Originally Posted by
burrito
My guess is that the Lupo Air is either on its way out (and only still in the line to get rid of excess inventory), or it will get beefed up next year (ladder buckles, improved flex, etc.)
Regardless of what Dalbello does, I'm just generally skeptical that you'll ever get anything resembling a 130 flex cabrio boot without a tongue. The vast majority of the flex of any boot, cabrio or overlap, is driven by pushing against and deforming the front of the boot (the tongue or overlap, respectively.) I am not an ME, but I don't see any way similar flex properties can be achieved by essentially pulling against the back of the boot, as all of these tongue-less boots do.
That's not to say there's not a place for them. If I were to build a lightweight setup today the Scarpa F1 series and the Atomic Backland series are the first places I'd look, but let's stop pretending they're 130 flex boots.