Treds Motorcycle Rain Boots

I know good boots when I see them.  In another life, my wife and I owned and operated a dairy farm in upstate New York.  We also worked for the local Cooperative that visited local dairy farms and took milk samples from each cow to determine how much milk they were making and to test for butterfat content.

You pretty much live in overboots when you’re working in and around dairy farms, and I wore about every brand, type and configuration of boot you can think of and more.

I even ordered a pair of “Wellies” from England once and had them special delivered just to see if they would work any better than anything I could find in the U.S.  The point is — I know boots!  And the Treds overboots seem about as durable a product as I’ve ever encountered.

They’re made of 3 mm thick latex natural rubber.  The manufacturer says that natural latex rubber stretches 800% and will not crack even at low temperatures.

They sent me a sample piece of the boot material that is pre-cut with about a 1″ slice, and they dared me to test its stretching ability and tear resistance.

I can literally take this sample piece in both hands and pull just as hard as I can while still maintaining a grip and it does not even begin to tear (see photo below).

They claim it has 4000 pounds of tensile strength and 210 pounds per inch of “trouser tear” strength. This is some pretty tough stuff!  I sure wish they made these boots back when I was “yanking teats”…

Treds makes several different styles of overboots, but the ones we reviewed are specifically designed to fit over the typical work boot that might be worn when riding a motorcycle.

I used them on a pair of Red Wing 10” lace-up work boots, and I also tried them over a pair of Dainese sport-touring motorcycle boots and they fit nicely over both.  Their ability to stretch helps them to conform to the different shapes of these two boots.

Treds Overboots come in sizes that will fit a shoe size from extra-small (shoe size 3-4) to extra-extra-large (17-19).  To figure out which size will fit you best, the Treds website has a two-page document that can be downloaded and printed.

The two pages are taped together, then the work boot or motorcycle boot is placed on the paper and the diagram will indicate which size Treds should be ordered.  I ordered the large size based on their recommendation, and it fits beautifully over both my size 10.5 (U.S.A.) Red Wing work boots and the Dainese touring boots.

Treds Overboots are easy to put on; the inside seems to be specially finished to make it easy to slide them over clunky work boots, and they have a nice, big opening that will swallow almost any configuration of boot.

They also come off fairly easy once you learn the trick — I slide one hand down inside the boot along the back and grab the heel on the outside, and they usually come right off with a minimum of effort.

Here’s a photo (left) of the boot over my Red Wings — those are my Tour Master overpants and you can see they fit nice and snug over the top of the boot.

I guess there’s not much to talk about when it comes to style and rain boots, but the Treds Overboots are vaguely reminiscent of the engineer style motorcycle boot that’s pretty popular in some circles.  There are a series of snaps at the top of the boot, which help snug up the large opening to fit under your rain pants.

One neat feature of these boots is that there is no right or left boot.  They are built on a “Unilast”, so it makes for one less thing you have to worry about when putting them on.  Simply grab the nearest boot and slide it on.

I can’t imagine anything that would be more waterproof than the Treds Overboots.  There’s no way that any water will get in unless there is a hole poked in the rubber — and even then, my guess is that it would have to be a pretty big slice, as it seems like the resiliency of the latex rubber might prevent leaking from a tiny hole.

Since I’ve never had good luck with any of those “breathable” fabrics that are claimed to be waterproof (they never seem to be waterproof and they don’t breathe!), I’d just as soon have a nice pair of boots that can breathe for the 99% of the riding that I do, and then use a pair of overboots like these that are likely to be more waterproof than anything else you can find when it starts to pour.  There’s nothing worse than wet feet in my opinion!

The 3 mm thickness doesn’t seem to make much of a difference in walking or riding; I hardly noticed that I had the boots on when walking (and in fact, they seem to give you more traction) and only noticed a slight difference in the feel on the foot peg or under the shift lever.

They also seem to give a better feel for the road when stopped in traffic or at a stoplight; this helps when the roads are wet and slippery.  The boots have a cross-tread pattern underneath that helps give traction, and although I didn’t measure the thickness of the bottom of the boots, they seem like they will provide excellent wear.

The Treds Overboots are also “unconditionally guaranteed against all defects of material or workmanship”.  The price is right — these boots are leagues above the cheap imitations, so if you’re in the market for wet weather protection, this is the boot for you.

See Also:  The wBW Review of the 2010 Version of Treds Waterproof Motorcycle Rain Boots