Lusso Windtex Over Boot

The Lusso Windtex Over Boots help keep your feet warm and dry. It's not the Messiah, but it is a very good boy.

Keeping feet both warm and dry is a challenge to test the best of kit. One answer is to invest in winter boots, but if you need wallet-friendly itinerant protection from the elements, a set of overshoes, overboots, booties, or whatever you like to call them, is the way to go. If it's cold and wet you're unlikely to be concerned about breathability. No, you just want to keep water out, and by extension wind as well. In this regard, the Windtex material Lusso uses for its Over Boot is just the ticket.

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Lusso has gone for hefty Velcro as the closing mechanism, removing the risk of a grit-filled zip failing at an inopportune time. Of course this does make for more faff getting things on and neatly in line, but not beyond the wit of man and only taking a few seconds over a zip.

The orange upper Windtex section is stitched to a snug laser-cut cuff that follows the contour of your bib tights/leg warmers and has a grip strip inside, to help keep things in place. Along the Velcro edge is a reflective stripe and on the front a small Lusso roundel, working with the orange to give decent heightened visibility to other road users. Feedback from riding partners is that the borderline-hysterical orange works a treat aiding visibility – and matches nicely other items in the Lusso range.

Underneath, the road-cleat cutouts are enough to facilitate pedal and heel contact without encouraging wear or letting excess water in.

Fit-wise, the mediums are slated for EU42-43, but I had no trouble putting them over EU45 winter boots or summer shoes that should require a large.

In my experience if you start out with cold boots left in the garage your feet will never make them warm, so winter-round mine sit on the radiator pre-ride. In temperatures below 5°C I often resort to an overboot, or at the least a toe cover. Out in a few degrees plus wind, the fleece-backed Windtex did the job of keeping my feet warm, and did a similarly good job in a freezing garage during hour-long turbo sessions over the top of some decidedly summerweight shoes.

They did an admirable job keeping spray off too, as you'd expect from a fully waterproof fabric. But like any overshoe they will inevitably let water through the top, and ultimately through the bottom, seeping up the inside. So it's a case of for how long water is kept at bay – I found the Lusso boots were passable over summerweight shoes for a few hours of pretty decent rain, before the inevitable leakage down from my tights and up from the road had soaked through.

> How to keep your feet warm while cycling in winter

Lusso didn't go full orange on the Windtex boot, which means they don't look shabby covered in mud after a few minutes. Once filthy they washed out well, although given the plastering they receive there will always be a trace of past rides ingrained.

Overall I found the Lusso Windtex Over Boots to be a quality bit of kit, good for days when the weather – or temperatures – take a turn for the worse.

Verdict

Quality protection from the elements, with enhanced visibility and good fit