Review of the new Dynafit Zzero4 and 3 Carbon alpine touring boots

[LeeLau]

http://www.doglotion.com/touring-boot-review-dynafit - click here for full review



Summary

If you are a big and/or aggressive skier that drives big skis, get the Zzero4 carbon boot. If you are looking at getting a "quiver" of boots and want a big boot for slackcountry or yo-yo laps, get the Zzero4 carbon boot. If you are a light, finesse skier that wants one boot to do it all then perhaps either look at getting the Zzero4 in full Pebax and skip the carbon version (the Pebax version is supposed to be less stiff then the Carbon version) or get the Zzero 3 buckle. I found the Zzero4 buckle carbon to be a considerable leap in stiffness over the baseline boot - a Garmont Mega Ride. The Zzero3 buckle carbon is comparable in stiffness to the Garmont Mega Ride.

If you get these boots, be prepared to concentrate on skiing well and be prepared to drive skis hard. Neither suit lazy skiers or sloppy technique all that well.



Pros:

* Fantistically light and stiff
* Decent tourability given the stiffness
* Striking colours; easily spotted by friends and celebrity-seekers
* Will comfortably drive even big skis

Cons:

* Will not be cheap
* Power comes on rapidly. Full commitment required to ski these boots
* Stiffness does not make for fun hikes
* Not everyone will like the Euro-tastic bright green and bright yellow colours


Discussions:

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=85552

http://www.backcountryworld.com/showthread.php?t=3686

http://www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=36905

[squirrelmurphy]

thanks for the review. whats the fit like? specifically, will i be able to get my extra extra wide feet in them?

[LeeLau]

hm _ i should have mentioned that specifically I guess but Lou Dawson talks about it more. I am a GARMONT foot - as I wore a Mega Ride and a G-Ride. I have flat feet that are wide in the forefoot. But they're not extra extra wide.

[upallnight]

lee:
nice write-up. do they still have the wings that cause fore/aft flex to lock up a la the Freeride Aero 4 of old (i.e., do they rely on those wings to inhibit flex, or do the new materials allow for stiff but progressive forward flex)?

thanks!

[pechelman]

from what ive read, which could be wrong or i could be mistaken, those cuff locks were deleted in the transition to this new shell.

looks like dynafit woke up and joined the club in using the same style tounge as everyone else to control forward flex.

[wilcox510]

Nice job Lee! If you look at the picture looking down into the boot shells, it looks like those cuff locks (or whatever you want to call them) are still there to me. How would you compare the TF to the new scarpa/intuition liner? What do you think of the MF liner?

PS - thanks for the info the other night Lee, looking into some options now.

[LeeLau]

Cuff locks and wings? Sorry if I'm being thick but I don't understand. I've not skied the older Dynafit boots fyi.

Here's a bigger picture of the internals if it helps.

[LeeLau]

lee:
nice write-up. do they still have the wings that cause fore/aft flex to lock up a la the Freeride Aero 4 of old (i.e., do they rely on those wings to inhibit flex, or do the new materials allow for stiff but progressive forward flex)?

thanks!

uan, I can't really speak to that since I'm not sure what you mean by "Wings" but I can say the forward flex is quite stiff. It's not quite what I would call harsh but I would not say it is progressive. Rather it is a binary flex - either its all there or its not.

[wilcox510]

"wings" is a better term. In the pic you can see a protrusion sticking out from the main portion of the upper cuff (on the side just below a rivet). This pic from Lou's site shows them on the old boots. He calls it a cuff flex limiter.
http://www.wildsnow.com/?p=61

[upallnight]

uan, I can't really speak to that since I'm not sure what you mean by "Wings" but I can say the forward flex is quite stiff. It's not quite what I would call harsh but I would not say it is progressive. Rather it is a binary flex - either its all there or its not.

the freeride aero had 2 plastic tabs built into the lower section that were designed to catch the upper cuff & effectively give a hard stop when flexing forward. actually, 'hard stop' is not quite appropriate; what would happen is the flex went from progressive for just a bit until the wings were reached, then very odd, as the lower shell would have to deform for the boot to flex any further.

i returned mine on warranty due to a broken part issue in the first 10 days of riding 'em, then i sold the pair i got in return and moved to another boot. had i kept them, i would have sanded down those wings.

i believe pechelman did take that very strategy and likes the progressive, more even flex.

just curious if dynafit took that "tab" approach (which is sub-optimal, in my opinion) in the new lineup.

[LeeLau]

Nice job Lee! If you look at the picture looking down into the boot shells, it looks like those cuff locks (or whatever you want to call them) are still there to me. How would you compare the TF to the new scarpa/intuition liner? What do you think of the MF liner?

PS - thanks for the info the other night Lee, looking into some options now.

I really liked the TF liners. I find the Intuition liners to be a revelation for comfort AND stiffness. I never really fully appreciated how bagged out my G-fit liners were till I got a new pair of Intuitions. I guess the fact that I thought the Dynafit TF liners are at least as good as the Intuitions to speak volumes about what I thought about the TF liners.

