Curbing the Lite Wt Boot / GripWalk enthusiasm

[XavierD]

I'm gonna reject any notion of the Lupo Factory lower (or AX, or pretty much anything that doesn't say TLT5 on it) is flexing enough to release from a properly adjusted binding.

My guess is it has more to do with not being 100% adjusted or matching the grip walk soles. I highly highly doubt you are able to get the boot lower to flex while hiking either. This is just the rocker grip walk sole acting like a rocker sole.

[auvgeek]

I'm gonna reject any notion of the Lupo Factory lower (or AX, or pretty much anything that doesn't say TLT5 on it) is flexing enough to release from a properly adjusted binding.

Yeah, that seems super unlikely to me as well.

[margotron]

I want some Lupo ISO standard soles. With those, Lupo would be the ultimate travel boot for me

[margotron]

Re blowing out of binding due to clog flex - you're suggesting the boot sole was able to bend more than 1.6cm? Because that is the heel elasticity in both the Jester and Attack bindings.

I could see this being true if the gripwalk toe, not afd plate, was flexing bc gripwalk rubber is soft. But bending a boot >1.6cm will permanently crease and Crack a sole, especially in a 25.

I agree something is going on but it doesn't seem like it's the clog bending to me.

Sounds like leaning forward is causing the toe to roll onto the rockered rubber portion of the toe, lifting the heel. In that case, it is blowing out bc it is a rigid sole...

[Spats]

Remember when the Atomic Hawx literally cut chevrons out of the midfoot to soften the clog, supposedly to provide better snow feel? These are the Hawx 120s from several years ago.

(Yes, the bottom piece of any ski boot - the one that engages with the binding toe and heel - is called the "clog," though I've only heard old-school fitters use the term.)



I don't recall anyone complaining that the Hawx blew out of bindings or couldn't drive bigger skis - just that the engineered flex felt a bit weird. I tried them on, though I didn't ski them, and I definitely remember that I could feel the flex just walking around the shop floor.

Thus, I'm inclined to believe that there's a different issue with the Lupo. You'd have to bend a boot a long-ass way to torque it out of a binding. Maybe the screw holes for his detachable soles are stripped out and don't hold the sole blocks firmly, maybe he left the boots over a heating vent or too close to the woodstove and melted the Grilamid (it melts at very low temperature), maybe the mold had a bunch of air bubbles and it weakened the plastic on his pair, maybe he's just trying to be an Internet Badass by claiming that he's way too awesome for lightweight boots. I don't know - but I'm inclined to disbelieve that the design of the Lupo is fundamentally flawed in that way.