Description
Gaerne SG12 v Sidi Crossfire after 10 years use!
If you are after the best protection possible these are usually the two top choices. Most of us stop using 'adventure boots' after our first bone fractures due to the boots providing little protection beyond scratches. Welcome to Cross Training Adventure, we are into all things dual sport and adventure on the east coast of Australia. Try these stress tests on your adventure boots, then imagine what happens when your leg is inside them and there's a major impact.
Almost everyone I know uses top quality motocross boots for adventure riding for protection and comfort.
Keen on adventure riding in Australia? Check out our vids. In Australia, Gaerne and Sidi Crossfire boots have been regarded as the two best premium boots for protection, longevity and overall quality.
However, the Sidi Crossfire quality appeared to drop badly at least 10 years ago. Some riders believe the problems started when much of Sidi's manufacturing moved from Italy to Romania. We did a pile of research and produced this video. Eventually the USA distributor for Sidi suggested that a change to an EU-approved adhesive might be responsible for so many boot soles peeling off.
So let's compare our Sidi Crossfire and Gaerne SG12 boots after 10 years of very similar riding.
If you like dual sport riding in Australia then you might like our adventure riding vids. My brother has just retired these SG12s and bought a new pair. This old pair are still actually working well but are now his backup boots. It seems incredible after 10 years, but these are still the original soles. One of the soles recently started to peel at the front and it needs to be re-attached. If the missing toe-cap has been replaced quickly we suspect the sole may have stayed attached. There is a bit of fraying on the internal liner here. There is one screw missing here. And that's it. We know quite a lot of Gaerne SG12 owners say they get at least 10 years out of their boots and we can see why.
We then did our usual stress tests. It was good to see that the protection against hyerflexion and hypoflexion were still very similar to a new set of Gaernes. Ditto for side flex. And the toe-cup was just as firm as the new boots.
So what about my Sidi Crossfires? Unfortunately these did not last 10 years. I had to retire them at the seven year mark. Both soles started to peel off at the two year mark. I applied more adhesive then a series of screws to make sure they couldn't fall off. The left sole wore out after three years and was replaced. You can see the second sole has almost worn through again. The right sole is still original and not worn through yet. A lot of the plastic pieces cracked at the seven year mark which is when I retired the boots due to the lack of protection. Check out our reviews of various adventure bikes and dual sport bikes. Our stress test. Protection against hyperflexion and hypoflexion are still not too bad. There was quite a lot of side flex although still some protection there. The plastic covering had fallen off one toe-cup so there was much less protection. The other toe-cup was still intact and pretty good, although not as firm as the Gaerne.
We should mention that occasionally we hear of Sidi Crossfire owners getting 10 years use out of their boots. But it does seem very rare compared to Gaerne owners. Also there are occasional issues with Gaerne boots. And occasionally soles do come off prematurely. we know the Alpinestars Tech 10s are very popular in the USA but we hear about many cases where the soles or plastics have not even lasted 30 hours. There will be exceptions of course. But we think Alpinestars' former quality dropped a long time ago when they stopped manufacturing their boots in Italy and moved to Vietnam, Thailand and Croatia.
Forma Predator boots made a name for themselves years ago as they were so cheap compared to other premium boots. However they are now priced in the same league as Sidi and Gaerne and don't appear to be popular anymore.
I am a fan of Gaerne boots. Almost everyone I ride with has swapped to Gaerne over the past 10 years. However none of us is connected with Gaerne or receives any discounts. I'm keen to hear if you have had failures with Gaerne boots. Our channel aims to keep the bastards honest and if Gaerne does start to drop their quality standards we want to make it public. We are keeping an eye on the Gaerne SG22 boots to see if they are as reliable as the SG12s we use.
So what are your favourite boots? The worst? What do you look for in a boot? Let us know in the comments.
Our website: https://sites.google.com/view/crosstrainingenduro
Our enduro channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrossTrainingEnduroSkills
Our trials channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/MOTOTRIALSTRAININGTECHNIQUES
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