Originally Posted by
GoldenBC
After trying on a number of Boa boots, I’m less excited about them as I was last spring. I’m not sure my final thoughts but they seem to have less advantages and more drawbacks than people talk about. I’ll try to summarize my random thoughts and see what others think about it.
Unless the boot fits perfectly, the boa creates many pressure points. Just like a buckle boot. The Hawx ultra fits me quite tight from the box so the boa doesn’t need to do much and therefore has no effect for me. The Salomon is very roomy and the Boa is unable to tighten the ankle sufficiently, but creates large downward pressure under the Boa dial. The K2 is roomy and cinches up very smoothly with the boa but to get tight enough, it still creates and obvious band of pressure under the dial and across the first length of cable. Basically no difference over buckles, the shell just needs to be fit properly.
The boa dial is slow. I can do up a buckle much faster than I can spin a dial ten times.
It’s harder to get into, marginally. I don’t normally struggle to get into boots but you definitely can’t open the boot up as far. The boa dial on the k2 liner makes this even worse.
You can independently control the tension in different areas of the boot. I want to lock in my ankle but have my toes loose and the boa has no way of doing this. Will be a deal breaker for touring especially.
Manually punching the shells is more challenging. Atomic’s large rigid deflector shield right at the 6th toe does not look friendly to work with.
As I said, I could see if being real slick with a snug fitting boot and I’d love to try it in a fitted Hawx ultra. But alas, Amer has destroyed the shop proform program so I doubt that will ever happen.
