I'm glad you guys are happy with your Bates Fastlanes. I can't say that I've been very impressed with mine. For starters, they told me that my calves were too big, so I had to get a "custom fit," and that cost me $275, three years ago.
For seconds, they took forever getting them to me -- after promising delivery in three weeks, it took seven to get them.
For thirds, they didn't fit. They were huge and unless I wore two set of socks *and* put in Rider Wearhouse's boot liner gizmos, my socks ended up around my toes. I was on a 4500 mile tour and spent more time pulling up my socks than riding. Well, not quite, but *way* too much.
I sent them back and they improved the fit a bit, but blamed me for not drawing a good outline of my foot. But then after wearing them for about a year, and spending the money to send them back to Bates three times, the heel counter on the left boot gave way, so that my heel is only about half-way over the bottom of the boot. Oh, and the toes of the soles came undone once.
I'm wearing waterproof Alpinestars that I got from Rider's Wearhouse for under $200 bucks and they're a tremendous improvement.