The MF liners were comfortable but I didn't really see the point. Mind you it was warm weather and my feet hardly get cold but I would buy this boot purely because it was so light and yet so stiff - an incredible combination. Why would I immediately put a heavier liner with the hassle of laces on this light boot?

[LeeLau]

Thanks UAN and Wilcox for the pictures. No the Dynafit Zzero did not have those plastic limiter hard stops.

I've just now been told by Dynafit that the Zzero4 carbon's upper cuff will probably be softened a tad. Sorry, I didn't realize this till now.

[upallnight]

I really liked the TF liners. I find the Intuition liners to be a revelation for comfort AND stiffness. I never really fully appreciated how bagged out my G-fit liners were till I got a new pair of Intuitions. I guess the fact that I thought the Dynafit TF liners are at least as good as the Intuitions to speak volumes about what I thought about the TF liners.

i remember the threads about you saying that the GFit liners were pretty solid In my experience, I did not feel the GFit2 were anywhere near the performance of the full-wrap Alpine Intuitions (which were also better than the Scarpa thermo liners of yore...can't speak to the current model).

Unless I were to see some new, really amazing thermo liner, I'd still be inclined to put Intuitions immediately into any new boot I was using.

[LeeLau]

UAN I have to give you credit for that. I have to say that the Gfits feel fine when new but obviously I just got used to them as the stiffness deteriorated. Walking through a swamp for 2 days in the poor liners did not help matters.

[pechelman]

hmm
that pic above looks like they have some sort of cuff flex limiter bump behind the upper portion of the lower shell.
Makes it appear that the Cuff will flex into the lower shell until that bump.

I did grind off those tabs and they ski wonderfully for me.
The flexing around my foot after I hit the locks was very odd and not progressive.

[wilcox510]

The only reason to be interested in the MF liners is if they performed much better than the TF liners. I hated the g-fit liners in my megarides and initially replaced them with alpine liners, because they performed much better. I now have some Krypton liners in them that work well. Judging from the liners in the Dynafit aero, I might have actually preferred the MF liner, but it sounds like they have really improved the thermofits. Their old ones seemed very thin and not very stiff. That picture still seems to me that they have the "wings" on them, but maybe thats not what they are.

[Arty50]

* Not everyone will like the Euro-tastic bright green and bright yellow colours

Paging FeeCeeBlow!

Oh and I want a pair of these baaaaaad!!!

[LeeLau]

I don't actually have the boots in hand right now. There aren't too many pairs around in North America, If I can get them back I'll try to take a better shot. I did look at Lou's site (want to respect his bandwidth and not remote link to here). Can anyone do me a favor and highlight what you think is the cuff limiter.

The information I posted to the effect that there was no cuff limiter was from Dynafit. I actually never realized it was an issue and learned something new. Thanks!

[pechelman]

I don't actually have the boots in hand right now. There aren't too many pairs around in North America, If I can get them back I'll try to take a better shot. I did look at Lou's site (want to respect his bandwidth and not remote link to here). Can anyone do me a favor and highlight what you think is the cuff limiter.

The information I posted to the effect that there was no cuff limiter was from Dynafit. I actually never realized it was an issue and learned something new. Thanks!

here

[laseranimal]

any chance they're gonna fit into an alpine binding al la Endorphines/Adrenalines?

[LeeLau]

Thanks pechelman. I'm going to check into that.

laser - they'll fit as well as any vibram-soled boot.

[upallnight]

Nice eye, pechelman.

That's really a shame that they resort to that 'brute force' method of affecting the flex. i was hoping they'd learned something from the aero freeride.

There's "stiff" which is a fine thing (in my opinion), then there's "insert something to make the boot stiffer and do so in a way that inhibits natural flex", which is a not-so-good thing (also in my opinion).

[pechelman]

one thing thats not obvious from that photo I circled, is whether or not that little bump on the back of the cuff has a positive stop.
im wondering if they designed it with the possibility to slip between the cuff and lower part of the shell.

seems like that would be pretty inconsistent though.

either way, i 100% agree with UAN's assesment in his post above about the aero boots.

the only thing Id like to add, is that even with the cuff locks ground off my shells, probably the primary reason I love them, even for rockin big heavy stiff skis inbounds, is that they have the lateral stiffness that really helps support things. Definitely no where close to a high cuff alpine boot like my xwave 8s, but more than enough for me to feel confident.

[PeachesN'Cream]

Oh and I want a pair of these baaaaaad!!!

why, cause they will match your new katanas like... PERFECT?

the boots do look good tho.

[verbier61]

very nice, thanks. They have been made by the same folks who did the megaride..... and, in fact, they look very similar. So my question is whether they are a real step forward when compared to megarides (apart from stiffness, which is relevant but not all in a boot)...