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Interesting take on rear entry boots and boot comfort vs performance

Philpug

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We have said for a while there is a market for a good (not to be expected to be great) performing rear entry boot. It really makes sence and IMHO it is time for the industry to get off of it''s high horse and make the sport more accessable by making it easier and more fun...and easier. @Brian Finch brings up Gripwalk and that is a start but it is putting lipstick on a...well old design. Go to a ski area...mid week...in the morning...look at the demographics and look at the boots. Many, many rear entry boots.
 

cosmoliu

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I still have my old SX91s in the closet. I'll have to get them out again some day. With Attack demo bindings on my Laser AXs, it would be a snap to get them matched up.

But I have to say that the Dalbello cabriolet boots come very, very close. My current KR2 Cores have the overlapping Intuition liners (an upgrade from the stock boot), which take two hands to open and get one's foot into. However, my previous Rampages (the Core's predecessor) had the stock tongue liner, and were dead simple to get into. I used to love- after someone I'd be skiing with would comment in disbelief at how I had just popped them on- to take the boot off again and show how I could pull the tongue up and insert my foot with just one hand. Come to think of it, once I get the current overlapping Intuition liner spread apart, I can prop the two halves open with my thumb and do the same one-handed entry trick.
 

crgildart

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With the materials and engineering advances we have today, does the most comfortable boot still have to be a rear entry boot? I mean how come all other boots and shoes we wear for sports, hiking, and heavy lifting are made with top entry and pretty comfortable but ski boots can'd be the same? It seems to me that we could drop a solid enough set of standard toe and heel lugs on the front and back of a solid footprint more like a conventional shoe or boot now that the materials have gotten so much better. In the past it had to be on a full toe to heel DIN width sole.. which made anything but rear entry a huge pain to get in or out of. Why re invent the 80s wheel when we have Y2K technology to build up from?? Those walk to rides seem like a big step in the right direction to me.. make them softer on top when unbuckled and we're pretty much there..
 

Scruffy

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Don't forget the Rosemounts... Side entry!
Not even a plastic boot that changed with temperature, The construction was resin and fiber. The boot was always easy to enter or exit.

Or the Riachle "Red Hots", with a "split" down the middle ;-)

Fast forward to "the present" .
Though I hold dearly to my old pair of Head World Cups, made after the purchase from (damn, can't recall..)
I skied Scarpa Denali 3 piece, because they were so comfortable, and could be put on or off without drama. The real reason is the slip resistant sure grip Vibram sole!
Now I ski Dalbello 3 piece in the Lupo and the Sherpa. They offer as much performance as I can ever need, along with comfort and convenience.

If I may add, Based on the referenced articles, I'm long tired of 20-30 year olds telling me that I need a 130 rated ski boot in order to ski .

I don't!

I've cut the ridiculous and objectionable stiffness out of the Lupos, and find them most tractable.

Any trail, any condition, any time!

I ski the Lupos too and find them a tad too stiff, even with the softer tongue on. I'm interested in how you cut the stiffness out? Thanks.

BTW, a 130 rated boot my one manufacturer is not the same as a 130 by another; kinda like trail ratings--relative stiffness to their other produce, at least that's what I've read. And, anyone telling anyone what stiffness they need, other than a qualified boot fitter, is just spewing stuff, don't listen. There's a lot of variables, and they're individualistic variables.
 

Tom K.

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With the materials and engineering advances we have today, does the most comfortable boot still have to be a rear entry boot? I mean how come all other boots and shoes we wear for sports, hiking, and heavy lifting are made with top entry and pretty comfortable but ski boots can't be the same?

IMO, rear entry boots are all about the lovely, SEAMLESS foreliner, for lack of a better word.

Makes it a real challenge to irritate any part of the front of the foot.
 

Read Blinn

lakespapa
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Tecnica's Mach 1 series is very easy — it uses a different, softer plastic on the lower tongue. I have no struggle at all with my Mach 1 120s; I believe the 130s are almost as easy. (My last boots were Dalbello cabrio, which were also easy.)

In contrast, my wife's Lange Delight 65s are a PITA. Hard on, hard off.
 

Brian Finch

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Ok - This Guy, not on new Blizzards
 

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