MO Tested: Icon 1000 Truant 2 Riding Boot Review

Finding boots that are specific to a riding style is easy, regardless of whether you’re a trail rider on a big GS or a sportbike rider clipping apexes on the Panigale V4. That said, once you get into more casual boots, things can get murky. Enter the Icon 1000 Truant 2 – a casual boot/moccasin/high top sneaker hybrid that (at least on paper) ticks a lot of boxes. For many (myself included), there’s value in a pair of boots that don’t look like conventional riding boots, especially for those days where you’re out running errands. The challenge is that most brands are so ride-focused that they don’t always consider walking/standing comfort, and a quick skim of user reviews will tell you that not all of the big gear brands have figured out what it takes to play in the category.

Being on the thrifty side, the Truant 2 already come out ahead. The perforated full-grain leather boots come in at $150, which is plenty reasonable based on their construction. Looking at the consistency of seam stitching, and the overall leather quality, you’re looking at a lot more boot here than what you get out of some of the sneaker-style offerings from Dainese or Alpinestars. In black, the boots come on contrasting white soles that are pretty firm, but still have a reasonable amount of cushioning as you walk. When compared to my Alpinestars SMX-1R boots, it was the equivalent of going from walking in wooden clogs to sliding into an old slipper.

With about a month’s worth of riding under my belt with the Truant 2 boots, I’ve had the chance to ride with them in a range of climates. Their initial pass came in early January, south of Los Angeles. In very brisk weather (roughly 40-50 degrees), I certainly wasn’t roasting, but with a fairly standard pair of athletic socks, the boots have enough lining to keep you rerasonably comfortable. My initial pass specifically involved a night ride from LAX to Laguna Beach in a windy 40 degrees, and unlike the matching Icon 1000 Axys gloves that were also a part of this setup, my feet didn’t feel like I had been risking frostbite.

Neither January in Los Angeles or April in Toronto have been particularly warm; however, I do suspect that, once temperatures creep up into the 80s and beyond, these boots are destined to get a little sweaty. Their perforation is limited to the side panels, and given the thickness/heft of the leather they won’t be nearly as breathable as some of the lighter options out there. That said, from a design and versatility standpoint, this makes a fair bit of sense. To throw on my “fashion hat” for a second (bear with me here), these boots look like something you’d be wearing with jeans or something slightly heavier. In the spring in the fall, this goes back to my comment up top about boots that you can wear when you’re off your bike. In the hot summer months it’s unlikely that you’d want to wear heavy boots like this anywhere other than during your ride/commute.

Coping with cold wasn’t the only trial these boots have been through thus far, as you’d expect this time of year. Poor timing and an inaccurate weather report left me caught out in some moderate rain with no option but to press on and suffer the consequences of my unfortunate lack of planning. While my jacket and pants made it quite clear that they were not built for a deluge, the Truant 2s kept me surprisingly dry. We aren’t talking about extended riding here, but the fact that they didn’t soak through from the 20 minutes in a downpour is still impressive. By comparison, my shoulders and thighs had soaked through both my riding gear and the clothing underneath it within the first 5.