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My DriverX's showed up this morning...They are "F"in stiff. Will be a welcome change. Does anyone out there have a tried and true break in policy for these beasts? I look forward to getting them on the snow. I may not even notice that I only have 2 edges now

Thanks in advance

I just got a pair of these about a month ago and am loving them. Wasn't sure I was going to like the lacing system, but so far I do and yes are they ever stiff.

These are "THE" Boots, for sure, much lighter than my old "F" boots. I did have trouble with the upper lace section staying locked down. At the end of both days this last weekend one or both boots had disengaged the loose cross over that allows you to reclaim your foot from within. This will make my feet happy this season for sure!

Any issues with this jcocci?

i usually never do up the top half.

I just replaced my older Nitro's with the Driver-X this fall. I'm using my cork footbeds in them too. I definitely went through a painful break-in period. Took them back to the shop after a couple dry ground hikes and did the heat molding treatment on the inner liners to expand the toe box some. These are the stiffest boots I've owned, and I've learned to not tighten the uppers too much or else suffer from sore shins. Now that they're broken in I'm quite happy with them.

Hmmmm, maybe that's my problem. My shins are a bit sore after my first 3 tours on my drivers. They look like this:

Probably not the best idea to chase Karma Surf, Will, Schralptowner and my skier friend EZduzit up 5000 ft and 9 miles on my 3rd tour in these. First 2 tours were about 2000-2500 ft over 3-4 miles with minimal pain. My shins hurt, but didn't bleed.

Driver owners got any suggestions? I like the boots when I'm riding, but the forward stiffness is causing hella pain on the typical Wasangelas steep skin tracks. Never had a probelm on my older softer boots, but I have to really lean into the drivers when skinning up the steep skin tracks so common around here. The Voile high rise lifters will help, but I don't think that is going to put an end to my bloody shins.

Thanks in advance, and sorry for my paleness, my peoples call me Opie or Way Whitey or Ginger or.........

UB

Shit dooooood, and you never said a word to me... Sorry

I've never experienced the shin bang with these boots, but I run the top half almost entirely loose. Cranking on the buckles is enough to stiffen up the ride for me with the X's.

No sweat man, the last thing I wanted to do whine about it, was still a great tour and I had a ton of fun, but the shin pain was a big contributor to my slowness on that second climb fer sure.


I'll give that a shot on my next outing. In the mean time I think it's time to try the tall lifters as well.

Thanks again for the tour. I had not been in that area before and liked the long runs and solitude, nice break from the typical LCC and BCC stuff.

UB

Ouch, brings back memories of my first outing, the scars are almost gone now

Like karma surf mentioned, just snug the upper-zone for touring.

After you're healed up, get in the habbit of remembering to crank'em just before stepping in to go down.
Right after you step out of your bindings to switch back to tour mode, unlock the upper and flex your ankle to get some slack in there.

Also, if your new to "speedzone", make sure the laces aren't crossed before you pull, or they'll start to fray on ya.

Thanks for the info. I'm really looking forward to getting out this weekend to rip these scabs off. Gonna be a fun couple of weeks touring with bloody shins me thinks.

UB

From my cycling experience with variations of such rub induced rash...shave them ghastly white lower legs. Then you can apply a very thin layer of bacitracin or other such product. Then you can cover the areas with a "second skin" layer such as Tegaderm which is a clear adhesive plastic like sheet that goes on like a large bandaid. Doing this and maybe adding a liner type sock as a second friction bearing layer could make any rub you get from the tongue minimized during the healing process. If you keep ripping off the scabs they will take longer to heal and with the hair (which collects sweat and dirt) you run the risk of making them worse.

Just shave them, no one is looking and you don't have to try on your girl's high heel pumps...it will do the healing process good.

Interesting, I had absolutely no trouble with my 06 Drivers when I bought them last year, at least as far as break in is concerned. It took a couple days of riding to get them dialed with bindings/forward lean, but no foot trouble. Maybe I just got lucky, or maybe the newer models are even stiffer than the 06 version. I also tend to keep both uppers and lowers tight the whole time, has never really bothered me that much.

On the other hand, a couple parts of the liners were starting to break (possibly due to hiking in them, ie, more flex than usual), so I sent them back to Burton for warranty, and they came back with a brand new pair of the Imprint 4 liners (they originally had Imprint 3), so it looks like I get to break in a new pair of liners.

Did any of you guys heat mold the Driver liners?