance to help you make an informed decision. We test against criteria like how comfortable it is, how protective is it, does it look good and if it is good value for it’s price tag. Here’s a guide to what each number score means:

• 1 star – Poor performance in this category or overall. A product with a single star rating has fallen below the expected standard and should be avoided.
• 2 stars – Basic performance in this area or overall. A product with a two-star rating has managed to perform to a barely acceptable level and there is room for improvement.
• 3 stars – An average performance in this area or overall. A product with a three-star rating has achieved a basic level of performance and is deemed adequate.
• 4 stars – A product has performed over and above the accepted averaged in this category or overall. A product with a four-star rating has surpassed expectation and delivered in a particularly impressive way.
• 5 stars – A product has performed at the highest possible level in a particular category or overall. A product with a five-star rating has delivered to the highest possible level, impressing the tester with its performance. We would happily spend our own money on it.

To find out more, head to our dedicated page explaining how we test motorcycle products.

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