The Gist
Last year the Mach1 LV 130 gained new momentum with its mold makeover, testers said, and pushed it onto the podium in the All-Mountain narrow group. It's unchanged this season and they still like the revised, taller-feeling cuff and its firm but well-distributed feel against the shin. The Custom Adaptive Shape liner employs more customizable material throughout and testers appreciate the tongue’s revised design over the top of the foot. Its stance and balance scores topped the field last time around and testers say its power and quickness is still limited only by the driver. One tester summed that up--skis like it should, fast!
The Fit
Given that some testers said it wasn't as tight as it should be and others said it was too tight, we figure the Mach1 LV 130 must be just right tight! Testers were in agreement that the new shell shape had a more squared off toebox (which they liked) and a slightly taller and more upright feeling cuff (which they also liked). The revised CAS liner offers more customizable real estate but more importantly has a larger and better shaped soft area right over the bony top of the foot, which was universally applauded. Flex feel is firm against the shin and for sure a 130, but progressive in nature and evenly distributed they said.
Performance
Like all the Mach1 boots past and present the Mach1 LV 130 skis right alongside the best boots on the market, with many testers saying they'd drop their current rides to make this their daily driver in a heartbeat. Testers continue to prefer tried and true polyurethane for all-mountain charging, and in the Mach1 LV it feels both lively and classically damp. Testers had no complaints about the stance angles or how this boot handled in any terrain at any speed.
Cool Features
One cool feature of Tecnica's boot development story is Project 165 (named for their boots' orange hue) that incorporates the input and product testing skills of several top bootfitters from the U.S. and Canada--one of them is a veteran ABB tester, Greg Hoffmann! The Custom Adaptive Shape (C.A.S.) bootfitting features are essentially same here as they are on all the Mach1 boots for men and women—the C.A.S. shell is dimpled in common fit problem areas to aid with heat stretching and the C.A.S. liner is both heat moldable and grindable. In addition to these helpful fitting tools, the Lift Lock buckles are handy—they stay locked open when pushed to their end stop and the Power Lock power strap hook-in-loop connection sidesteps having to thread the strap webbing through a cam-lock buckle every time.
Kudos
Caveats