The new Nordica Speedmachine 130 returned to our annual boot test and without much fuss or fanfare, and then fit and skied its way onto the podium, again (as always). It’s not even surprising to our test team anymore when the Speedmachine fits perfectly, skis perfectly and offers no hidden deal-breaker glitches in liner, shell or features. It’s downright boring to test. Well, not quite.
The Nordica Speedmachine was really the first of the medium destroyer-class performance models to fit like a 110 but ski like a 130—meaning, the liner feel is soft and cuddly upon first fit (like a softer flexing model) but somehow grips the ankle and instep enough to tip a ski on edge and hold it there at mach, through chopped chunder and off-trail breakable melt-freeze alike (like a 130-flex crusher). This boot should not ski as well as it does for how comfy and warm it is, was the sort of commentary we used to hear about the Speedmachine almost a decade ago—and we’re still hearing it! It was the category leading benchmark, and so of course other brands have followed in the Speedmachine’s wake to crowd a now stacked All-Mountain Traditional medium group, but it still shows up and quietly kicks ass. This year its scores put it at the very tippy top of that competitive group—and again, it’s not surprising.
From the been-there-done-that archives, the Speedmachine liner’s asymmetrically pre-formed ankle pockets and moldable-grindable cork clad exterior material were standard issue when a lot of its competition was still stuffing the liner with carpet padding. The Speedmachine’s polyurethane Tri-Force shell was thick where it needed to be for power and stability and thin where it could be for improved entry and fit-wrapping in the lower shell before the rest of brands jumped on that bandwagon and certainly well before there was any inkling of putting a BOA reel on a ski boot.
Hold on, wait a second! This is the Speedmachine 3 130 BOA! We completely forgot the dial spooly thing was on this boot. But perhaps that makes complete sense, as the best execution of BOA has been on boots that were largely flawless to begin with and the designers made sure not to screw that up with the addition of cable, pulleys and a twisty cranker knob.
The BOA on this boot works seamlessly with the already clean-wrapping Tri Force lower shell to tighten the radius of the clog around the foot in a one-click-at-a-time three-dimensional closure. Looking at testers’ comments there were very few mentions of the BOA device—except to call out that on the Speedmachine 3 it is one of the market’s best examples of the technology. Keep in mind that testers who ski an epic non-BOA boot don’t crow about how awesome the boot’s buckles are—no, they spray on about how killer the skiing experience is or how great the boot fits and flexes. Same thing here. There ain’t much yapping going on about BOA because the boot is completely dialed—with or without the dial.
Testers made note that the Speedmachine 3 130 is still available both ways, BOA’d or buckled, and for the same price.
Kudos
Caveats