When writing boot reviews there are two main tasks--look at the tester's written commentary (there's lots) and look at the test data (there's lots) to come up with a consensus of opinion about a boot, then put that into words and try to do it with some sort of new twist or humorous anecdote. That last part is mainly fluff and B.S. but the first two components, comments and data, are objective. What's tough is when you look at those two information sources and see a hodge podge of disagreement and divergence of opinion--that makes for a waffling, vague review, and its also usually associated with lower scores.
What makes writing a boot review easy is when the commentary and data is decidedly of one mind--similar impressions of a boot's initial fit, its stance, its edge power and quickness. Well, that's what you see when you look at the Tecnica Mach1 MV 130's base information--a lot of the same, very positive takes on all of those criteria. It was an obvious gold medal winner based on its overall score of 4.73 out of 5.00, on the podium in the All-Mountain Traditional medium width group, and in the top-ten high-scoring boots club for our men's test.
Other interesting homogeneity was found in the fit data. Our fit impressions scores range from a 1 for a World Cup race boot kind of tightness to a 5 for a packed-out rental boot sort of looseness. The 100mm, medium-width boot's fit score target is a 3. We assess the fit of a boot in eight unique fit zones: toebox, forefoot, navicular, lateral column, instep, ankles, heel and calf. While there were spots of slightly more snugness for the Mach1 MV 130, like in the heel pocket that averaged 2.9, and areas of some squeeze relief, like the forefoot that averaged 3.1, the Mach1 MV 130 was essentially a numeric model of the perfect medium width fit. The average of all eight fit zones over 11 individual testers' scores came to a 3.01.
Looking at the boot's data spreadsheet under the fore-aft stance criterion shows a list of 11 entries of "ideal," and in the lateral stance criterion a list of 11 entries of "neutral." It's almost like testers are comparing notes as they write up the boot--but they're not. This is one of the indications that a boot is one of the best--it works for lots of different skiers' shapes, sizes, abilities and styles. And in the case of the Mach1 MV 130 it manages that without a least-common-denominator, dumbed-down effect to achieve broad appeal. It fits and skis at the top of the heap alongside the world's best boots, period, and does it for a lot of skiers.
Here's what one, veteran tester said about the Mach1 MV 130: It has great heel hold-down and perfect medium fit tension throughout the boot. Rocking distribution of force through the the boot to the ski edge. Intuitive--mindless ability to change direction on a dime. This is a performance skier's all-day, all-mountain boot. So easy to ski with huge horsepower available at speed or on steeper, harder snow surfaces.
Add 10 more comments just about like that and you've got a pretty good idea of what this boot's all about.
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