Review of KS Spyne mv 130 Boots (and my Tecnica Mach 1 mv 130s)

**charles martel** · 03-26-2019, 02:34 PM

I’ve had a progression of boots over the past 14 seasons, from the Head World Cup Ti M103r for two seasons, to its next iteration, the Head Mojo, for the next dozen or so years. The World Cups had a flex of about 100 and could be detuned by removing one or both bolts on its spine. The Mojos, flex of 110, were the pretty much the same boot, but fit a whole lot more anatomically. They were not quite the 103 width of the WCs, but pretty close at 102. I really liked the Mojos. Relatively low cuff with a nice ankle hinge point for my feet, ankles, knees and hips.

By the way, before that I had some Lange racers and some HV Tecnica recreational boots. The Langes skied great, but killed my feet, even with excellent boot fitting. The HVs were really comfortable, but were lousy to ski compared to all the other boots I’ve had. Too sloppy with all that high volume and that lower inner rivet (rotary designed cuffs) made side-to-side even slower. I should have chucked them right off the bat, but comfort won out.

Before last season, a year before I bought my new K2 130 mid-volume (100mm) Spynes in 27.5, I bought some Dalbello Boss boots. Yes, the Heads were getting packed out. So, I picked up the Bosses in the 2014-15 model. I had not been in cabrios since I alpine snowboarded a while back, but I did not give it second thought. The Dalbellos fit well. Really well. Anatomically agreeable to a T. They were warm, too. Up at Whiteface when it was zero degrees out there, my tootsies were warm as hell. Nice. The problem was, for me—and I am not saying for others because I met people wearing them and they absolutely loved those boots—again, for me, they did not ski so well. The cuff was too high on my particular leg with the boot having too much room on the anterior medial (forward inside) of my lower tibia. I tightened them, but this made the high cuff seem even higher, immobilized my ankle and did not fill in the gap for my forward inside lower leg. I even tried some yoga mat foam that I duct taped in the empty spots on the liner. A little help, but not much. The cuff was too high and tight. As a result of all this, the tightening did fill in some of the gap, but because of the loss of movement, it made skiing even more difficult. Plus, for turning, the Bosses were still sloppy. Side to side, with all that room and no easy movement, was just too slow and required exaggerated motions to ski.

Time for a change.

As a stopgap, I got my old Mojos out went to work with yoga foam on the liners. You can see the pics below. They skied great for one day, but were packed out the very next day.

I saw the K2 Spyne 130s for sale at Evo Gear for $149, plus shipping. I quickly read and viewed a bunch of reviews, called Evo to talk—they are always nice—and decided to get a pair.

Out of the box, they fit well. A little tight for my wide feet, but I had a fine boot fitter who could help me with that problem after I skied them a few times.

The main selling point of the Spynes--other than high peformance--is that the folks at K2 designed them from scratch and did not develop them from a pre-existing race boot. As part of that development, they did not stiffen the boots by bolting the cuff to the clog a la race boots, but, instead, created a carbon fiber hook joint linking upper cuff to lower.

Let me digress for a moment.

At the same time, as a project boot, I picked up Tecnica Mach 1 (mv100) 130s in 26.5 on Ebay for $70. I got the 26.5, because I measure just a few millimeters longer than that, plus the bsl is 315, just a few millimeters short of my K2s. This means binding adjustments would require no re-mount. I could use either boot with little fuss on my skis. The old Mach 1 liner smelled like something awful. /someone soaked them in a vat of fragrant deodorizer. Made me sick to my stomach. No amount of trying would get rid of the smell. Fortunately, I got a deal on new Mach 1 MV 130 liners from Josh Sawyer—a great guy—at Tecnica Customer Service. It look like other than some easy bootfitting next fall, they are a project done and set. Essentially new semi-plugs for under $200.

Now, the Mach 1 130s are a tried and true design. The Italians don’t do a lot well. Their country, where I used to live, is a mess. But, they are master designers of things that that look great and go fast. As an aside, a friend remarked to me that if the Italians designed an amusement park like Cedar Point, the rides would be fast and dangerous, with dead people everywhere. Probably so.

Anyway, the Tecnicas ski great. A little tight on the fifth metatarsal—I’ll have to get that blown out for next season—but, the ankle hinge flexes quite well for me and the cuff is low. The lowest I have ever worn. I really like that. These boots don’t bind me, but rather, move with me. All that with me having added an upper bolt (from Home Depot) on the cuff to make them 130, for sure. Stiff, but I can move well in these. The skiing position is forward with me able to keep a natural flex in both legs. This made initiating turns and unweighting easy, natural and fluid. Finally, there is no slop at all in this boot. On my 188 FIS Elan GSXs with Head binders, these boots get it done. At speed on ice that gets bumpy at speed, they are damp but not numb. On edge at high speed on said ice, they are stable. The skis track and do not bounce. By comparison, my Dalbello Bosses were none of these things, given the slop that I already discussed. By comparison, edge-to-edge at speed and varying turn shape, the Mach 1s were there every time. With a boot like this, you can really just ski with not thinking about having to do anything special to get them to perform. I plan to get them fitted next fall. Certainly, the Tecnica Mach 1 130s with their mid-volume last are keepers. A super boot.

Now for the K2 Spyne 130s with the 100 mm mid-volume lasts.

I liked the way they skied right out of the box. A great boot, too. For me, the equal of the Mach 1. Good ankle flex, easy to keep contact with the tongue and could be skied for rec and high performance with either my Elan GSXs or my 184 Scott Black Majics. After a few trips to the hill, I had the bunions and fifth metas blown out by Dave Cardillo at his shop, The Foot Performance Center in Brighton, NY. I had an older, but never used mildly posted custom footbed we slid into it. I went out the next day. The Spynes were wonderful. Immediate input, stability at extreme speed, fine when we had 6 inches of fresh one morning. Great when the fresh turned to crud and still great when everything was skied off so all turned to eastern ice in the afternoon at Bristol Mountain. I skied these at speed, took them out on a crowded Sunday with short swing turns through the clumps of people with my Scott Black Majics. (I wish they would make these in a 189 with a slightly longer turn radius!)

Like I said, the Spynes are the equal of the Mach 1s. The Mach 1s fell racier and the Spynes, with their carbon fiber hook joint instead of bolts, felt, maybe, all mountainy. Both boots were equally stiff for my 5’10”, 190 lbs. body. At this point, I cannot describe the difference, because the hook joint of the K2 feels natural, but, then again, so do the Mach 1s even with both bolts in the cuff. I'd like to hear from other people who've tried the K2s to see what they think.

Here are some pics to show you what I am talking about.

My old Heads, with the Mojos on the left.