Burton’s 06/07 site is up!

I have last years drivers and I’m satisfied with the performance of the lacing system and the whole boot. At first I was skeptical. My buddy broke the actually lace on his ions by pulling too hard. But after riding 100 plus days in them in various weather and terrain, I’m convinced that this is my preferred choice. I found the lacing system highly reliable on many occasions and at a fraction of the time it takes to tie laces. Hopefully this years boot will improve on the liner by making it easier to slip out. It can be a chore at times. Especially after watching how easy liners come outta plastic boots.

I used the Driver X boots this year, and I really liked them. I did replace the standard wimpy footbed with Sole footbeds (highly recommended). Also, one of the liners had this bump in the seam on the inside, so that it was sticking into my toes a bit. Called Burton and they immediately sent out 2 replacement liners.

What I liked:
– Vibram soles seemed to work great and were durable (except for an issue with the toe, see below).
– Lots of support, great board control.
– No problems at all with the lacing system. Independent upper and lower sections is nice.
– No kinking in the back of the boot over the Achilles, like I had with 2 previous pairs of Ions.

What I didn’t like:
– For some reason I got hotspots in these, on the back of the heel. Never had that happen in any other Burton boots.
– Liners are a pain to remove/reinsert. The inner cuff does a good job tightening down around the liner and keeping the heel in place, but on the flip side it makes it a pain to get the liners in/out.
– The sole started delaminating at the toe on one side. I’ve had this happen on several other pairs of boots. No problem, fixed it with some shoe goo. This area of the boot sees a lot of action in the backcountry, with step kicking etc. Looks like maybe they improved it this year with that extra piece of rubber that goes all the way over the toe.

I have a few issues with this boot. As Jim said “Hotspots”,I too have this problem. Mine developes on my left foot at the top. It is caused by the plastic tube they use for the lacing system. Goes right where the tounge and sidewall come together. Also have the toe splitting from strap crampon use. I did kick a shitload of steps in these boots so I would expexct my crampons to eat that part. And in spring they get wet. I mean real wet. Kinda like having two Koy ponds around your feet. I cant tell but I dont think its coming down my pant leg, but next season I may wear gaiters.

@patroller420 wrote:

And in spring they get wet. I mean real wet. Kinda like having two Koy ponds around your feet. I cant tell but I dont think its coming down my pant leg, but next season I may wear gaiters.

I noticed the same thing. They don’t seem to breathe much. Definitely seemed a lot wetter than the Ions I used before (with the same socks). I recall the liner taking longer to dry than I remembered from the Ions too… I’ve been using the Wigwam “InGenius” sock which supposedly has the benefits of a liner and outer sock in one. Before that I used to use separate liner socks. Anyone have any other recommendations?

But p420, if you have stuff coming down your pant leg, go down to the warehouse and grab yourself a pair of the latest SHART SHORTS prototypes!